After a year of tinkering, Sprinkles Cupcakes has unveiled its new vegan and gluten-free versions of the Red Velvet cupcake, its best-seller.

Chef Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles, makes the vegan ones with all-natural soy milk, tofu-based cream cheese and coconut oil. The gluten-free one is made with gluten-free flour and topped with a thick layer of the usual cream cheese frosting.

Find them now at all Sprinkles locations.

Word is that competitor, Kara’s Cupcakes, also is working on vegan and gluten-free cupcakes. Stay tuned….

“Top Chef” fanatics will want to know that Season 6 contestant, Laurine Wickett, will be cooking dinner at Coffee Bar Cafe in San Francisco this weekend, Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.

Wickett, whom some fans thought was sacrificed to keep popular contestant Jennifer Carroll on the show longer, is the chef-owner of Left Coast Catering in San Francisco. She will be cooking a three-course dinner for $35; or $55 with wine pairings. Dishes include cauliflower soup with smoked  potatoes and truffle oil; and panna cotta with citrus compote.

To reserve a seat, call (415) 551-8100 or email: LWickettatcoffeebar@gmail.com.

Brewski — and lots of it — will be showcased at the second annual “San Francisco Beer Week,” Feb. 5-14.

Learn why the Bay Area has become a hotbed for artisan beer-making. Indeed, California has more than 200 breweries and beer companies, the most of any state. Eight of those breweries are in San Francisco.

A bevy of tastings and galas will be held at various venues throughout the Bay Area. Click here for a complete schedule.

Another Pinkberry fro-yo shop has opened in the Bay Area — this one at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.

Look for it between Bloomingdale’s and Ralph Lauren.

San Francisco’s Waterbar invites you to try its new “Happy Hour,” 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

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OK, how cute is this little oinkster?

If you’re at all squeamish about seeing animals being raised ultimately for the dinner table, you might want to stop reading now. But if you’re like me, and believe it’s important to know that our proteins actually were once whole, living, breathing animals before they ended up shrink-wrapped in select cuts in the supermarket, then I hope you’ll appreciate knowing a little more about the artisan ingredients going into this year’s fifth annual ”Pigs & Pinot” extravaganza at the Hotel Healdsburg in Healdsburg.

Chef Charlie Palmer of Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg and his staff once again are overseeing the epicurean event, March 19-20. Proceeds will benefit Share Our Strength and local Healdsburg educational organizations.

If you’re thinking about joining the festivities, you’re late to the game, unfortunately. For the first time ever, the event sold out within the first half hour that tickets went on sale. But that’s what happens when you have the hoopla of  Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” added to the mix. Although the event usually attracts mostly locals, organizers were pleasantly surprised this time to see folks from the East Coast, Atlanta, and Seattle eager to buy tickets.

Besides great Pinot Noir producers from California and around the world, Palmer will be joined by “Top Chef” finalists, fan-favorite Kevin Gillespie (of Woodfire Grill in Atlanta); and Bryan Voltaggio (of Volt restaurant in Frederick, Md.), who narrowly lost the title to his younger brother Michael Voltaggio (of the Dining Room at the Langham in Pasadena). Gillespie will be creating a cold appetizer for the ”Pigs & Pinot” gala dinner, and Bryan Voltaggio will ply his skills with seafood for another course.

Food Network star Tyler Florence and Roland Passot of La Folie in San Francisco will round out the mix in the star-studded kitchen.

I had a chance to learn more about the preparations when I was invited up to Healdsburg last week with a couple of other food writers. On a rainy morning, we loaded into the back of Palmer’s truck to visit the two heritage Gloucestershire pigs he was raising for the event. It’s the first time he’s raised his own pigs for the event. Others used for the event will come from a farm in Missouri.

“Chefs are always talking about wanting to get back to the earth. You can’t get any closer than this,” he says. The two pigs are fed vegetable table-scraps from the restaurant, and will switch to an all-acorn diet for the last three weeks before their slaughter.

The two pigs, which Palmer purposely didn’t name, will grow to about 170 pounds each. They are being raised at the biodynamic-certified Quivira Vineyards and Winery in Healdsburg, which also grows specialty produce — everything from arugula to Swiss chard to apples to raspberries — for Dry Creek Kitchen and seven other restaurants in the area.

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Since opening last year, Executive Chef Michael Chiarello’s Bottega restaurant in Yountville has racked up accolades and crowds galore.

After being invited to dine there recently for the first time, I can understand why it’s won so many foodie fans so fast.

The large restaurant is done up in dark reds, browns and greens. Venetian plaster, Murano glass chandeliers, leather chairs and deep hued wood accents give it a most inviting warmth.

Little touches give the place even more distinctiveness from the hammered copper water tumblers to the parade of plateware that arrives throughout the dinner — from homey, floral china to rustic earthenware to modern square and rectangular dishes.

Prices range from $6 to $14 for appetizers, $15 or so for pasta, and $16 to $29 for entrees.

Chiarello came by to say hello, as he often does to patrons as he makes his way through the dining room, which is always bustling. The charming chef offered to let his kitchen just cook for us. And an array of dishes began to arrive.

From his early days as the opening chef of Tra Vigne in St. Helena to his years as the star of the “NapaStyle” cooking shows, Chiarello’s always been known for bold, brash flavors that excite and satisfy. Bottega is no different.

Up first was a silky duck liver pate with soft, sweet sauteed apples and a hillock of parsley and frisee, a nice counterpoint to the fantastically fatty nature of the dish.

Next, a special that night of bigeye tuna done crudo-style — sashimi-like with a topping of pine nuts and pear — and served dramatically on a slab of pink salt.

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Fans of Bravo TV’s wildly popular “Top Chef” show will want to head to the Purcell Murray Culinary Amphitheater in Brisbane, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Dec. 8.

Former Bay Area contestants, Jamie Lauren, Jennifer Biesty and Ryan Scott will be on hand to do cooking demonstrations and signings of the book, “Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook” (Chronicle Books).

What’s more, you can enjoy sips of the new Top Chef Quickfire Wines (hmmm, wonder how well those go with vending machine fare?).

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Six hundred food fanatics turned out last weekend in Bluffton, S.C. for the third annual “Palmetto Bluff Lowcountry Celebration.”

Yours truly was among them, having been invited to partake in the feasting of all things Southern.

After all, who could pass up a chance to watch Food Network star Tyler Florence and a bevy of the South’s top chefs prepare oyster stew, shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, fried catfish, fried chicken, fried shrimp, tater tots fried in duck fat, pulled pork sandwiches, and a mountain of crawfish.

Um, did I mention a lot of the food was fried? Hey, it’s the South. Don’t even bat an eye.

This was the third year of the festival, which is held at the posh Inn at Palmetto Bluff, a residential and recreational community on 20,000 acres, about a third of that set aside in perpetuity to remain undeveloped. Once home to 21 grand plantations, the area, about 20 miles northeast of Savannah, Ga., now boasts an inn with 50 upscale cottages, as well as rental homes and permanent homes.

You might already know that Florence is from South Carolina. What you might not know is that he owns a home at Palmetto Bluff, got married here, and that his brother, Warren, is the tennis pro here.

The festival included a day of cooking demos and tastings by chefs such as Donald Barickman and Donald Drake of Magnolias in Charleston; Chris and Idie Hastings of the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Ala.; Frank Lee of Maverick Southern Kitchens in Charleston; and Robert Stehling of Hominy Grill in Charleston.

The highlight for me was the finale — a bonafide oyster roast in a very secluded, woodsy spot on the property, where an elaborate fire pit was constructed.

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