This year’s Santa Barbara Culinary Experience is aiming to provide the most diverse range of food and drink offerings to date, with more than 60 separate classes, tours, tastings, meals, and more already lined up for the May 10 to 18 celebration.
“This year’s Santa Barbara Culinary Experience is our most ambitious yet, featuring an extraordinary lineup of events that truly reflect the spirit and bounty of our region,” said Jamie Knee, director of the Santa Barbara Culinary Experience, in a press release.
Founded in 2019 as the West Coast face of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, the SBCE toasts the food, drink, and farming bounty of Santa Barbara County, which is where the famous television chef and author spent the last years of her life.
The first SBCE celebration, scheduled for March 2020, had to be canceled due to COVID, and the second was online-only. But this will be the fourth annual in-person SBCE since 2022, which in addition to a number of smaller events, includes a large gathering at the Grand Wine Tasting on Saturday, May 17. That’s when dozens of wineries and restaurants come together at El Presidio State Historic Park to share their bottles and bites.
Child would certainly be enthused by this year’s lineup, which includes everything from classes on butter, caviar, baking, and single origin coffee to meals featuring Alice Waters and SpaceX’s Chef Travis Westrope, who cooks for the company at Vandenberg. There are classes for children as well, and the offerings are only expected to grow as May gets closer.
See sbce.events/events for a full list of events and tickets.
[Matt Kettmann serves as a volunteer member of SBCE’s advisory committee.]
