Author: Mona Day

Masters of Taste

Mona Day Chefs, Dine, Food & Wine Events, Restaurants

Los Angeles’ much anticipated food and beverage festival Masters of Taste will return for its eighth annual edition to the  Pasadena Rose Bowl Stadium  on Sunday, April 19, 3:00-7:00pm.  It is expected to attract over 3,000 food and beverage enthusiasts.

The festival will feature tastings from over hundred Culinary Masters and desserts by Sweet Masters, with a long lineup including:  Agnes, Alexander’s Steakhouse, All About The Cinnamon, Ayara Thai, Bertha Mae’s Brownie Co., Bianca Sicilian Trattoria, BOA Steakhouse, Cakes By Chante, Casa Cordoba, Celestino Ristorante, Chaaste Family Market, City Club Los Angeles, Delight Pastry, Descanso Restaurant, Dorasti, Emporium Thai, Fitoor Santa Monica, Harold & Belle’s Restaurant, ID-Eclair, Knox & Dobson, Lark Cake Shop, Love & Salt, Lyre’s, Magpies Softserve, Marina Restaurant, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Paradise Dynasty,  Paloma, Pazzo Gelato, Perlas Ice Cream, Pez Coastal Kitchen, Poppy + Rose, Porto’s Bakery & Cafe, Ramen Tatsunoya, Rico Rico Snack Carts LLC, Sushi Roku, STK Steakhouse, The Exchange Restaurant (Freehand LA), The Italian Deli Co, The Raymond 1886, The Second Wind, Truffle Brothers, Uchi West Hollywood, and Zira Uzbek Kitchen.  More are expected to be added on. 

Beverage Masters will offer signature handcrafted cocktail tastings from over 25 spirit brands and top cocktail bars, wineries, local craft breweries, cold-pressed juices, and cold brew coffee.  The list includes Above Board Liqueurs, Akagisan Sake, All Season Brewing Company, Arts District Brewing Company, Broda Vodka, Broken Shaker, Bücha Whole Fruit Hard Kombucha, Burden of proof, Empress 1908 Gin, Fever Tree, Good Intentions Coffee, La Bay Gin Distillerie Californienne, Laderach, Meadows Estate Vineyard And Winery, Navarro Vineyards, Old Hillside Bourbon, Paperback Brewing, Paloma, Paperback Brewing, Pucker Up Lemonade Company, and Sake High! 

This year’s host chefs are acclaimed husband-and-wife team Chef Thomas and Chef Vanessa Tilaka Kalb of Agnes Restaurant & Cheesery who are known for their ingredient-driven approach and for their impact on Pasadena’s dining scene and have earned a devoted following.

All event proceeds directly benefit Union Station Homeless Services, a non-profit organization that for over 50 years has provided  homeless housing and services.  Over the last seven years, Masters of Taste has raised over $3.5 million, helping countless families and individuals find a secure place to call home, along with supportive services.

General Admission is from 4:00-7:00 pm, with a VIP Hour from 3:00-4:00 pm. For more information and tickets, please visit https://mastersoftastela.com/tickets.  You can also  download the official Masters of Taste App on the Apple Store or Google Play.

Falstaff

Mona Day Opera, See, stage

LA Opera’s 40th anniversary season continues with a revival of Giuseppe Verdi’s final masterpiece Falstaff for six performances April 18 through May 10.

Based on Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff is Verdi’s final opera and the crowning achievement of his career, premiering in 1893 when the composer was 79 years old.  It came five decades after his only other comic opera Un Giorno Di Regno.

According to legend, the opera was prompted by a remark Verdi heard that he was incapable of writing a comic opera, and he unveiled Falstaff after two years of working in secret. 

The story involves  the amorous mishaps of Shakespeare’s aging knight, a grandiose, rotund, impoverished rogue of an anti-hero Sir John Falstaff who comes up with a plot to simultaneously improve his love life and his finances by seducing two merry, and more importantly wealthy wives of Windsor so he can live out his days in luxury. That could have worked out well, except that  the bumbling knight sends both his targets the same love letter. 

