A RARE TREAT FROM SONORA MEXICO BROUGHT TO YOU BY HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL: PRESENTED BY EL JIMADOR AND SUKARNE
presented by
Showcasing the Northern Mexican state of Sonora's world renowned steaks
La Gran Parrillada
On Saturday, May 17th, Hola Mexico Festival hosts LA GRAN PARRILLADA - (Mexican grill) at LA Plaza De Cultura y Artes in downtown Los Angeles where Mexican Chefs Javier Plascencia, Dante Ferrero, Carlos Valdez, and Eloy Aluri will create sample menus of the famous Sonoran steak plates.
Setting the stage for the grand finale of the ten day long Hola Mexico Film Festival - a six year running festival that brings the best of Mexico's culture to downtown Los Angeles - La Gran Parrillada will be set against the backdrop of the best of Mexico's contemporary films and music presented by El Jimador and SuKarne. Curated by Los Angeles food expert, curator, and writer Bill Esparza, this rare opportunity brings together award-winning chefs who will share the traditional Sonoran grill through the lens of Mexican modern cuisine. Each chef will be designing their own sample plate - which includes fine cuts of steak, refried beans (Sonora Style) vegetables and salsas complimented by a traditional Tortilla Sobaquera - an artisanal Northern-style flour Tortilla. The food will be accompanied by 10 boutique and family-owned Mexican wines from the Baja region and three El Jimador tequilas.
Chefs Javier Plascencia, Dante Ferrero, Carlos Valdez and Eloy Aluri bring their diverse and passionate skillset to exemplify modern Mexican cuisine on the penultimate day of a festival designed to showcase the best of Mexican arts and culture to a wide audience.
The event takes place on Saturday May 17th from 12-5pm at LA Plaza De Cultura y Artes in downtown LA. Tickets for La Gran Parrillada are $45.
Tickets can be bought here
Bill Esparza (Curator
Bill Esparza is a veteran curator of Los Angeles based Latin culinary events. A professional musician, Esparza considers himself to be an 'accidental' Latin-American food expert. His dining experiences became the basis for his popular Los Angeles food blog and he has curated numerous events in LA including his own Tacolandia festival, featuring the best chefs and street food stands from LA and Mexico. Esparza writes for Los Angeles magazine and has previously written for the Los Angeles Times, OC Weekly's Tijuana Si! (OC Press Award for Best Food Blog 2013) and has contributed to the LA Weekly food section.
Chef Javier Plascencia
Chef Plascencia is a Tijuana native whose culinary work features a mix of Baja cusine with Mediterranean fusion. Over the span of his career he has had the honor of being invited to cook his dishes for many political figures and celebrities, among them California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and previous Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon. Chef Plascencia's most recent restaurant Mision 19 has won him accolades and international recognition as one of the leading culinary figures in Baja California cuisine and this year he opened Bermejo in Hermosillo, Sonora, where he has applied a modern approach to traditional Sonoran cooking.
Chef Dante Ferrero
Chef Ferrero was born in Patagonia but calls Monterrey, Mexico home. Having a father that was also a cook meant that Ferrero was influenced and schooled in cooking from a young age at home. His food is peppered with flavors of his native Argentina and in Monterrey he opened his own restaurant chain Neuquen with the purpose of serving classic Argentine food with a personal touch, which has brought him many accolades. He is an expert at flame-broiling, wood-fire and oven-based cooking with a contemporary flair which makes for a unique dining experience. Ferrero is a self proclaimed non-conformist cook that always asks "Is this the best I can do?"
Chef Carlos Valdez
Born in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Chef Valdez has been cooking with mesquite, smoke and fire for the last eleven years in La Paz in B.C.S. where he's married the Sonoran grill with the modern seafood movement on the Baja peninsula. During the nineties Valdez was the owner and operator of three restaurants in Ciudad Obregon: Cebicheria Nikos, Pelicanos and Sushi Mar. In 1995 he relocated to Mexico City where he became the General Manager of Carval for eight years. In 2003 he decided to get back to his gastronomical roots and opened up Buffalo BBQ restaurant in La Paz where he currently wows diners with perfectly cooked prime cuts of meat, creative ceviches and Modern Baja cuisine.
iChef Eloy Aluri
Chef Aluri states that he began studying cooking because the best moments of his life happened at the table. He began working in his first restaurant at the tender age of fifteen and has gone on to cookfor artists,presidents and at prestigious venues such as Chapultepec Castle. Aluri is fiercely proud of Sonora and is passionate about exposing the region's cuisine to the world. He is always looking for the balance between tradition and modernity so they can transcend into a world-class framework.
Baja California Wines
La Gran Parrillada will be serving a variety of Baja California wines from larger wineries like Vinicola Retorno to boutique, family-owned wineries Villa Mantefiori, Cava Maciel, Alximia, Vinicola Torres Alegre Y Familia, and Relieve Vinicola. The centuries-old tradition of Sonoran steak paired with the modern booming wine culture of Baja California further cements the ever-growing and evolving international popularity of Mexican food and wine.
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