VALLE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL

In June of 2017, I went to Valle de Guadalupe with my friend Nancy Silverton to cook a meal at the restaurant of my fellow Tijuana native, the chef Javier Plascencia. Nancy and I had so much fun and fell so hard for the region that by the end of the weekend, we’d decided to start a festival. Nancy invited some of her best, most celebrated chef friends to participate. Javier’s ranch, Finca Altozano, would host it. And I became the festival' Director. “You have to plan it,” Nancy said. “And it has to be perfect. You know how we like things.” Nancy and I have written six cookbooks together and given countless dinner parties and small events at her homes in Los Angeles and Italy. So, yes. I know how she likes things. I set out in the five weeks we had before the scheduled festival date. Working round the clock until the day of the event, me and a small bi-national team pulled it off. It was a huge success. “The Coachella of Baja.” people said. “The best food and wine festival in Mexico,” said others. “My favorite day of the year,” wrote countless friends and fans. And, most importantly, from Nancy: “It was perfect.

For me, it’s been a round-the-clock project and at times more than I bargained for. But when each event took off, I felt so proud. “Look at what you created,” my sister pointed out in year two, when we watched throngs of guests absolutely flipping out as they listened and danced to Grammy award-winners La Santa Cecilia. (They were my dream. I discovered them at an event hosted by Loteria owner Jimmy Shaw about a dozen years before. Believing dreams can come true, I wrote the band a letter and said, basically: You’re my dream. This is how much money we have. Will you play? Por favor! And they said yes.) In addition to the great and varied local talent that is the backbone of the event, we’ve had many visiting celebrity chefs including Wolfgang Puck, Jonathan Waxman, and Rick Bayless. And Elena Reygadas, the chef/owner of some of your (or my anyway!) favorite CDMX restaurants: Rosetta and Lardo. Another year, my writing mentor Colman Andrews (co-founder of Saveur and my editor there) hosted Talks Under the Tree, a series of food- and wine-related discussions under a 200 year-old oak tree.

In 2022, we hosted our last festival due to political issues in the region.