The women – Alice Ford and Meg Page discover Falstaff’s audacity and are now determined to humiliate their would-be suitor and teach him a lesson.  Together with their allies, they set up elaborate deceptions and pranks involving a whirlwind of disguises and deceptions,  jealous husbands, mistaken identities, and farcical situations, including an unexpected dip in the River Thames. The result is riotous chaos, and an unabashed celebration of human folly in Merry Olde England’s lusty days and bawdy nights that include horseplay, chase scenes, and a climactic plunge into the river Thames. 

Now humbled in comedic fashion, the now soggy Falstaff is in a foul mood. He rants and raves, the world is bleak and conspiring against him, a brave and noble knight, but eventually comes to terms with his fate `Let’s pour a bit of wine into this Thames water.’ Beatings, insults, more confusion and embarrassment follow, but a good natured acceptance of defeat bring a happy outcome and the show closes with a festive ensemble music celebrating human folly, forgiveness, and humor.

The music plays off the raucous bravado of the men with the lighter, more intricate exchanges between the women, and both against the romance and ardor of the young lovers Nanetta and Fenton.

Needless to say, Falstaff stunned the opera world with its comedic brilliance and laid to rest any doubts about Verdi’s ability to do comedy.

The current production of Falstaff is a revival of the company’s 2013 original LA Opera production created by the late Lee Blakeley.  It will be conducted by James Conlon who is currently in his 20th and final season with the company as Music Director before taking on a new role of Conductor Laureate. The lavish  scenery and costumes sets and costumes of merry old England  were designed by Adrian Linford.  

The title role will be performed by Craig Colclough, a bass-baritone who began his career with the company, rising from supporting parts to leading roles including, most recently, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Capulet in Roméo et Juliette.

The cast includes several additional returning company favorites, including soprano Nicole Heaston as Alice Ford and mezzo-soprano Hyona Kim as Mistress Quickly, along with two alumni of our Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, tenor Anthony León as Fenton and mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino as Meg Page. The music plays off the raucous bravado of the men with the lighter, more intricate exchanges between the women, and both against the romance and ardor of the young lovers Nanetta and Fenton. 

The opera is sung in Italian with English subtitles and has a run time of approximately two hours and 40 minutes, which includes one intermission.

Music Director James Conlon will present his popular  free pre-show introduction  to the  history and plot of the opera, and key musical moments highlighting one hour before showtime.

For more information and tickets, please visit LAOpera.org/Falstaff.

Emporium Thai

Mona Day Chefs, Dine, Food & Wine Events, Restaurants

Emporium Thai launched its 26th anniversary celebration on Monday, March 16, 2026 marking  over two decades of bringing the bold, vibrant flavors of Southern Thailand to L.A.’s Westside dining scene.

Founded by John and Jane Sungkamee on March 16, 2000, Emporium Thai has grown from a neighborhood eatery into a cornerstone of Los Angeles’ Thai dining scene, earning widespread recognition. It holds Thai Select certification from the Royal Thai Government and has been named among the Top 100 Best Thai Restaurants in the United States.   

Over the past 26 years, the family run restaurant has also become a gathering place for West Los Angeles locals, visiting chefs, celebrities, and Thai food enthusiasts.  They come for the  Southern Thai signature dishes like Phuket Wings, Pad Thai Prawn, Crispy Honey Duck, Thai Crab Curry with Jasmine Rice, Drunken Noodles, and the celebrated Thai Crab Omelette. Other dishes pay homage to celebrity fans, including Akon Salad, Blackpink’s Lisa Meatballs, and the Cardi B Mango Sticky Rice.

To commemorate this milestone, Emporium Thai will be offering a Two-Course Prix-Fixe Lunch Menu ($26 per person) and a Two-Course Prix-Fixe Dinner Menu ($36 per person), available Monday, March 16, 2026, through Sunday, March 29, 2026, alongside other celebratory specials highlighting the restaurant’s most loved signature dishes.

