After consuming two plates of raw oysters at the glitzy L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants event in L.A. earlier this month, Mark Kapczynski quickly began feeling an uncomfortable “bloating” sensation in his gut.
A day later, after coming home from a work dinner, he started feeling intensely ill.
“It was super painful,” he told L.A. TACO during a recent interview. “I got home from the work thing… and I just collapsed in my house.”
Over the next two days, Kapczynski spent “many hours in the bathroom” throwing up, while also experiencing bouts of chills, sweats, and stomach pain that felt “like someone grabbing at your stomach.”
Initially, he suspected he had food poisoning.
But within days, both his wife and his son also became ill despite not consuming any oysters, which led him to believe he had the “stomach flu.”
“They stuffed so many people into that place,” Kapczynski said, referring to the Hollywood Palladium, where the event was hosted, which has a capacity of 4,000. “Someone who was sick might have sneezed on the food.”
But when he received an email from the Los Angeles Department of Public Health this past Friday, the 13th, explaining that they were investigating an “illness cluster linked to” the L.A. Times reveal party,” Kapczynski realized it was more likely food poisoning.
The survey listed food and beverage vendors that were at the event and asked people to indicate if they ate food from them and which food items they consumed. It also asked about symptoms that people experienced, how long they lasted and if anyone else in the household became sick. In addition to offering free lab testing if you were willing to submit a stool sample.
The night of the L.A. Times party, Kapczynski and his wife ate similar things, he said, including ceviche from Holbox, sushi from Morihiro, and Korean BBQ from Park’s BBQ.
But there was one thing that he ate that made him feel unwell almost immediately after it hit his stomach.
“I would hate to point to Providence because they have such an amazing reputation. I can’t believe it would be them,” Kapczynski said, referring to the seventh-best eatery on the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants list and a perpetual Michelin award winner currently sporting two stars. “[But] they were the ones shucking raw oysters. They were sitting out there wide open. I feel like that may have been it.”
In total, Kapczynski says he paid $600–$700 for two VIP tickets for the event. He doesn’t plan on going back again next year.
A media representative for Providence did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Hillary Manning, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Times, clarified that the oysters served at the event “were sourced by Santa Monica Seafood, a sponsor and the seafood vendor of the event.”
The oysters were “provided to one of the featured restaurants to serve,” Manning confirmed.
Kapczynski is one of more than 70 people who reported feeling ill after consuming oysters at the L.A. Times reveal party, Public Health confirmed with L.A. TACO.
For this story, L.A. TACO spoke to more than 11 people who attended the reveal party—including one of our staff members—who suspected they got food poisoning at the event.
Javier Cabral, Editor In Chief of L.A. TACO, described the experience of getting sick after the event as “the most horrible food poisoning” he’s ever experienced in his life. As someone who eats and writes about food for a living, Cabral prides himself on having a strong stomach.
But after falling ill and vomiting more than two dozen times in two days after the L.A. Times event, Cabral found himself in so much pain that he could barely stand up. It took him three days to finally feel better and return to work.
In 17 years of attending food events, Cabral can not recall a single time when the health department sent out a survey requesting stool samples from attendees after an event due to a foodborne illness outbreak.
Like with all raw seafood, there is an inherent risk when eating uncooked oysters. Outbreaks, however, are generally unpredictable. And just because some oysters can cause illnesses, it does not mean all oysters will make you sick.
There is no way for a vendor, restaurant, or health inspector to detect norovirus based on appearance, taste or smell, because norovirus does not affect the flavor, appearance or odor of oysters.
Oyster recalls are typically limited to a small region (compared to the rest of the global market) and are only associated with certain distributors during a specific harvest period.
In the case of the oysters that possibly made people sick at the L.A. Times party—which have now been recalled—they came from a Canadian aquaculture company specializing in shellfish, a spokesperson for the health department said, confirming the investigation into illnesses stemming from the event. The FDA also issued an additional notice confirming a possible norovirus outbreak associated with oysters from another Pacific Northwest distributor.
