Entries associated with the tag "Kendall College":

The Festival of Cheese, one of just two events in the American Cheese Society's 25th annual conference and cheese competition that’s open to the public, takes place 5:30-9 PM Saturday at the Hilton Chicago (720 S. Michigan). It features tastings of more than 1,000 artisan and specialty cheeses from producers all over North America—among them Capriole from Indiana, Everona Dairy from Virginia, Redwood Hill Farm from California, Beecher’s Handmade Cheese from Washington, and Rogue Creamery from Oregon—plus wine, beer, and specialty foods. $85.

The American Cheese Society’s cheese sale from 10 AM-1 PM Sunday at Kendall College (900 N. North Branch) will have offerings from all the producers at Saturday’s festival at what it promises will be “rock-bottom prices.”

Prefer a little less cheese and a little more beer? Rock Bottom Brewery (1 W. Grand) hosts Curds and Ale II from 2:30-5:30 PM on Sunday, with 20 American artisan cheeses (many purchased at the sale) and 20 American craft beers from breweries including Three Floyds, Two Brothers, and Dogfish Head. The focus will be on pairings of clothbound cheddars (in the tradition of English farmhouse cheddar) with British-inspired bitters and ales and stinky cheeses with wild-fermented Belgian-style beers. $35.

Pastoral Artisan Cheese's Loop location (53 E. Lake) is hosting special events to coincide with the ACS's conference. On Thursday at 3:30 PM San Francisco Chronicle cheese columnist Janet Fletcher, a CIA grad, will be signing copies of her latest book, Cheese and Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying; cheese and wine selections from the book will be served. On Friday at 3:30 PM sample some cow's and goat's milk cheeses from Ann Arbor's Zingerman's Creamery; Zingerman's cheese maker John Loomis will attend. Both events are free. 

Slow Food Chicago hosts a four-course dinner 6 PM Monday at Uncommon Ground (1401 W. Devon) featuring fruit from Seedling fruit farm in South Haven, Michigan; each course is paired with a wine or spirit. Chilled melon soup with mint creme fraiche, for instance, comes with a shot of melon-infused North Shore vodka, while a terrine of red raspberry, black raspberry, and honey-vanilla bean gelato with peach puree is accompanied by a house-made honey-peach cordial fizz. There’ll also be a tour of the cafe’s rooftop organic garden and jazz by the Ted Sirota Trio. $65.

Evanston's Va Pensiero (1566 Oak Ave.) and the Land Connection host their Summer Abundance Dinner Saturday at 6:30 PM, featuring fresh produce from the organic and sustainable Henry's Farm, in central Illinois. The vegetarian three-course meal features a caramelized onion tart with Tallegio cheese, roasted garlic-hot pepper crostini, and a grilled vegetable napoleon with candied garlic and spicy beet puree; the cost includes wine service and an hors d'oeuvres reception. Henry Brockman, the farm's owner, will be selling produce at the dinner; his sister, Land Connection founder Terra Brockman, will discuss the group's efforts to promote sustainable farming in Illinois. Reservations required; 847-475-7779. $80. 

In Fine Spirits (5420 N. Clark) hosts a second Return of the Green Fairy tasting seminar, its celebration of absinthe's recent legalization, on Tuesday from 7:30-9pm. Sonja Kassebaum of North Shore Distillery will be back to discuss the mystique surrounding absinthe as well as its history and uses. Three types of absinthe--North Shore's Sirene Absinthe Verte, Kübler Swiss Absinthe Superieure, and Saint George Spirits' Absinthe Verte--and absinthe-based cocktails will be paired with tastings. $36. 

About 1,000 international cheese makers hit town this week for the American Cheese Society's annual meeting, where more than 1,200 cheeses will be judged. Wisconsin has always done exceptionally well in this competition, and this year promises to be no different, though Illinois cheese makers like Leslie Cooperband of Prairie Fruits Farm should make a strong showing. Much of the conference is closed to the public, but on Saturday, July 26, Wednesday, July 23, there's a "festival of cheese" offering tastings of the wares--it's $85. Better yet, on Sunday, July 27, after the conference closes,  Kendall College is hosting a cheese sale that's free and open to the public. Many of the cheeses represented at the judging will be on sale, and prices are reportedly quite low (so that vendors don’t have to ship their cheeses all the way back home).

