Entries associated with the tag "Alliance Francaise":

"Enjoying Wine the Mark Phillips Way," Thursday from 6:30-9 PM at the Stan Mansion (2408 N. Kedzie), features wine, cheese, and "a fun, non-snobby way to enjoy wine" from wine expert and television host Mark Phillips. $40, reservations required. 

Patricia Wells signs her book, cowritten with her husband, Walter, We've Always Had Paris . . . and Provence: A Scrapbook of Our Life in France, Thursday from 4-5 PM at a free wine and cheese reception at the Book Cellar. She'll then move on to Kendall College, where she and her husband will read at the American Institute of Wine & Food's four-course benefit dinner from 6 to 9 PM. $100 (includes a signed copy of the book).

Friday at 7:30 PM at Barbara's Bookstore in Oak Park, George Motz discusses Hamburger America: One Man’s Cross-Country Odyssey to Find the Best Burgers in the Nation, his roundup of what he considers the country’s 100 best burger joints. In both the book and his 2005 documentary of the same title, he seeks independents that have survived despite the rise of the fast-food nation. His Chicago picks? The Billy Goat Tavern and Top Notch Beefburger.

On Saturday the National Association of Letter Carriers and the Campbell Soup Company will team up on the country's largest one-day food drive, Stamp Out Hunger. They're asking people to put bags of nonperishable items next to their mailboxes, which mail carriers will pick up and deliver to a local food bank (in Chicago it'll be the Greater Chicago Food Depository). People can also donate online.

As part of the Chicago Public Library’s Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Bert Tan of the Chinese American Culture Foundation gives a lecture, The Art of the Chinese Tea Ceremony, Saturday at 2 PM at the North Austin branch library. (He’ll give the same presentation at the Galewood-Mont Clare branch library on 5/17 and the McKinley Park branch library on 5/31). Other programs coming up this month include Chinese Cooking Dim Sum, a cooking demonstration and tasting of shrimp and pork siu mai, and a Japanese cooking demonstration of sushi rice, California rolls, and teriyaki chicken, both by Andrew Comens.

Chefs Didier Steudler and Christophe Pouy from the Ritz Escoffier school of gastronomy in Paris will do a cooking demonstration at the Alliance Francaise on Wednesday from 6 to 9 PM. On the menu: roasted artichoke veloute with Parmesan Reggiano crisp, chicken supreme with an asparagus risotto and wild mushroom fricassee, and tangerine crepes with orange butter sauce. $75.

The Angelic Organics Learning Center explains the benefits of locally grown food Wednesday at 7 PM at Sulzer Regional branch library.

Dave Pickerell, the master distiller for Maker's Mark, comes to bourbon heaven, aka Delilah's, Thursday at 6:30 PM to lead a class on the history of whiskey, in particular Maker's Mark. There will be samples,  appetizers, and a whiskey trivia game (h/t Chicagoist). $35.

The South Loop Whole Foods hosts a class called "Spring Detox 101," about how to eliminate toxins from your diet, Thursday from 7 to 8 PM (registration required). Friday at 4 PM there's a "Keep It Green" event, where you can "sample your way through our store." Both events are free. 

The Alliance Francaise hosts two free events this weekend as part of its Festival de la Francophonie 2008: Canada and Quebec--Food, Folk Music and Film, Friday from 6 to 10 PM, includes "culinary delights from above the 49th parallel" as well as folk music and film from Quebec, while Haiti: Music and Dancing, Saturday at 6:15 PM, features Haitian cuisine in addition to the music and the dancing. 

It's the last weekend for Maple Syrup Hikes at Ryerson Woods, with hikes every half hour from 12:30-2:30 PM (group hikes at 3 and 3:30) on Saturday and Sunday. On the one-hour walks, participants learn about syrup and sap as well as how to tell which trees to tap. $7.

Savoring Sweet Sicily, a talk at the History Museum by Natalie Zarzour of Pasticceria Natalina, covers the history of Sicily's food culture and of Sicilian immigrants in the U.S.; you can sample traditional Sicilian foods too. Presented by the Culinary Historians of Chicago. $5.

