Foodies throughout SoCal are gearing up for the upcoming Los Angeles Times Food Bowl, a festival celebrating the city’s dynamic food scene and promoting awareness about hunger, spanning the entire month of May. Sponsored by Citi and Southern California Acura Dealers, the Food Bowl will feature a variety of food-inspired events with many of the chefs and restaurants that have helped put Los Angeles on the map as a premier dining destination alongside world-renowned chefs in rare local appearances. Alvin Cailan (Eggslut), Michael Cimarusti (Providence), Neal Fraser (Redbird), Thomas Keller (Bouchon, The French Laundry), Ludo Lefebvre (Trois Mec), Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill), and Wolfgang Puck (Spago) are among the many chefs, aficionados and experts scheduled to appear during the festival.

The festival will also support food access, sustainability and waste reduction through charity partners and participating events. Los Angeles Times Food Bowl charity partners include No Kid Hungry, Food Forward and PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). Checkout the extensive lineup of dining events, panel discussions, culinary collaborations, volunteer projects and other food-inspired happenings here. Additional events will be announced in the days leading up to the festival.

Food Bowl Highlights Include:

• Chef’s Fable: Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold hosts a pre-Food Bowl conversation with Niki Nakayama, Magnus Nilsson and David Gelb (director of “Chef’s Table” and “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”) followed by a screening of “Chef” at the Wiltern on April 30

• Magnus Nilsson’s “Nordic: A Photographic Essay of Landscapes, Food and People” on exhibition at Union Station May 1-3

• Feeding the 5000 presented by Feedback: a communal feast made entirely out of food that would otherwise have been wasted in Pershing Square on May 4

• Food for Soul: Cooking Is a Call to Act, a symposium with Massimo Bottura, Mario Batali, Dominque Crenn, Roy Choi and Mary Sue Milliken at the Ace Hotel on May 5

• Wolfgang Puck is presented with the Los Angeles Times Gold Award during a retrospective dinner and conversation about four decades of dining in L.A. at Spago on May 8

• Night Market: a bustling street market featuring 50 food vendors, outdoor dining areas and DJs in Grand Park May 10-14

• Beast Feast with Fergus Henderson featuring April Bloomfield (The Spotted Pig), Kevin Bludso, Nancy Silverton, Dario Cecchini (Antica Macelleria Cecchini) and Jeremy Fox (Rustic Canyon) on the patio outside Border Grill on May 21

• A celebration of the new Filipino food movement at Grand Central Market with a premiere screening of the documentary film “ULAM” at the Million Dollar Theatre on May 21

• Soirée Poulet: Fried Chicken 3 Ways with Thomas Keller at Bouchon on May 31

• A series of intimate dinners with chefs Josiah Citrin (Charcoal Venice), Ray Garcia (Broken Spanish), Tim Hollingsworth (Otium), Michael Voltaggio (Ink), Brooke Williamson (The Triple) and Ricardo Zarate (Rosaline) presented by Citi and benefiting No Kid Hungry on various dates in May