Individual event tickets are now on sale for the inaugural Santa Barbara Culinary Experience, which is serving up a range of food & drink events from March 13 to 15 throughout Santa Barbara County, with a special focus on venues around the Hotel Californian. The nonprofit organization is an offshoot of The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, and aims to become a major annual event on the region’s epicurean calendar.
There are more than 40 scheduled meals, tastings, panels, tours, and so forth of varying price points, from a $350 San Ysidro Ranch dinner on Friday night to a $15 screening of Nothing Fancy: Diana Kennedy at the Riviera Theatre. There’s a doughnut-making workshop at Bossie’s ($60), macadamia nut grove tour ($50), kid cooking classes at various times ($40), and a number of free events in the works, including mixology and guacamole demos and a Julia Child walking map.
The three “signature” events are Friday’s opening night wine reception at the Hotel Californian ($75), Saturday’s Border Grill lunch at Chase Palm Park’s Carousel House with Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger ($125), and Sunday’s Savor Santa Barbara Neighborhood Tasting ($65), a festival-like format with multiple restaurants and producers at the S.B. Historical Museum. For $20 more, you can see a panel of renowned home winemakers discuss their passion the morning before the Neighborhood Tasting opens.