Category Archives: Enticing Events

Events To Drink To

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Renowned restaurateur and winemaker, Joe Bastianich, comes to San Francisco. (Photo courtesy of Joe Bastianich)

Restaurateur (with Mario Batali), son of Lydia, winemaker, and author, Joe Bastianich will hold court in San Francisco May 20 for two delicious events.

First up, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Bastianich (whose restaurants include Del Posto in New York; B&B Ristorante in Las Vegas; and Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza, both in Los Angeles) will host a talk, tasting, and book signing at Spuntino di Ottimista on Union Street in San Francisco.  Enjoy tastes of his wines from the Bastianich and La Mozza labels, as he signs copies of his book, “Vino Italiano” (Clarkson Potter). Price for the event is $20.

Next, join him at Ottimista Enoteca-Café across the way. This wine dinner also will feature Chrystal Clifton of Palmina, the Santa Barbara winery that specializes in Italian varietals.

This is a six-course dinner, in which every course will be paired with a Bastianich and a Palmina wine of the same varietal. Price is $100 per person.

An array of fresh shellfish at Waterbar. (Photo courtesy of Val Atkinson)

On Monday nights at San Francisco’s Waterbar restaurant, indulge in the “Shellfish & Champagne” special. For $60 per person, enjoy a three-course prix fixe dinner featuring shellfish, and accompanied by three sparkling wine selections. The menu will change weekly.

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Free Scoop Day

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(Photo courtesy of Haagen-Dazs)

Drop by any participating Haagen-Dazs store, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 12, for a free scoop of any “bee-built” flavor.

Don’t worry, that’s not ice cream with bees mixed into it. Rather, it’s ice cream flavors made with ingredients that bees help pollinate.

As you may know, one in three bee colonies in the United States has mysteriously vanished over the past few years. Bees are essential to our food supply, as they are responsible for pollinating one-third of it.

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Duckathlon Leftovers

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Following the trail of the ducks.....

For those who couldn’t get enough of the wild and woolly Duckathlon held last Sunday in New York, here are a few more pics to entertain your peepers.

As you recall from my original post on the crazy event, this was the fifth annual Duckathlon, hosted once again by D’Artagnan. Teams of chefs from some of New York’s most celebrated restaurants competed in the most off-the-wall events ever conceived to garner the title of Top Duck.

The Pluckemin Inn’s sardonic T-shirts:

The BLT Steak team attempts to “Put the Piggie Together Again.”

Team DB Bistro Moderne competes in “What the Fork?” — in which chefs have to make mayonnaise by whipping oil and egg yolks with a barbecue fork. Yeah, you try that at home.

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Scenes From New York’s James Beard Gala

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Women chefs in the opening parade of chefs.

Monday night, the country’s most celebrated chefs traded their whites for black-tie (though Mario Batali still wore his trademark orange clogs) for the Oscars of the food world, the James Beard Foundation Awards.

Renowned chefs and big-name cookbook authors walked the red carpet leading up to Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. As the lights dimmed, a bevy of the country’s most talented women chefs took their bows in a salute to this year’s theme, “Women in Food.”  As they retreated back to the lobby to finish prepping the show-stopping food they would be serving after the ceremony, co-hosts, actor Stanley Tucci, restaurateur Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, and a very pregnant Cat Cora  of “Iron Chef America” took the stage. Cora, who is expecting a baby boy any day now, joked she had been craving chocolate big-time lately.

Celeb Chef Mario Batali.

As a judge for the cookbook awards this year, I was invited to be a guest at this year’s festivities.

The Bay Area contingent applauded ecstatically when the first big award of the evening was announced: “Rising Star Chef Award” for the most promising chef of the year under age 30. It went to Nate Appleman of A16 in San Francisco.

An elated Nate Appleman of San Francisco's A16.

Chef Douglas Keane of Cyrus in Healdsburg took home the “Best Chef Pacific” award.

A victorious Douglas Keane and his wife, Leal.

San Francisco’s Yank Sing restaurant was honored with “An American Classic” award. Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York pocketed the “Outstanding Chef” award. Jean Georges won the “Outsanding Restaurant” honors.”

Jeans-Georges Vongerichten accepts his award.

Best New Restaurant” went to the impossible-to-get-into, 12-seat Momofuku Ko in New York.

David Chang of Momofuku Ko. (center)

Daniel Boulud’s chic Daniel restaurant won for “Outstanding Service.”

Daniel Boulud (center).

Gina DePalma, pastry chef of Babbo in New York, had been nominated six times before and come away empty-handed.

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Duck, Duck, Chefs

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The Fifth Annual Duckathlon

Over the years as a food writer, I’ve had the pleasure of judging many a food competition.

I’ve critiqued a gingerbread house contest, untold cookie exchanges, an apple pie baking battle (twice), a nursing home food cook-off, the short-lived TV series “Food Fight,” and even the $1 million Pillsbury Bake-Off.

But nothing quite prepared me for the Duckathlon.

Say what??!

My thoughts exactly.

Like me, you probably haven’t heard of it because it’s super secret. Indeed, this only-in-New York rencounter is by invitation-only. As a food writer in town for the James Beard awards gala, I was invited to be a part of it. I was told I couldn’t tell anyone ahead of time that I was involved with it. I was just supposed to report to HQ (“headquarters” to you non-James Bond-ians) at mid-day May 3. It was all so hush-hush.

HQ turned out to be Chelsea Market. And if you haven’t guessed by now, the Duckathlon is a culinary competition — if Monty Python or Ben Stiller came up with it.

Team Le Cercle Rouge, last year's grand champions get into the spirit.

This rather bawdy, zany, tongue-in-cheek event was created by Ariane Daguine of D’Artagnan, the foie gras and specialty meat purveyor. Teams of chefs from some of New York’s most celebrated restaurants don wacky costumes to pit their culinary skills against one another in all manner of crazy contests staged throughout the Meatpacking District. Trust me, you’ve never seen the likes of this.

Le Cirque team member participating in "flock around the clock'' obstacle course while balancing plastic duck on a spoon.

This was the fifth year of the Duckathlon. The first one was held on a lark in 2005 as a way to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary, and to foster relationships with restaurants. It proved such a hit with chefs that it’s been held ever since. Because after all, chefs are the ultimate competitors. They are warriors in whites. They are a force to be reckoned with. And if beer is at all involved, you can count on them being there.

So did these teams prepare for hours and hours in the kitchen beforehand?

Not exactly.

“I didn’t train at all,” says Chris “The Wedge” Lim, chef de cuisine of BLT Steak. “We’re all still drunk from the night before.”

“I did push-ups and sit-ups,” says Lauren Hirschberg, chef de cuisine of Craft Bar. “And 30 minutes of cardio.”

“I was speaking to ducks a lot,” quipped (or quacked) Thea Williamson, head of work in education for Team Gracie.

Don't try this at home.

One of the most memorable challenges was “So Long, Saucisson.” Above, Celso Moreira, operations manager, of China Grill, wears a bra and hoop skirt, while trying to dunk a sausage suspended from a string into a metal can below that he can’t see. He was a natural at it.

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