Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, the film industry, and one of the best food and drink scenes in the country, so it was only natural to bring together over 30 of Los Angeles’ top restaurants under one roof at the 2026 Los Angeles Times Food Bowl. The L.A. Times Food Bowl celebrated its Saturday Night Flavor event on Oct. 24 at the Barker Hangar. Featuring unlimited grub, chef demos, cookbook signings, and more, Saturday Night Flavor was nothing less than a foodie’s heaven.
The Los Angeles Times Food Bowl Serves Up a Night to Remember
Saturday Night Flavor featured an impeccable lineup. Kicking off the night were fan-favorite comedians Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer, who took part in a live cooking demo and talked all things BBQ, sharing insights from their new cookbook, AC Barbeque: The Husky and Handsome Guide to Grilling. Needless to say, who better to learn the best barbecue tips and tricks from than the Kings of BBQ themselves?
Shortly after, L.A. Times Cooking Editor Cody Reiss took the stage to give attendees an inside look at the fundamentals of home cooking. To close out the night, chef Roy Choi gave guests a special treat (aside from all the yummy food at the event, of course) with a fantastic cooking demo inspired by his latest book, The Choi of Cooking. Choi also took questions from the audience, answering everything from whether he listens to music while cooking to whether he ever imagined he would reach this level of success when he was first getting started.
A Taste of L.A.’s Culinary Scene Takes Center Stage
But all the excitement at the L.A. Times Food Bowl wasn’t just onstage; it was offstage, too, as guests lined up to grab bites from their favorite restaurants and help themselves to seconds, thirds, and beyond. Saturday Night Flavor’s lineup included mouthwatering dishes and drinks from ABL, Accomplice Bar, Amiga Amore, Ban Ban Burger, The Brothers Sushi, Chainsaw, Cinnies, Daisy Margarita Bar, DOMESTIC, Donna’s, Frank ’n’ Frank’s, Good Alley, Hamasaku, Hearth Restaurant & Coffee, Jitlada, Joy, Kogi, La Morocha, Little Fatty, Lucky Bird, Lugya’h, Luv2eat Thai Bistro, Maydan, Mirate, OyBar, Perilla LA x Nongshim, The Spare Room, Sunday Gravy, Tiki Kai, Unreal Poke, and Villa’s Tacos.
This year’s event continued to serve as a testament to what Los Angeles’ culinary landscape is all about. What makes the Los Angeles restaurant community so special is its variety of cultures, cuisines, flavors, spices, and tastes that do so much more than fill your stomach. Food and drinks are part of something bigger, reuniting family and friends, allowing stories to be told around the dinner table, laughs to be shared, and recipes to be passed down from one generation to the next. And this is exactly the magic celebrated at the Los Angeles Times Food Bowl.
“My grandma told me, if you cook with love, everything tastes better,” said Chef Victor Villa, Founder and Owner of Villa’s Tacos, the taquería featured in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime performance. “At Villa’s Tacos, that’s our main ingredient, we cook with lots of love every day and every way. Everything we do at Villa’s Tacos, we do it with lots of love.”
It’s truly wondrous to see the passion and love that all the chefs at the Los Angeles Times Food Bowl pour into their dishes to give local and visiting food enthusiasts a food experience like no other.
It certainly was a food-filled weekend, as on Oct. 23, the Los Angeles Times hosted its 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles event, where a live countdown to the No. 1 restaurant in Los Angeles took place for the first time in Food Bowl history. The event also saw Norm Langer of Langer’s Delicatessen receive the L.A. Times Gold Award, presented in memory of critic Jonathan Gold.
Check out my interview with Victor Villa of Villa’s Tacos at the 2026 Los Angeles Times Food Bowl below. To see more of the Los Angeles Times‘ coverage of L.A. food, visit here.
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