The Art of Tea

Southern California tea connoisseurs, take note: The Fowler Museum at UCLA will present Steeped in History: The Art of Tea (August 16 to November 29), an exhibition on the history and culture of tea and its depiction in the arts in Asia, Europe, and colonial America (at right is a Japanese tea chest dating from the early 20th century).

Featured Event: Celebrating Suds

In celebration of Good Beer Month (so proclaimed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg), Edible Brooklyn will present Good Beer, an evening of beer and food pairings. Tastings include Gramercy Tavern's house beer paired with sausages; pork dumplings from The Good Fork with Blue Point Brewery Toasted Lager; Pennsylvania's Troegs Brewing Company Pale Ale and Vermont's Clothbound Cabot Cheddar; Widow's Hole Oysters from Greenport and Left Hand Brewing's Milk Stout; and Greenmarket vegetables paired with Allagash White. For dessert, taste "Dark Philosophy," a 61% chocolate ice cream beer, with cherries. The event will take place on Wednesday, July 29, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. [more details]

For more events this week and beyond, visit the complete Agenda Calendar. Know about an upcoming food and wine event? Submit a listing here free of charge.

Sake Tasting, Infused Grappas, and DIY Mozzarella

FEATURED EVENT
The Joy of Sake "Aftertaste"
An offshoot of the Joy of Sake event, "Aftertaste," taking place on Wednesday, July 15, will feature a tasting of 39 different kinds of sake. The event starts with a introduction by a member of the Kokusai Sake Kai (International Sake Association), followed by a 50-minute tasting and another sampling -- this time paired with appetizers. [more details]

Restaurant Week, Crab Boil, Cooking with Apples, and More

FEATURED EVENT: New York City Restaurant Week
New York City's summer promotion starts on July 12 and will last for three weeks: $24.07 prix fixe lunches and $35 prix fixe dinners at participating restaurants (more details).

MORE EVENTS THIS WEEK

Italy's Second Labels: A First-Rate Tasting
Sat, Jul 11, 2009, 1 p.m.
Italian Wine Merchants
(more details)

Crab Boil
Tue, Jul 14, 2009
Back Forty
(more details)

Bastille Day in Tribeca
Tue, Jul 14, 2009, 12 p.m.
West Broadway bet Walker & White
(more details)

"Chinese Characters for Chinese Food Lovers"
Tue, Jul 14, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
New York City.
(read more)

Read about more upcoming events

Gourmet for All

In years past, The Gourmet Institute -- Gourmet magazine's annual autumn weekend of food and wine demonstrations, seminars, tastings, and dinners -- may have been out of reach to food lovers who could not afford the big $1,400 price tag. But now, even epicurean plebes without deep pockets will have a chance to join in the fun.

For the first time, the weekend will no longer be available only as a package deal. Individual events are moving beyond the Conde Nast headquarters to a series of locations around New York City, and tickets for each event will be available "a la carte." Events throughout the weekend range from $20 to $300.

The 2009 event will also launch a "Gourmet Marketplace" featuring "local fare, artisanal tastings, wine & spirits pourings, celebrity chef book signings." Admission will be $20.

Did Gourmet make the change because the usually high-priced package was unsustainable in a recession? Not according to the event's publicists.

Jessica Aptman of the Susan Magrino agency told me via email that the decision to restructure the event was made more than a year ago: "Once they took the weekend of events outside the Conde Nast building and sprinkled it around NYC, it only made sense to offer the courses a la carte. Logic really dictated this change." However, she noted that "it is a nice byproduct to be able to make this event as accessible as possible during these tough times."

The Gourmet Institute will take place from October 23 to 25. More information at gourmetinstitute.com.

Food on Film, Big Apple Barbecue, and Craig Claiborne

FEATURED EVENT NYC Food Film Festival
Screenings for the third annual NYC Food Film Festival will take at three locations this year -- Astor Center and Water Taxi Beach will take place at three venues this year: Astor Center and Water Taxi Beach locations in Long Island City and South Street Seaport. The festival will feature everything from gastronomic feature films (Big Night) to documentaries about food producers like Joe York's Buttermilk: It Can Help, a profile of Tennessee dairy farmer and buttermilk evangelist Earl Cruze. The festival kicks off with an opening night gala at Astor Center on June 13 and continues through June 19 (details).

Gender and Cooking, Herring Happenings, and a Crab Boil

FEATURED EVENT Gender Confusion in the Kitchen
On Monday, June 8, Astor Center (399 Lafayette Sreet, New York) will present a unique event exploring whether men and women cook food differently. A panel of chefs, including Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea restaurant, will navigate their way through a 5 course, blind tasting and try to guess the gender of the chef behind each plate. Each course will consist of a dish prepared by a man and one prepared by a woman, starting with cocktails and ending with desserts. The audience will enjoy a debate on the role of gender and food, as well as cocktails, light snacks, and wine (details).

Pressure Cooker, Bad Boys, Restaurant Design, and Cheap Cheese

FEATURED EVENT "Pressure Cooker"
This new documentary film, showing from May 27 through June 4 at The IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue), follows three seniors at Philadelphia’s Frankford High School as they train to become chefs under the stern tutelage of Wilma Stephenson, "a legend in the school system" for her "blunt boot-camp method of teaching Culinary Arts." The directors of the film will be on hand for a number of the film's screenings, and they will be joined by  Stephenson and Chef Eric Ripert for a Q&A on Saturday, May 30th (details).

AGENDA AFIELD Bourdain and Batali
Anthony Bourdain and Mario Batali, alleged "bad boys of cuisine," will discuss the world of restaurants, chefs, and cooking at Seattle's Paramount Theatre on Saturday, May 30th (details).

TV Cooking, DBGB, and Offbeat Cheeses

FEATURED EVENT Watching What We Eat
How television cooking shows have "both reflected and shaped significant changes in American culture" will be the subject of a discussion presented by the Culinary Historians of New York. Researcher and librarian Kathleen Collins, author of the new book Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows, will lead the audience through the evolution of TV cooking programs from the 1940s to contemporary shows.The event will take place on Wednesday, May 20, at Astor Center (details).

All About Appetizing, Queens Cuisine, and Tribeca Eats

FEATURED EVENT: A Taste of Appetizing
On Wednesday, May 13, Mark Federman of the venerable appetizing store Russ & Daughters will share stories and noshes at an event at Astor Center. Learn about the culinary mecca and taste the shop's famous smoked fish and other specialties (details).