“The inaugural Manhattan Beach Food & Wine, Southern California’s newest world-class Culinary Festival, is coming to Manhattan Village the evenings of Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th. The Festival features an all-star lineup of 50 of the Best Chefs in North America!”
The Event Host Chef is Neal Fraser of Redbird and Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles. The local culinary ambassadors are Chef David LeFevre of Fishing with Dynamite, MB Post, The Arthur J and AttaGirl, and Sherry Yard of Bakery by the Yard.
“Set against the stunning coastal backdrop of one of America’s most beautiful cities, Manhattan Beach Food & Wine promises to be a spectacular two-night strolling culinary extravaganza with an Opening Night Celebration on Friday, October 11, 2024, and Grand Tasting on Saturday, October 12, 2024. Each evening will bring together the industry’s top tastemakers and culinary and beverage connoisseurs to celebrate an all-star lineup of 25 of the best chefs and restaurants, illustrious wineries, premier spirits, handcrafted cocktails, craft breweries, curated selection of non-alcoholic beverages, live entertainment, and much more.” The charitable beneficiary is the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP.)
“The Inaugural Manhattan Beach Food & Wine will feature an unparalleled lineup of 50 of the Best Chefs from across North America, representing Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, El Segundo, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver, Solvang, Palm Springs, Vancouver, and Mexico. This elite culinary gathering promises to be a spectacular showcase of culinary excellence and innovation.”
Event Host Chef Neal Fraser is our guest discussing the salivating culinary aspects of Manhattan Beach Food & Wine.
Hi, I'm Chef Rudy Soremin, Princess Cruises head of culinary arts and the mini maker for a catch by Rudy That's me, come sell with us when I want the Alaskan king crab of food news I listened to South Cold restaurant show on AM A30 KLA radio And welcome back it is the SoCal restaurant show and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. Until 12 noon right here on AM A30 KLA the home of Angels baseball And you can also catch us on the AM A30 Angels app I'm Andy Harris the executive producer and co-host of the show and we are sponsored each and every week by Melissa's World Variety produce. Okay, we're heading back to Manhattan Beach It is the inaugural Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival coming up in Manhattan Village on Friday and Saturday that being October 11th and October 12th Friday and Saturday And the host chef is no other than Neil Fraser You know him from Red Bird and Viviana in downtown LA But also a connection to Manhattan Beach And again Neil is the host chef for the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival And it is a pleasure to welcome Chef Neil Fraser back to the show Neil good morning and welcome Good morning. How you doing Andy? I'm doing well. Hope you had a wonderful Labor Day weekend I did Neil, let's back up a little bit How did you initially get involved in the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival? Well funny enough I was walking around Manhattan Beach I've been consulting at a restaurant called Bruco which I'm a Manhattan Beach Boulevard right across from the Strandhouse which is another place I worked at 12-15 years ago And I ran into Shelby and he was like oh there's a Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival I said well I'll have to have you know happy to be involved in some way And because the one of you come on and you know help me you know invite the chefs And I said that sounds great And so hopefully you know the inaugural but hopefully for many years to come And you know it has some connection in Manhattan Beach for the last you know 13 or 14 years And it could be a great you know environment for a great food and wine festival And it should be coming for years to come after this one And Neil another element of the festival is you are the one of the most supportive chefs in Los Angeles of the careers through culinary arts program Explain how CCAP is benefiting from this event because it's meaningful Sure, I mean hopefully you know some of the kids will come down and work with the student who will have 25 chefs each night for two nights And so it's an opportunity for those chefs to be some some kids that hopefully will be you know future employees or future chefs in the area They also be you know benefiting from financially from you know the proceeds of the event Which is also very exciting and also just exposing CCAP to another environment You know Manhattan Beach I'm not sure what you know CCAP involving is that general area I'm going to say it's low But you know again every time you expose somebody just something they can support and they'd like to see if they used to support it in the future which is what I like about that as well Well one of your other co-chefs co-host chefs who's very much a part of the Manhattan Beach food scene David LaFavor David has as you have had for for many years had CCAP student interns in his various kitchens But hopefully as you suggest Neil this might elevate that and some other chefs that are doing Things in Manhattan Beach might also take on some CCAP students Exactly Definitely all good now you'd mentioned Bruco your most recent consulting job in Manhattan Beach From what I understand you have taken Bruco from you know kind of a regular brew pub Into something that has a little bit more of an elevated cuisine And also your client is the zizzless group which if you're familiar at all with the Manhattan Beach restaurant scene really the South Bay restaurant scene and also the hotel scene in the South Bay Zizzless is a name that's familiar to us So tell us a little bit about what you did at Bruco and what a guest can expect there now Neil Yeah, I mean, I think you know, you know, Mike and David just those two we now work with them in the past at the strand house You know, obviously been around. I mean I think they they have been redone with the spring coming in Which is in the Bruco space 25 years ago So they have a lot of history and you know, maybe restaurants obviously supporting the community. I mean Mike raised I mean five feet in the neighborhood And you know to me it was an opportunity to You know, basically take a restaurant within their long time that maybe those might be a remodeled and hopefully bring it into you know, the 2024 era trying to be, you know, considerate of, you know, price point and when I'm trying to be the most expensive restaurant in Manhattan Beach But we want to have value on the menu and want the space to be light in area and I think that Mike and David a great job of, you know, really nailing that I think that You know, the community ability is embracing it and that's always a good sign We sometimes need to remodel something that it's so