Festival of Cheese, Sat 7/26,  Wed 7/23 5:30-9 PM, Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan, 502-583-3783, cheesesociety.org, $85

Cheese sale, Sun 7/27, 10 AM-1 PM, Kendall College, 900 N. Branch, 502-583-3783

"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.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society hosts a tasting of more than 60 rare single-malt scotches Thursday at 6:30 PM at the Union League Club of Chicago. The $120 admission fee ($105 for SMWS members) includes a dinner buffet  and premium cigars. Reservations required. 

Thursday at 6 PM, chef Christopher Prosperi of the Connecticut restaurant Metro Bis will prepare a three-course tasting and demonstration menu for Cooking With Heart II, a benefit for the Gerber/Hart library. It's at the Whole Foods Market on Halsted, and tickets are $50 per person.

The Royster with the Oyster festival at Shaw's Crab House kicks off Friday with a party at the Schaumburg location from 5:30-7:30 featuring free oysters with the purchase of any Goose Island beer. Oyster Week begins Monday at both locations with nightly oyster-slurping contests, live blues performances, and fresh cold-water oysters on the half shell ($11.95 a dozen, $6.50 for a half). The event culminates Friday, October 19, with a tent party at the Chicago location. From 3 to 10 PM live bands will accompany a shucking competition and the "National Championship Slurp-Off." The party's $10.

Saturday at 10 AM, the Chicago Foodways Roundtable hosts a talk at Kendall College on Learning to Cook in 1898: a Chicago Culinary Memoir, presented by author Eleanor Hudera Hanson and editor Ellen F. Steinberg. Part cookbook, part biography, the book recounts the efforts of a young Jewish housewife living in Chicago at the turn of the century to educate herself about cooking and nutrition. It costs $2.

Alphabet Jell-O, a Rice Krispie treat shaped like a high heel—anything’s possible at the Roosevelt branch library’s Tasteful Reading: Edible Books and Afternoon Tea, Saturday from 1-3 PM. All ages are invited to create an edible "book," which can be any food-based concoction inspired by a favorite novel, story, or poem. Participants won’t get to taste their favorites, but they can vote on them over tea and cookies. Register in advance to submit a design.

The Efferfest World Sparkling Wine Festival, Saturday from 3-6 PM at Pops for Champagne, features more than 30 sparklers from around the world as well as appetizers and Brazilian jazz by Trio Mare. It's $50 per person.

Lake Side Cafe celebrates its two-year anniversary Saturday with free samples in the afternoon, an organic vegan buffet from 6-8 PM, and live music and poetry readings at 8:30. Tickets for the buffet and performances are $18 in advance, $20 at the door.

The final cook-off for Ballo's Just Roll With It meatball contest is Sunday at 11 AM, followed by a public tasting and festivities at 2 PM.

Slow Food Chicago hosts an apple dinner Monday at 6:30 at Hot Chocolate. Each of the four courses features a different type of apple from Seedling Fruit and is paired with a Goose Island beer (even dessert). It's $65, not including tax or tip. 

Pastoral offers a class on unpasteurized cheese Tuesday at 7:30 with Judy Schad of Capriole, the Indiana producer of farmstead goat cheeses. 

Fulton's on the River marks the beginning of stone crab season with a four-course dinner Wednesday at 6 to benefit Chicago Parkways. Chef Rick DeLeon plans to go along on a crabbing expedition in Key West to personally choose the stone crab claws. The dinner costs $95 and includes wine pairings. 

Chez Panisse's Alice Waters, champion of local and seasonal cuisine, does Chicago:

• Today at 3 PM, she'll be at Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook for a sold-out book signing with appetizers served.
• She's signing her new book, The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution, at the Michigan Avenue Borders tomorrow at 7 PM.
• At 6 PM Friday, Waters is the featured guest at a reception and five-course dinner at Kendall College to benefit Slow Food Nation and Slow Food Chicago. Tickets are $150.
• Green City Market hosts her 9 AM Saturday book signing.
• At 11:30 AM Saturday, she'll attend a sold-out farm-to-table brunch at North Pond Restaurant. 
• And finally, Saturday at 2:30 PM Waters will give a talk and read excerpts from her new book at Northwestern University's Thorne Auditorium. Audience questions and a book signing will follow. Tickets are $10.

For its France vs. the Rest of the World showdown Thursday at 7 PM, the French Wine Society will select one French wine made from each of eight major wine grapes (e.g., sauvignon blanc, pinot noir, syrah) for comparison with a wine of that grape from anywhere else in the world. Wines will be selected from Chicago-area wine stores and retail for $25 (whites) or $35 (reds). Attendees will blind taste the wines, try to identify which is which, and vote for their favorites. It costs $55 for members, $65 for nonmembers.

