Entries associated with the tag "Prairie Grass Cafe":

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. 

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.