A free screening of King Corn--a Super Size Me-style exposé of U.S. agriculture--Saturday from 2 to 4 PM at the Cultural Center's Claudia Cassidy Theater will be followed by a panel discussion with community activist LaDonna Redmond and SAIC photography professor Claire Pentecost, whose work focuses on industrial agriculture. Sponsored by the Public Square; reservations required. 

World Water Week starts Sunday, kicking off the Tap Project, UNICEF’s initiative to provide safe drinking water to children worldwide. Through Saturday 3/22 you can make a direct contribution to the project by paying a buck--enough to supply a child with clean drinking water for 40 days--for a glass of tap water at local restaurants including Naha, North Pond, and Lou Malnati’s. More than 100 establishments are participating; click here for a complete list.

France and the U.S. face off yet again at a French vs. American wine dinner (PDF) at Kiki's Bistro today at 6:30 PM to benefit The Chicago Lighthouse. One wine from each country will be paired with each of the four courses, with wine critic Craig Goldwyn discussing them. $75.

This week's free tasting at WineStyles, today from 6-8 PM, honors Leap Day by "tell(ing) winter to take a leap," offering bold, complex reds to "kick this season out the door."

Mag Mile businesses want people to spend the extra day this year shopping; to this end they’re offering champagne-themed Leap Day specials and samples including champagne kisses at the Hershey’s Store and a free glass of champagne for shoppers at Marlowe on Friday. The Swissotel Chicago is pairing champagne with items on an a la carte menu such as beef tenderloin with vanilla cream sauce, lobster canapes, and chocolate-dipped strawberries; Angela Roman of the John Hancock Center’s Signature Room at the 95th will give a lecture on champagne at 5 PM. For a complete list of special offers, click here.

Saturday at 10 AM, Alliance Francaise hosts a class on how to make pain perdu (aka French toast) in some inventive variations. In addition to flamed caramel-banana pain perdu, there'll be some with scallops and cilantro. $85. Also at 10 AM, local chef and food writer Louisa Chu, a producer of the PBS show Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie, gives a talk at Kendall College titled Behind the Scenes of Food Television. Among her topics: what it was like to lead Anthony Bourdain on a tour of wholesale meat markets in Paris, where she drank absinthe before the ban was lifted, and what the food tastes like on Iron Chef America, where she judged an episode that hasn’t aired yet. $3.

Bill Kurtis of Tallgrass Beef signs The Prairie Table Cookbook Saturday at 1 at Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook; there'll also be a lunch buffet featuring Tallgrass Beef dishes created by chefs Sarah Stegner and George Bumbaris. $35.

Sunday at 1 PM, the Highland Park Historical Society hosts high tea with actress Leslie Goddard, in character as Titanic survivor Violet Constance Jessop, who died in 1971. Over raisin scones with jam and clotted cream, sandwiches, apple-rhubarb pie, petits fours, and tea, Goddard will recount how Jessop survived the sinking of not only the Titanic but also its sister ship, the Britannic, and her experiences as a stewardess and nurse on the two ships. $45.

Chef Melina Kelson Podolsky, an instructor at Kendall College, discusses sustainable agriculture and cooking at the Evanston Public Library Monday at 7 PM. 

RSVP today for a "paczki fun day" at Delightful Pastries, Sunday from 2-3:30 PM. Participants can fry, glaze, and fill their Polish doughnuts with fillings including plum butter, rose petal jelly, raspberry, boozy custard, and whipped cream. $15.

Fine Wine Brokers hosts Red/White, a wine tasting to benefit Red Door Animal Shelter, tonight from 7-9:30 PM. $35.

The Grand Chefs Gala Benefit for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, this Friday from 6 PM to midnight, has a safari theme this year. Some of Chicago's best chefs will prepare hors d'oeuvres, a four-course dinner, and desserts; there will also be live and silent auctions, a DJ, dancing, and cocktails, as well as the presentation of the Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence. Tickets are $400 per person, but $50 will get you into just the after-party, which starts at 10 and offers desserts, dancing, and an open bar.

