Tuesday, June 30, 2015

LA Weekly's Tacolandia 2015 Video Recap

                        

Close to 5000 people attended and 80 vendors served amazing tacos at the 2015 LA Weekly Tacolandia event, curated by myself, at the greatest taco show on the planet. It's hard to believe we're just 2 years out from our inaugural event, which featured just 25 vendors and 1500 people, rather intimate in comparison.


If you haven't been yet, Tacolandia 2016 is right around the corner, but do enjoy this video recap of the wonderful vendors and taco aficionados that make this such a special day in L.A.

See you in 2016.

Bill




Thursday, June 25, 2015

Join Cookbook Author Lesley Téllez, OC Weekly Editor Gustavo Arellano and I This Sunday for an Epic Taco Crawl



My good friend Lesley Téllez of the Mija Chronicles, Eat Mexico tours is in town to celebrate the release of her new cookbook, Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City's Streets, Markets and Fondas. This Sunday, Lesley will join OC Weekly editor and author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America and I for an Epic tacos crawl from Los Angeles to the OC featuring handpicked spots by Gustavo and myself that reflect the recipes in Lesley's new cookbook.

For the price of $125.00, you'll be well fed and receive a signed copy of Eat Mexico: Recipes from Mexico City's Streets, Markets and Fondas. Only a few tickets remain--who's hungry for street tacos?

Epic Taco Crawl with Bill Esparza, Gustavo Arellano and Lesley Téllez
Sunday June 28, 11am to 5pm
$125 a person for food, transportation and an autographed cookbook are available here on Eventbrite

Monday, June 1, 2015

Broken Spanish Hosts Tacolandia's Night of Modern Mexican Cuisine, This Friday June 5th with DeLeon Tequila

Pictured from top left (clockwise): Chef Ray Garcia (Broken Spanish), Chef guillermo Gonzalez (Pangea), Chef Solange Muris (Manzanilla), Chef Diego Hernandez (Corazon de Tierra), Chef Wes Avila (Guerrilla Tacos)


Modern Mexican cuisine has been a hot topic this last year with the arrival of chef Enrique Olvera's Cosme in NYC, chef Javier Plascencia's Bracero, which opens in San Diego next month, and the recent announcement that chef Diego Hernandez will be opening +52 in the Fall, right here in L.A. Local chefs like Wes Avila and hosting chef Ray Garcia--along with others here in town--have begun to define a homegrown style of Modern Mexican here in Southern California, known as Alta California cuisine.


Chef Ray Garcia has seized the opportunity of having some of the best Mexican chefs in the world here in town for LA Weekly's sold-out Tacolandia (6/6), to put on a pre-Tacolandia, 6-course dinner, sponsored by DeLeon tequila, who will be pouring their tequila at the cocktail reception.


Garcia will be joined by 3 chefs from the San Pellegrino Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants: Guillermo Gonzalez (Pangea), Solange Muris (Manzanilla), and Diego Hernandez (Corazon de Tierra) and chef Wes Avila (Guerrilla Tacos) for a special Modern Mexican dinner at Broken Spanish, in the former Rivera space. Sergio Gutierrez of Monterrey's Bocanegra beer will pair up with chef Gonzalez on his course.


This dinner represents where Modern Mexican began, with pioneering restaurants Pangea (1998) and Manzanilla (2000), to the current generation of contemporary Mexican restaurants on both sides of the border, Corazon de Tierra, Broken Spanish and Guerrilla Tacos.


Tacolandia has been sold out for 7 weeks, so here's a chance to get in on the festivities, or make it a Tacolandia weekend if you've already got your golden tickets. Tickets are $107.95 each on Eventbrite for rare chance to catch this Modern Mexican line-up in Los Angeles.


Broken Spanish Hosts Tacolandia's Night of Modern Mexican Cuisine
Friday June 5 @Broken Spanish; $107.95 per person
6pm to 10pm
Tickets are available here on Eventbrite.
1050 S. Flower St.
Downtown Los Angeles