Beverage Director Honeybee Sungkamee, brings creativity and cultural flair to every pour. Drawing inspiration from Thai herbs and flavors, she has crafted a lineup of signature cocktails that are both inventive and balanced.  They include the Lemongrass Gimlet, Thai-Tea-Ni, and Thai Basil Mojito. Her extensive collection of signature mocktails have become  crowd favorite, offering vibrant, flavorful alternatives. 

As it celebrates Emporium Thai’s 26th anniversary, the Sungkamee family in January took another bold step launching a sister restaurant  Emporium Thai Market,  on bustling Sawtelle Boulevard nearby. 

Here’s wishing the family many more anniversaries to come!

Akhnaten

Mona Day Opera, See, stage, Theater

LA Opera’s 40th Anniversary Season will bring a revival of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten for  six performances February 28 through March 22.

The  opera is the last of composer Philip Glass’s portrait trilogy examining consequential figures in science (Einstein in Einstein on the Beach), politics (Gandhi in Satyagraha) and religion (the Egyptian pharaoh Akhnaten).  Glass describes this an opera about ‘religion, orthodoxy and reaction’.  

A co-production of LA Opera and English National Opera, its story is set in Ancient Egypt where the titular Akhnaten, a doomed visionary with plans to abandon the old gods and lead Egypt into a new age. His feats and foibles put his life in peril.  

Glass’s music has permeated modern culture from New York City Ballet to  Netflix’s Stranger Things.  Its most notable feature is an infinite ritualistic repetition which admirers find hypnotic transcendence as well as a test of endurance.  

The opera is sung in English, ancient  Hebrew and Akkadian. The libretto draws upon ancient texts like The Book of the Dead, ancient hymns, prayers, letters and inscriptions.  Highlights are the funeral music of Act I and the Hymn to Sun in Act II.

The spectacular production is visually arresting, featuring towering sets and costumes with animal heads, exotic plumes and intricate beadwork.  It is replete with soaring acrobats and astonishing juggling acts that pay homage to the earliest known record of juggling found in a four thousand year-old mural in an Egyptian cemetery complex.  Anthropologists think that the tomb depiction may be an analogy between balls and circular mirrors as representation of solar objects, birth and death.  The show’s choreographer, however, leaves its role as deliberately undefined: the objects can be alter egos to the characters’ ideas, miniature globular deities, bouncing thoughts, or even desert sand.

Making her LA Opera debut is Finland’s Dalia Stasevska, principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The show is  approximately three hours, including two intermissions. Dr. Tiffany Kuo will present a pre-show talk in Stern Grand Hall one hour before every performance.

For more information and tickets, please visit LAOpera.org/Akhnaten.

Emporium Thai Market

Mona Day Dine, Restaurants

The popular Emporium Thai Market in Westwood has established a brand new outpost on the section of Sawtelle Boulevard that is already a bustling hub of Asian markets and eateries.  

The restaurant specializes in Southern Thai cuisine, highlighting the region’s signature balance of heat, acidity, aromatics, and depth.  Its signature dishes include Seafood Hor Mok, a fragrant, savory and spicy dish featuring a rich, smooth, custard-like mixture of seafood served as individual bites of shrimp, crab meat and scallop in a sweet coconut curry.  Jane’s Wings are crispy chicken wings glazed in a tangy, house sauce.   Other crowd pleasers are Phuket Wings, Kra Duk Moo Tod, deep fried marinated pork, BLACKPINK’s Lisa Meatballs, Tom Saap Pork Rib Soup, Khao Soi, a rich, creamy, coconut curry noodle from Northern Thailand, Honey Ribs, Choo Chee Salmon, and the Bangkok Jay Fai’s style Thai Crab Omelette.