Hart Davis Hart Wine Co. hosts its annual Comparative Bordeaux Tasting Friday from 6:30-8 PM at the Newberry Library. They'll be comparing the 1995 and 1996 vintages from all five first-growth chateaux (Margaux, Mouton-Rothschild, Latour, Haut-Brion, and Lafite-Rothschild), plus 15 "super seconds." $275. There's also a wine auction at Tru Saturday starting at 9 AM; lunch is available for $75.

Saturday at 10 AM, historian Richard Lytle will give a talk titled George H. Hammond and Marcus M. Towle: Forgotten Pioneers of the Beef Packing Industry, about two Indiana business partners who owned a slaughterhouse and helped introduce refrigerated rail cars for transporting meat in the mid nineteenth century. It's at Kendall College, 900 N. Branch, and costs $2 (free for Kendall students). Presented by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable.

The Alliance Francaise hosts a Mardi Gras brunch and cooking class Saturday from 10-11 AM. On the menu: poached eggs with crabmeat, chicken andouille hash, and sweet potato pecan pie. $85.

An Edible Art Workshop at the MCA Saturday from 1-4 PM, led by artist and pastry chef Tara Strickstein, focuses on "transforming the edible into the aesthetic." Strickstein will discuss artists like Janine Antoni, who makes sculptures from lard and chocolate, and Vik Muniz, who uses sugar, chocolate syrup, peanut butter, and jelly to re-create paintings by the likes of Leonardo and Monet. Participants can also make their own art from materials including candies, bread, sugar, and chocolate syrup. Reservations required. $45.

ChicaGourmets' Art, Food, and a Play (PDF) Saturday at 12:30 PM offers salads, gourmet sandwiches, brownies, and wine along with a viewing of paintings by students at the Palette and Chisel gallery and a performance by Shaw Chicago of The Cassilis Engagement, about a proper British mother who disapproves of her son's fiancee, next door at the Ruth Page Center for the Arts. 708-383-7543, $50.

Local nonprofit Purple Asparagus holds its first event for Project Dine Out, designed to help parents eat out with their kids, Tuesday from 5:30-8:30 PM at May Street Market. Chef Alex Cheswick will prepare a four-course dinner with wine pairings and Olivia Gerasole of Spatulatta will demonstrate a recipe from her new cookbook. $65 for adults, $25 for kids under 11.

Fat Cat has a Mardi Gras Fat Tuesday bash on (big surprise) Tuesday, starting at 4 PM and going until 2 AM. An all-you-can-eat buffet ($9.95) features crawfish boil, oyster po'boys, jambalaya, and king cake; there's also a costume contest. Some of the proceeds will benefit Make It Right, Brad Pitt's project to rebuild the lower Ninth Ward community destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. 

The Wine Discount Center features its new wines for February at its First Look Tasting Wednesday from 6:30-8 PM. The 35 to 40 on offer include La Posta’s 2006 Cocina malbec-bonarda-syrah blend from Argentina, Selvapiana’s 2005 Chianti Rufina, Mumm’s Carte Classique champagne, and Beckman’s 2005 Santa Ynez Valley cabernet sauvignon. Reservations required. $10.

Pinot Days Chicago, an effort of the nonprofit Bay Area Wine Project, is being touted as the largest-ever gathering of pinot noir producers in the Chicago area. The Grand Festival, Saturday from 1-4 PM, will showcase more than 50 producers of pinot noir. In addition to 150 pinots from California, Oregon, New Zealand, Australia, and Burgundy available for sampling, there’ll be a production demonstration of each step of winemaking, from growing the grapes to bottling. $50.

Among other Pinot Days events, 312 Chicago hosts a four-course winemaker dinner with pinot noir pairings tonight from 7-11 PM. Winemakers will sit with the attendees, rotating tables with each course. $120.

Trudy Paradis reveals the history of schnitzel and sauerkraut in Milwaukee with a talk Saturday at 10 AM  on German Milwaukee: Its History — Its Recipes. Hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable, the program at Kendall College focuses on the culinary contributions of German immigrants, highlighting four of Milwaukee’s German restaurants: Mader’s, the Bavarian Inn, Weissgerber’s, and Karl Ratzsch’s. Wurstsalat (sausage salad) from Paradis’s family recipe will be among the refreshments. $3. 