different than what's in the past people don't really You know lapped on to it like they would and I think that they've done a great job of doing that and also the food matches, but the core and the the on the on the on them and You know, Neil, I think a lot of our listeners may not realize that there really is a bustling and very active restaurant scene in Manhattan Beach and it's not all casual places Uh that are necessarily libation oriented so good point to make now Let's talk about the strand house because you created the original menu For the strand house and all these years later. I think it's been like 13 years. It's going strong I mean that definitely has to put a smile on your face No, absolutely. I mean, I'm very proud of what we did there and you know one of my Two shops I brought on uh when we opened up places still there Um, you know, he's uh called capitan in the kitchen, but um No, I feel good. The you know, how like if he thought that can I was just watching the Love Charlie movie. Um, I actually just finished it this morning and it's you know legacy to me is very important And I think that uh, you know, give me back to the community whether that's to see cap or You know mentoring people. I'm not that I mentored husband. Um, and if she is a strand half-bound But it's it's nice to see people still, you know, kind of doing what we set out to do You know 13 years ago with the same intent and respect that we gave it when we had some of the restaurants And I think the strand house is totally filling in and inspiring and all film there is really Being great restaurants for men at beach that you know, when we opened that place I mean, I was like, why would anybody want to open a restaurant about happy this seems Philly to me these it's you know, it's kind of an island. It's hard to get into it. It's hard to get out of it It's hard to park there, but People love it. I mean people drive there from all over southern California to uh, really enjoy those vibes And I think that's why the men and beach food and wine fest was Expressed it's kind of a celebration kind of a a chapel on top of what they're already doing Neil well said now Let's talk about the location within manhattan village of manhattan beach food and wine because people always want to know about that And uh, even though in manhattan beach proper particularly down towards the water Parking can be a little challenging parking has been figured out for manhattan beach food and wine So let's not scare our potential audience off Sure No, absolutely. I mean the the thing about moving it up to Uh, the location is that now is that yeah, there are all those things There's nothing that's going to get in the way of uh, people getting to and from the event and You know, shall be you know, I don't know if you know his genius or you know, something you thought of but there's actually a bike path that goes from It's the entrance of the event all the way to manhattan beach so people will be able to ride their bikes uh, let me get the mile from um It's from manhattan beach proper to to the mall, which is obviously still You could be at manhattan beach but I thought that was a really great way. There's gonna be a A bike valet as well as like a thousand parking spaces here and we reserve for the event is There's most to the parking in the event. That's that's for sure. I love it Now in terms of other local manhattan beach celebrity chefs Uh, sherry yard is also going to be part of this Tell us a little bit about sherry because at the uh preview event for this back at the end of july Uh, it was definitely you sherry and david le favor who were on stage I mean sherry is uh, has been a friend and uh and a colleague of mine for God since I you know, I think I remember, you know, cooking in los angeles and uh, you know, funny enough my older child actually kind of Under her yet spot go Uh, I don't know 15 years ago and um, sherry has been living in the south bay for I think 20 years and um, obviously that's her home. She hasn't been there and um, she's obviously one of the most celebrated pictures in america and Deserving herself so I just felt you know david and sherry, you know should be part of the event You know because they are the locals. You know, they are the ones i'm not you know trying to be a carpet bagger I'm just trying to You know, I had the time in the interview to help you know kind of um, you know Put my head around the event and obviously sherry and david are two important people that's not only living in the south bay, but also I and neel as we move along here. We do want to mention uh in terms of tickets tickets are on sale now The website with all the information is manhattanbeachfoodinwine.com Manhattan beach food and wine.com And again, this is a weekend event friday, october 11th and saturday october 12th Now a neil before we run out of time one quick story Um, there are very few three star Michelin chefs that are cooking in california. You can count them on one hand Somehow you're able to wrangle Dominik kren to come down from san francisco to do this event Uh, can you just very briefly share how you were able to do that? Sure. I mean, she's you know a chef friend and you know, some maybe i've done a lot of that And she had a restaurant in la before she went to san francisco And I I texted her and I said, you know, Dominik where you're doing this Manhattan beach food wine festival and we would you can see that participating and she called me like two minutes later She's like what? She was the chef of the Manhattan beach country club this seven years I was like I had no idea that she even had any south favorite and she was maybe the first chef It's not the first half one of the top five steps to commit and I was you know kind of touched by that that she's like they kind of like, you know coming home for her and something that she was special but her obviously was a great experience or she would have not come back and um, yeah, make you know It's not like we're selling other chefs against the others like hey, I got Dominik kren I'm inviting people, you know, just based on you know, my relationship with them And um, I think we have for the first year really great group and a lot of the chefs that I Invited but it couldn't come because they had concerts and hopefully next year we have a date You know, well in advance so we can invite some other people that i would love to have some things on as well Neil don't sell yourself short. I have the chef line up in front of me 25 very prominent chefs each night It impresses ladies and gentlemen, it is the manhattan beach food and wine festival coming up on october 11th and 12th Tickets are available at manhattan beach food and wine.com We have been speaking with host chef neil frasier. This is an event that you definitely want to take a look at It is the socal restaurant show. We're proudly presented by melissa's world variety produce. We'll be right back angels ring go a m a 30 (upbeat music)
