Visit Sacramento, the city’s tourism bureau, is combining two of their culinary events — The Grand Tasting and Legends of Wine — into a new experience celebrating California’s restaurants and wineries.
Coming off of the success of the Terra Madre Americas’ 2025 food festival in Sacramento, The California Grand Tasting is the next step in evolving the city’s Farm-to-Fork events, according to Mike Testa, Visit Sacramento’s president and CEO.
The event will feature food from 30 restaurants and 25 to 30 wineries with the focus being on the Sacramento region, according to Testa. The Farm-to-Fork Festival will be a part of the Terra Madre Americas going forward.
Testa said it made sense to combine their Legends of Wine event with The Grand Tasting.
“I think we try to evolve events with the market, and you look at where the Farm-to-Fork Festival started, and where Legends of Wine started 12, 13 years ago, we are now a bona fide culinary market,” Testa said. “So making these events a little bit bigger and a little bit more focused again seemed like the right evolution for us.”
Testa mentioned there will be live music and a couple of surprises and the Grand Tasting like an appearance from Darrell Corti, owner of Corti Brothers, and David Berkley, former owner of David Berkley Fine Wines and Specialty Food.
“I think the ultimate vision of the California Grand Tasting is to attract chefs from across California and to attract wineries from across California,” he said. “Really feature that here in the capital city in a way that nobody else can.”
One of the 30 restaurants that will be featured in the California Grand Tasting is Canon, which is located in East Sacramento. Brad Cecchi is the owner and chef of the restaurant and he said he’s excited to showcase what Canon can do.
“It’s a really valuable experience for us,” Cecchi said. “We’re not necessarily after new guests, but we are definitely there to connect with the guests that we already have and make sure that we’re at the top of mind for them.”
Cecchi said Canon will feature corn on their menu at the California Grand Tasting.
“We’re gonna do a kind of a chicken liver mousse with Concord grape on a sweet corn cake,” he said. “So a little mix of sweet and savory.”
Tickets to the event grant you a dish from Canon and 29 other restaurants, and tastings from wineries.
The event will take place on Friday Sept. 11, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center. Tickets are $175 for general admission and $250 for VIP, which can get you into the event an hour early.
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