As a part of the Chicago Humanities Festival, Gregory V. Jones, a climatologist at Southern Oregon University, will give a talk on The Grapes of Warmth. Saturday from 4-5 PM at Alliance Francaise, he'll be discussing the probable impact of climate change on the wine industry and whether British Columbia could be the next Napa. $5.

The Chicago chapter of Les Dames d’ Escoffier (the international organization of women in culinary professions) celebrates its 25th anniversary and the recent release of its new cookbook, Chicago Cooks, with a Chicago Cooks tasting gala Monday from 5:30-8:30 PM at the Chicago Illuminating Company. Thirty of the Dames themselves will prepare recipes from the cookbook, ranging from onion flan to ceviche salad to vanilla sour cream cheesecake, to be accompanied by wines and tequilas. A silent auction of “foodles,” wine and food doodles by culinary celebrities, will benefit Chicago’s Community Kitchen. $75.

Food & Wine Magazine's 9th annual Entertaining Showcase is Monday from 6:30-9:30 PM at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It features tastings from wineries around the world and food from 20 top Chicago chefs, plus a holiday wine-pairing seminar. $100 in advance, $125 at the door ($85 in advance from MCA members).

Geja's Cafe has a Secrets of Great Fondue class and dinner Monday at 6 PM. There'll be tips on wine pairing, "fondue secrets," and a three-course fondue meal. $50 including tax and tip.

British food maven Nigella Lawson will be at afternoon tea at the Ritz on Wednesday from 3-4:30 PM. The $75 cost includes a signed copy of Lawson's newest cookbook, Nigella Express: 130 Recipes for Good Food, Fast, plus recipes prepared from the book.

Want to do your part to fight colony collapse? At Saturday's Urban Beekeeping II workshop at Angelic Organics Learning Center aspiring beekeepers will learn methods for harvesting, extracting, and bottling honey, organic disease control, and preparing the hive for winter. Participants will also taste fresh urban honey, which is supposed to taste pretty similar to wildflower honey, although advocates claim that urban bees can produce a "richer variety" of honey because of the wide selection of plants in parks and gardens. It starts at 2 PM and costs $50; registration required.

Ballo is accepting recipe submissions for its second annual meatball contest, "Just Roll With It," through September 15. The challenge is to top the restaurant's own "Mama's Meatballs," and 10 finalists will compete in a cook-off on October 14 for the grand prize, a trip for two to Napa Valley.

Wine Compliments offers a free in-store wine tasting in conjunction with Edison Park Fest this Saturday and Sunday from 2-8 PM. The festival itself, featuring a beer garden, local food vendors, an arts and crafts fair and a dog show (plus the requisite rides, games, etc.) runs Friday from 5 PM to 11 PM, Saturday 9 AM-11 PM, and Sunday 9 AM-10 PM.

Slow Food Chicago hosts high tea this Sunday at 3:30 at Angel Food Bakery, with treats made from from stone fruits provided by Seedling. It's $19; reservations recommended.

Also Sunday, Chicago pastor and amateur chef Dominic Grassi signs Bumping into God in the Kitchen: Savory Stories of Food, Family, and Faith, a collection of fifty food-related stories plus some of his favorite recipes. The signing is at 2 PM at the Webster Place Barnes & Noble.

Osteria Via Stato's Sultry Summer Wine Fling on Wednesday is already sold out, but if you've got your heart set on sipping Italian wine and munching hors d'ouevres with master sommelier Alpana Singh and advanced sommelier Adam Seger, now might be a good time to make reservations for the next "20 for $20" wine tasting, on September 19 at 5:30 PM (or for the October 17 or November 14 dates).

If you can't wait that long to taste a couple dozen wines at once, Mon Ami Gabi has a tasting of 25 French wines for $25 (not including tax and tip) this Monday from 6 to 8 PM. Reservations are required.

