Box Chicken Tendies. Photo Credit: Tenderfest.
The Sept. 19 event features unlimited tastings, celebrity chef competitions, and exclusive desserts.
By Dolores Quintana
For all of those people who crave chicken tenders, your fried chicken dreams are about to come true. Tenderfest is back on September 19 from 12:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, and there will be many new and exciting additions to this year’s festival.
BunB, 2023 Tenderfest Champion. Photo Credit: Tenderfest.
Some of Los Angeles’ best chefs, and some who you would never think of making chicken tenders, will be competing in the fan favorite ConTENDER Competition: Miya Miya, best known for their extremely popular shawarma pop-up at West Edge; Jitlada, the Thai restaurant that J. Gold championed; Petit Trois, the restaurant from French Chef extraordinaire Ludo Lefebvre; and Lucia, led by two-time James Beard Award finalist, Chef Cleophus.
Le Coupe tenders. Photo Credit: Tenderfest.
The judges for the chicken tender competition include culinary heavyweights Chef Nancy Silverton, Chef Cat Cora, Chef Tim Hollingsworth, and Puka Nacua, Kyren Williams, and Jay Luchs.
The restaurants participating in the unlimited tastings are Delilah, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Pizzeria Mozza, Marvin, Le Coupé, Box Chicken, Raising Cane’s, Chimmelier, and Tendercrush.
Photos with the Chicken. Photo Credit: Tenderfest.
The dessert menu has also gotten hotter- er, colder- with the addition of the hard-to-get Henry’s Secret Ice Cream, All About the Cinnamon, and their luscious cinnamon buns, and Gone Banana Bread, which I personally haven’t tried yet, but Chef Ludo is participating in their bread-making.
You can purchase tickets for the “10 hours of cluckin’ goodness,” which is the creation of John Terzian (h.wood Group, Delilah) and Lawrence Longo (Prince St. Pizza, Irv’s Burgers, Bar Next Door) here.
Dining and Cooking