Beverly Hills Food and Wine Festival raises a glass to a fantastic weekend filled with the best of food and wines you can find all throughout Los Angeles.ย
Powered by none other than Maserati of Santa Monica, the Beverly Hills Food and Wine Festival welcomed the most prestigious chefs and restaurants from Beverly Hills for the 9th year in a row. Saturday night at the Olympic Collection more than 60 establishments and culinary masterminds came together and presented an evening filled with luxurious taste. As soon as guests arrived they were immediately immersed in a lavish setting surrounded by Maserati vehicles and a red carpet moment. Attendees were instantly paired with their own wine glass as they made their way throughout the event and began their delectable journey.
Some of the favorites at the festival were Mastros Steakhouse, Camper Chef, Avec Nous, Gilles Epie, and especially Cleo Hollywood and Umami Burger. Outside on the rooftop patio, Cleo Hollywood and Umami Burger were absolute hits. Sbeโs Chief Culinary Officer, Martin Heierling, along with the team, served the most phenomenal bites of the night. It was absolutely no surprise that people kept coming back for more, as if seconds werenโt enough. Guests were able to stop by and try Cleo Hollywoodโs Lamb/Mushroom Shawarma, and of course from Umami Burger, the original and notorious Impossible Burger.ย
Martin Heierling shared a few insight words with us about both of the successful establishments and their popular items. Heierling on Umami: โWe switched entirely to antibiotic free, hormone free, and non GMO ingredients. As you will see people gravitate so much to the Impossible burger that itโs not even funny. The interesting thing is that we basically put Impossible on the map, and we feel very proud of being on the forefront on the innovation side of things. I created the bun that we use for Umami, entirely Vegan, all natural, nothing artificial, and hand made by the most talented bakers in LA.โ
Martin also commented on Cleo Hollywood: โWe just reopened on Hollywood and Vine, and tonight we are doing a Vegan Mushroom Shawarma and our Lamb Shawarma, which are two signature items that we have. Thatโs what we came out to do and present our plant based products.โย
Sbeโs CCO continued to talk about what sets them apart from the rest of the Beverly Hills restaurants, โWe always want to showcase Vegan products, not just because we are listening to our customer base but because a lot of us on the team actually eat plant based. Eating plant based is not a novelty anymore, it’s become a staple. It is becoming normal and a mainstream item and we embrace it. We love it and we love to be creative. So we try to create original dishes rather than copy cat dishes. If you donโt stay innovative and continue to drive the agenda from a creativity perspective, and have a mission, and talk about it, you will be left behindโ.
Once you got a taste of the Impossible burger or the Shawarma that night, everything Martin Heierling spoke about rang true. Also, who knew that wine would be such an amazing pair with all the amazing food that was being served that night!