And if 25 wines still isn't enough, try 30 wines for $30 this Tuesday at the Tasting Room at Randolph Wine Cellars, 6-8 PM. This month's theme is Goin' Green, and will focus on wines and winemakers that support biodiversity as well as organic and sustainable vineyard and wine-making practices. Reservations are highly recommended.

Chicago Culinary Adventures, a new social group "for those who enjoy food, wine, and culture" created by Get A Life! In the City, kicks off with a screening of Amelie at Alliance Francaise from 6:30-9:30 PM Thursday. The $45 ticket ($35 if booked in advance) includes wine, appetizers, and a goodie bag; for reservations call 1-800-495-6038.

Fox and Obel hosts a free tasting of Tallgrass Beef, "the new health food," from 5-7:30 PM this Friday. Mark De Moss of Tallgrass Beef will be on hand to explain the benefits of grass-fed beef, which in the last year has made headlines from the New York Times to the Chicago Sun-Times for its sustainability and superior taste.

Bastille Day is cause enough for celebration at several local restaurants this weekend, though commemoration of the French revolution may well get lost amid all the live music and champagne (especially if you try to hit multiple events):

• Marché starts off a day early with a Bastille Day Garden Party on its patio from 6-8 PM on Friday. Champagne, martinis, and an appetizer buffet (plus the special ambiance created by servers dressed as can-can dancers and French maids) will run you $45 per person; reservations are required.
  
• Pops for Champagne celebrates on Saturday from 3-6 PM with a French sparkling wine and champagne festival in the courtyard of Tree Studios (behind the Pops space), featuring live music. A selection of French cheeses and bistro-style small plates will accompany a tasting of dozens of French sparklers. Entrance is $40 at the door.
• From 2-4 PM on Saturday, Bistro 110 hosts an Alliance Francaise reception featuring an open bar, hors d'oeuvres, and French songs by cabaret singer Claudia Hommel. The cost is $15, and the bistro is also offering a dinner special: all entrees will be $17.89 (the year the Bastille was stormed).
• Saturday evening, Cyrano's Bistrot will have live music by Chicago violinist Jovan Mihailovic to accompany a $40 four-course prix fixe dinner.
  

Monday at 6:30, world-renowned pianist Lang Lang performs at a Republic Pan Asian Restaurant & Lounge benefit dinner for Children's Memorial Hospital. At 25, the acclaimed musician has a solid 22 years of experience under his belt, not to mention a Golden Globe for his solos in the score of The Painted Veil and his name on a line of Steinway pianos designed for children. A $200 ticket gets you access to the second floor, where Lang Lang will perform and a 5-course dinner will be served; for $80 you can attend the cocktail and hors d'oeuvre reception on the first floor while watching a live telecast of the events upstairs.

Oyster Fest at Fiddlehead Cafe begins at 6 PM Wednesday on the cafe's outdoor patio. Fresh oysters will be available a la carte or as part of a $38 four-course prix fixe menu featuring oysters poached in champagne and the chef's version of Oysters Rockefeller. Reservations are required.

Also on Wednesday, the Japan America Society of Chicago hosts a presentation and book signing of The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy with author Sasha Issenberg from 6-8:30 PM. Sushi, appetizers, and drinks from Kamehachi will be served; tickets are $30 for non-members, $20 for members.

All the action is at your nearest backyard grill this weekend, but here two notable events for tonight and one for Tuesday.

This evening at 6 food scholar Anthony F. Buccini, he of mad carbonara skillz, gives a talk entitled Beside the Hallowed Olive Tree: The Greeks and the Early History of Olive Oil at the  Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center , 801 W. Adams, 4th floor. It's $10.

Also at 6 PM the Alliance Francaise presents dinner and a movie, a cooking class and screening of the 1998 French comedy Le diner de cons (The Dinner Game), 54 W. Chicago. It's $55. Call 1-800-431-3309 for reservations.

NoMi's Tuesday night Cellar Notes series continues with an Italian wine tasting guided by sommelier Fernando Beteta. It starts at 5:30. Call 312-239-4030.