Taste of Laguna fosters community, supports Chamber of Commerce
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The Taste of Laguna Food and Music Festival returned Thursday night, a sellout crowd taking in the bites, sights and sounds at the Festival of Arts grounds in Laguna Beach.
A prime fundraising event for the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, it brought together more than 30 local restaurants and vendors within the venue, and for all involved, it fostered a sense of community.
Erin Slattery, the president and chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, said the organization hoped to raise more than $100,000 from the fundraiser.
Admission was capped at 1,000 people, and a silent auction featured some two dozen items.
“It’s an event to share our businesses with the community,” Slattery said of the Taste of Laguna. “It’s to show off our businesses, and specifically our restaurants. Obviously, we want to give them their best foot forward to have all of the guests say, ‘That’s where I’m going to have my next reservation,’ [or], ‘That’s where I want my next birthday party — at that restaurant that I had that amazing experience with at Taste.’”
One appetizing table led into the next, as patrons had their pick of delicious dishes. From tacos to sushi and a lot in between, the restaurants shared the spotlight — and stomach space — as the attendees worked their way through the rows.
Rodrigo Ceja, the chef de cuisine for Hendrix in Laguna Niguel, brought a rotisserie prime rib creation combined with truffle scallop potatoes and a shallot-red wine reduction styled in a cone.
“You get to see the community,” Ceja, a Costa Mesa resident, said. “[The attendees] get to see the chefs because we’re always behind the scenes. They finally get to see who’s actually cooking the food and what we’re all about. We kind of get to explain a little bit more about all that, so that’s always the fun part about doing these events.”
Another element that Ceja said he enjoys about events like the Taste of Laguna is the opportunity to read people’s faces, taking in a person’s first reaction when they try his food.
After consuming their fill, festivalgoers were able to shake off some calories on the dance floor, as the Mighty Untouchables took the stage and performed numerous popular hits that the crowd sung along to.
Deborah Paswaters, an artist who created works on site, said she could feel the rhythm of the live music in her brushstrokes. She used a live fine art model as a reference while producing a piece inspired by Athena, the goddess of war.
“I’ve been working alongside the Chamber of Commerce for several years, and I love when the art can become philanthropy,” Paswaters, a Laguna Beach resident, said. “I’ve worked with many charities over the past 30 years, and I’ve seen the power of what can happen when the art comes into play, and so I feel so honored when I can have live art, as well as donate artworks and create sort of a full circle by connecting the community to our community businesses.
“It’s wonderful because that’s when the true creative comes through the chefs and through the musicians and through the artists. Everyone is creating. It’s almost as though competition doesn’t exist in the true creative.”
Paswaters donated a work from her goddess series and a personal sketch session for the silent auction.
Ed Steinfeld, a radio personality for the Laguna Beach station KX FM 104.7, said he felt the event brought a feeling of community not seen since the coronavirus pandemic.
“I think 2020 put a stop to that feeling of community and that willingness to talk face to face with someone [while] breathing their air and without being afraid of catching something from them,” Steinfeld said. “This was the first time in two years that we were all totally free again to do that.”
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