This week, the Desert Sun reported that the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) confirmed 57 cases of norovirus associated with oysters from British Columbia that were served at restaurants in California.
“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is investigating a norovirus outbreak associated with oysters that were served at an event on December 3, 2024,” a spokesperson for the health department said without referring to the L.A. Times reveal party specifically. “At this time, over 70 attendees that consumed the oysters have reported illness, a majority with gastrointestinal symptoms that include diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting.”
“This outbreak is associated with a multijurisdictional outbreak linked to oysters that have now been recalled,” the spokesperson continued. “The recalled oysters are Fanny Bay Select oysters and Fanny Bay XS oysters from Pacific Northwest Shellfish Co., with a pack date of November 25, 2024, or later. The date of the recall notice was December 13, 2024. Public Health is continuing to investigate the outbreak.”
A week after the reveal party, Manning initially told L.A. TACO that the Times “did not know if the illnesses were connected to the food.” At the time, the health department confirmed that they were investigating just one case of gastrointestinal illness related to the event.
“As is the case with each of our events, we had protocols in place and, based on an inspection from the L.A. County Department of Public Health, we were in compliance with all relevant safety standards,” Manning continued. “We also know the care that each chef and restaurant takes in preparing and serving food to our community. We are continuing to research the issue.”
When we followed up after Public Health sent a survey to all attendees of the event, Manning told us: “We heard from the health department, saying that there is a cluster of GI illness that they are investigating. We are encouraging anyone who became ill following the event to make a report directly with the health department, to aid in their investigation. We are continuing to address this issue directly, but defer to the Dept. of Public Health to complete their investigation.”
After reviewing a copy of a “status report” from the health department, Manning said in a statement: “We are still waiting for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to conclude their investigation, but it appears that the issue was specific to the supplier of the oysters, Fanny Bay Oysters. Fanny Bay Oysters originating from British Columbia, Canada, were sourced by Santa Monica Seafood, a sponsor and the seafood vendor of the event, and provided to one of the featured restaurants to serve.”
She added that Public Health “inspected the restaurant’s storage and handling of the oysters, and the food safety protocols and standards at the event, and found that both the restaurant and the producers of the event met and exceeded all food safety requirements."
Jennifer Ragusano is another one of the more than 70 people who reportedly became ill after eating oysters on the night of the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants reveal party.
Twenty-four hours after the event, the onset kicked in for her and her husband.
“We were out for the whole next day and a half,” Ragusano explained during an interview with L.A. TACO.
“It was coming out both ways,” she said with a laugh.
Ragusano similarly thought that she caught the “stomach flu” after possibly coming into contact with someone who was sick at the event. But after consulting a doctor who “insisted” she had food poisoning, she learned that “there is no such thing as stomach flu. You either have the flu or food poisoning (norovirus).”
When Ragusano complained to L.A. Times Events, the division of the Times that organizes the 101 party, she said they promptly refunded her ticket.
But when she tried to get a refund for another ticket that she bought for a friend, they gave her several options for reimbursement, including one option that required her to fill out a W9, provide a voided check plus an invoice, and fill out a vendor form. Then they stopped returning her emails.
After she recovered, Ragusano called “a few” food poisoning attorneys, one of whom told her that unless she and her husband had a stool test and they filed a report with the proper health authorities, they couldn’t file a class action lawsuit.
Ragusano is disappointed that the L.A. Times didn’t publicly disclose that there was an outbreak at their event.
“Obviously they’re not going to print it in their paper,” Ragusano said.
“But they‘re a newspaper and newspapers are supposed to share the news. This is how people usually find out about something like this,” she added. “It's ironic because it happened to them.”
Ragusano isn’t sure exactly what made her sick. “Probably the most risky would be the raw fish ones,” she said.
In addition to eating oysters from Providence, Ragusano and her husband also had a clam dish, as well as a scallop dish.
“It could have been anything, it could have been tacos, I don't know how to limit down what it was,” she said.