Southern Thai dishes from the owners’ hometown are known for intense spice and rich flavors, expressed in the restaurants’ specialties like Kua Kling Gai Sab, a dry curry with ground chicken, Gaeng Som, a sour orange curry with catfish fillet, Pad Sa Taw Goong, stir-fried stink beans with shrimp – a dish not for newbies, Southern Thai Crab Curry with  fresh crab lump, and Pla Tod Kamin, a crispy whole Red Snapper with turmeric and garlic. 

Desserts range from Sweet Roti, a buttery, crisp Thai flatbread with sweetened condensed milk and sugar, and the crowd-favorite Cardi B Mango Sticky Rice.

The bar program is integrated with the restaurant’s cuisine, drawing on Thai herbs like galanga, lemongrass, turmeric, basil, and mint.  Signature cocktails include the Galanga Sunrise, Lemongrass Lavender Margarita, Coconut Espresso Martini, Dragon Fruit Martini, and Strawberry Yuzu Martini with Lychee.

They are complemented by an eclectic selection of wines, draft beers that include aromatic Thai lemongrass brews, Japanese imports, as well as local brews, and a lineup of zero-proofs. 

The restaurant’s architecture pays homage to its Thai cultural heritage with the exterior recalling traditional Thai rooflines graced with an elephant motif , which continues inside with a bold elephant mural. An outdoor patio provides an option for al fresco dining. 

DANCE CAMERA WEST

Mona Day art, celebration, Dance, Entertainment, Film, See

Dance Camera West will present the 2026 edition of its dance film festival on January 22-25, with events on January 22-24 anchoring at Theatre Raymond Kabbaz in West Los Angeles. 

Continuing the Festival  tradition of honoring a major dance figure, the Festival opens January 22, 7:30 pm with a  Gala Retrospective and Tribute to David Roussève.   The evening will screen four of his films –  Bittersweet,  Hold your Heads to the Sky, Two Seconds of Laughter and Chili Pepper followed by a moderated discussion and a gala reception.

Roussève’s three-decade career weaves  movement, text, and multimedia to probe identity, race, queerness, and resilience and has resonated across generations. His company, David Roussève/REALITY has performed to much nationally and internationally to wide acclaim. 

Preceding the main program will be Stories and Tales, a selection of five short dance films from the US and the UK telling stories and creating portraits through dance and film.

Next day January 23, 7:30PM will present Shorts, a selection of 13 short experimental dance films with  a Francophone focus from France, Québec, and Belgium, along with an international selection from Finland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, and Spain.

January 24, 2:00PM will Doc Day Afternoon with two films.  The first, Dance to the End celebrates dancer, choreographer, artist and writer Eileen Kramer who lived and travelled the world for 60 years and continued working after returning home at age 99. 

The second film Origins  is a cinematic odyssey into the heart and mind of world-renowned choreographer Alonzo King, offering an intimate look at his creative process and his profound belief in the limitless potential of the human spirit. 

Saturday, January 24, 2026, 7 pm  will present LA Pops Up at the  Colburn in Downtown LA.  The new project spearheaded by Hysterica Productions and Dance Camera West celebrates a vibrant mix of styles spanning contemporary, hip-hop, poppin’, jazz, and more.   The screening will be followed by a filmmaker discussion.

Sunday, January 25, 2026 1:00 pm will present Experimental Experts at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Feliz.   The afternoon will feature Embodied Filmmaking with Karen Pearlman,  a screening of six films by Shirley Clarke.  The book launch and discussion celebrates the publication of Shirley Clarke: Thinking Through Movement.   

The workshop will audience to participate in a series of exercises designed to develop concepts, images, sounds, movement motifs, structures, and rhythms for new screen dance works. 

 LA Art Show

Mona Day art, art, See

The LA Art Show,  LA’s largest and longest-running fair, The LA Art Show, returns to the LA Convention Center for its 31st edition  January 7 – 11.  Led by director and producer Kassandra Voyagis, it will feature over 90 exhibitors from around the world. 

