Celebrating Local Cuisine: Los Cabos Preps for 9th Annual Sabor a Cabo Food Festival
This Thursday, U.S. residents and visitors will gorge themselves on traditional Thanksgiving staples at some of the area’s finest restaurants. But despite the reverence given the holiday feast by local gringos (and this one is salivating at the thought of turkey gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie), it doesn’t compare to the many major food fetes that now dot the Los Cabos culinary landscape.
Events to savor at the ninth annual Sabor a Cabo include a Beer Fest on Dec. 3 outside the Pabellón Cultural de la República in Cabo San Lucas.
During the past decade, a number of notable food festivals have sprung up around the region, offering locals and visitors an opportunity to celebrate Baja Med and traditional Mexican cuisine, as well as the many fine wines now being produced in Valle de Guadalupe (just outside Ensenada).
Two major luxury resorts, One&Only Palmilla and The Resort at Pedregal (formerly Capella Pedregal) now host their own annual food festivals. The former’s Mexican Culinary Festival is a premier showcase for some of México’s top chefs and sommeliers, while the latter’s food and wine festival features a rotating cast of notable American chefs, winemakers, and mixologists. And each May in Todos Santos, the La Bodega de Todos Santos sponsored GastroVino transforms the pueblo mágico’s town square into an oasis of Baja-based food and wine.
The biggest and best of the Los Cabos area’s culinary celebrations, however, is undoubtedly Sabor a Cabo, or Flavors of Cabo. The ninth edition of the annual gastronomic extravaganza returns Nov. 30–Dec. 6, 2014, with a week of delicious appetizers—including a country food and wine tasting, a sunset Taittinger cruise, a beer fest, a wine and art walk, and “celebrity chef dine around”—ramping up to the main course: an enormous food and wine tasting scheduled to take place Dec. 6 in the sculpture garden at Puerto Los Cabos.
In its earliest incarnations, Sabor a Cabo was primarily a showcase for local chefs (the event is sponsored by CANIRAC, the local restaurant association). In recent years, however, the festival has grown by leaps and bounds—in 2013, Sabor a Cabo was benefited by a major media campaign in newspapers across the United States—and now also welcomes a who’s who of Michelin-starred chefs and international kitchen wizards, as well as some of the world’s most sought-after entertainers.
This year’s Sabor a Cabo is expected to feature more than 50 participating local restaurants, as well as illustrious visiting chefs like Federico Zanellato and Dieter Koschina, both of whom are participating in the “celebrity chef dine around.” If you don’t recognize those names, you’re obviously not a gourmet. Zanellato trained at NOMA in Copenhagen—currently ranked as the world’s best restaurant—before taking over Ormeggio at the Spit, and Koschina helms Vilajoya in Portugal, holder of two Michelin stars and currently rated among the world’s 50 best restaurants.
Chilean rock group La Ley will perform at this year’s Sabor a Cabo.
In addition to the local talent, Mexican chefs participating in the dine around— scheduled for Friday, Dec. 5—include Diego Hernández of annual Latin America’s Best nominee Corazón de Tierra in Ensenada and Eduardo Osuna of Casas de la Rosa in Guadalajara. Zanellato will join chef Paolo Della Corte at romantic Tourist Corridor restaurant Sunset da Mona Lisa; Koschina will be paired with Angel Carbajal of Nick-San; Hernández will team up with Edgar Roman Chavez at Mi Casa; and Osuna will work with Emanuele Olivero at DOC Wine Bar in Cabo San Lucas. Other notable dine-around match-ups include chefs Richard Sandoval and Tadd Chapman at Don Sanchez, and Najat Kaanache and Enrique Silva at organic standout Los Tamarindos. For menus and other information about this incredible event, contact the participating restaurants.
The star-powered dine-around is merely prelude, however, to the week’s biggest event: the Dec. 6 finale at Puerto Los Cabos, a luxury development situated just outside San José del Cabo. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend la grande bouffe, which, in addition to signature dishes from dozens of top local restaurants, will also feature musical concerts spanning the genres of pop, rock and jazz. Chilean rock stars La Ley will headline, performing hit singles off their new album Retour. Other musicians in attendance will include jazz divas Christine Jensen and Denise Donatelli and special guests Alejandro Gonzales of Mana, and Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS.
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend Sabor a Cabo 2014 at Puerto Los Cabos.
Simmons and Stanley recently announced they will open a second Rock & Brews restaurant in Los Cabos and will receive keys to the city from Los Cabos mayor José Antonio Agundez during Sabor a Cabo’s main event. Will the two legends play? You’ll have to buy a ticket to find out for sure.
Tickets for the main event Dec. 6 cost $125–¢160 U.S., depending upon the seating area. To purchase tickets or to inquire about prices and scheduling or affiliated events, visit www.saboracabo.mx, email ticket@caniracloscabos.mx, or call (624) 143-3944 inside México, +1 52 (624) 143-3944 from the United States. Proceeds will benefit local firefighters, Red Cross, and the Los Cabos Children’s Foundation.