Can you list the first-growth chateaus of Bordeaux? The Ultimate Wine IQ Challenge this Saturday and Sunday from 12-4 PM at Sam’s Wines & Spirits aims to separate the connoisseurs from the amateurs (no professional sommeliers allowed, though) with written and verbal tests, plus blind tastings, in three elimination rounds. It kicks off with tastings, games, and prizes, along with a written test for first-round contestants; the grand prize is a $1,000 Sam’s shopping spree. 

Swirl Wine Bar celebrates its one-year anniversary Saturday with a free cocktail and wine reception from 9-10:30 PM. There'll also be hors d'oeuvres and a flamenco performance by Ojos Gitanos at 10:30.

The craze for all things porcine reaches new heights Monday at Osteria via Stato with Swine & Wine, a prix fixe dinner at 6:30 PM introducing baconcello, a creation of wine director Adam Seger. Described as “indescribable, like an infused vodka that’s both smoky and a bit sweet,” it will be served as an aperitif to a five-course meal with wine pairings. Featured items include pork confit crostini, Italian pork sausage with black lentils, risotto with house-cured bacon, pasta with a wild boar Bolognese, and pork chops from Gunthorp Farms. Apparently--thankfully--there’s no pig in the dessert, an almond cake with wine-poached pears and vanilla gelato. It's $69 a person.

The Chopping Block celebrates Saveur magazine's first-ever issue devoted entirely to Chicago with a hands-on tasting event at its Merchandise Mart location Wednesday at 6:30. Saveur editors and cooks featured in the Chicago issue will do cooking demonstrations of recipes from the issue, which will be available for tasting, as will wine and Goose Island beer. Tickets are $60; part of the proceeds will go to the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Gourmet market owner Sara Foster discusses Sara Foster's Casual Cooking, her third cookbook, Friday at noon at the Book Stall.

Friday at 8 PM, the Architrouve presents Synaesthesia, a wine, music and visual art happening for which sommelier Jeremy Quinn will pair wines to the music of sax player Frank Catalano, who will in turn match his music to the gallery's current exhibition, "This Side of Hope." Tickets are $40; reservations are recommended.

Saturday at 10, Culinary Historians of Chicago presents "Greektown in All Its Glory," a talk by Alexa Ganakos at the Chicago History Museum. It includes a food tasting, and Ganakos will sign Greektown Chicago: Its History -- Its Recipes; admission's $5 for the general public, $3 for students, and free for CHC members.

The Whole Foods FlavorFest is this Saturday from 11 AM to 9 PM and Sunday from 11 AM to 8 PM in Jonquil Park. It boasts "more free samples than you can shake a stick at," though "free" may be an overstatement -- there's a $5 suggested donation to benefit the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce. In addition to the food, there are cooking demos, an eco-chic fashion show, live music, an farmers' market, and a children's pavilion.

Kilbourn Park Organic Greenhouse hosts a class on organic pest and disease control for your vegetable garden on Saturday from 10 to noon with the greenhouse's own Kirsten Akre and Angela Mason of the Chicago Botanic Garden. The fee is $20; registration highly recommended.

Crust hosts a family dinner Sunday from 4-6 PM to benefit Purple Asparagus, a non-profit organization "dedicated to bringing families back to the table." There'll be a live auction for a guest spot on the webcast Spatulatta and silent auctions for several more prizes. Tickets for adult members are $45, $50 for non-members; kids' tickets are $10 for members and $12 for non-members; kids under 5 are free.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum's "Rebirth of the New Orleans Restaurant Industry" exhibit opens Monday at Kendall College and continues through September 21. It "explores the scope of devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans' restaurant industry...and the importance of this industry to the recovery of the city's economy, culture and singular cuisine."

My new review of the Dining Room at Kendall College is up on the Reader Restaurant Finder--finally. A teaching restaurant staffed entirely by advanced students in Kendall's culinary and hospitality programs, it's been on my list of places to check out since April, when I spent some time hanging around the cooking classes for a story (pdf) about the school's remarkable turnaround. The full-service white-tablecloth restaurant has been getting high praise from Raters since it opened in early 2005, and judging by Thursday's dinner, it's well deserved. 

The restaurant closes for winter break, along with the school, this Wednesday, but reopens January 8 with a new menu for the new quarter. A word of caution: reservations are harder to come by than you'd think, as the dining room only serves from noon to 1:30 at lunch and 6 to 8 at dinner (till 8:30 on Saturdays, closed Sundays).