This year’s edition features international highlights include Ireland’s first time participation with Dublin’s Oliver Sears Gallery and Palm Beach’s Provident Fine Art with a solo presentation of Sylvester Stallone’s abstract works. 

Highlighting the intersection of music and contemporary art, this year’s fair will feature works by two notable British musicians: Paul Simonon of The Clash and Chris Rivers of Heaven’s Basement. 

In another first, Art of Contemporary Africa is presenting works from Dr Esther Mahlangu, a contemporary artist whose 8 decades of art has made her a beloved cultural ambassador of the Ndebele nation. 

Other notable exhibitions include the first public showing in over four decades of Karl A. Meyer’s 1980s woodcut prints at Switzerland’s LICHT FELD Gallery, and cinematic figurative works by Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri presented by Corridor Contemporary. A strong Korean presence continues with J&J Art’s “Elegant Freedom” by Jinny Suh, whose Hanji-based works reinterpret Korean tradition through a contemporary lens.

The fair will debut its new Latin American Pavilion curated by Marisa Caichiolo-who was recently selected to co-curate Chile’s pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Centered on themes of memory, migration and identity, the pavilion explores representation, provenance and the evolving trajectory of Latin American art.  The Pavillion is a timely reminder of the challenges posed by immigration issues for Latin American communities and their artists. 

The fair’s signature non-commercial platform, DIVERSEartLA curated by Marisa Caichiolo returns with the theme The Biennials, Art Institutions and Museums in the Contemporary Art Ecosystem exploring the evolution of contemporary art through global biennials and museums, and how the two  complement and challenge one another. The platform highlights their shared roles in artistic innovation, public engagement, and cultural dialogue.

The American Heart Association is again the charity beneficiary, receiving 15% of proceeds from every ticket sold for their Life is Why ™ campaign. 

For more information and tickets, please visit www.laartshow.com

The Los Angeles Wine & Food Festival

Mona Day Chefs, Dine, Food & Wine Events, Restaurants

The Los Angeles Wine & Food Festival returns for its second year with three sessions over the weekend of Friday, November 7 – Sunday, November 9. Friday and Saturday will feature Grand Tasting events while Sunday will conclude with The Final Bite: Peroni’s Italian Affair, an Italian-themed celebration hosted by Peroni, the official beer partner of The Los Angeles Wine & Food Festival. 

The 2025 Los Angeles Wine & Food Festival will bring together a star-studded lineup of notable chefs from across the nation and Southern California including culinary icons and rising stars shaping the future of LA dining.  Each of the three sessions will feature over thirty chefs presenting their signature bites along with  beverage selections from top regional and

 award-winning wineries, and craft cocktails from top mixologists at  walk-around tastings that will also include other immersive pop-ups and brand  installations.  Live entertainment will include top DJ sets will round out the experience.  

Featured chef personalities include Stephanie Izard, Gabe Bertaccini, Antonia Lofaso, Giorgio Rapicavoli, Brooke Williamson, and brother duo Michael and Bryan Voltaggio. appearances from Ludo Lefebvre of Petit Trois, Michael Symon of Lola, Claudette Zepeda of Leu Leu, Rashida Holmes of Bridgetown Roti, Avner Levi of CENTO Pasta and Raw Bar, and Jazz Singsanong of Jitlada. AWFF is produced by a21, the team behind some of the country’s top culinary festivals. 

This year’s event will be co-hosted by Tastemade, known for its leading food and lifestyle brand engaging audiences on major social and streaming platforms.  

The Los Angeles Wine & Food Festival is proud to support Event Zero Inc., a non-profit organization to help make the festival more sustainable.

Guests can choose between General or VIP admission. VIP pass holders enjoy early entry one hour before general admission and access to exclusive lounges offering exclusive bites and cocktails.  A special weekend pass maximises savings by offers access to all three days.  

For tickets and more information, visit https://www.lawineandfood.com/.