More than a dozen Solano farmers and producers share samples of seasonal foods and suggestions on how to prepare them to enhance their nutrition and flavor. Spotlighting foods that hit their peak in the winter months, the program encourages chefs and home cooks to make the best use of citrus, walnuts, almonds, broccoli, endive, kale, squash, honey, herbs, vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Enjoy local wine and taste small bites prepared by well-known local chef, Daniel Bell.  Join award winningcookbook author and cooking instructor Marie Simmons as she combines local ingredients to create dishes that are delicious and healthy. Learn about the medical science behind the benefits of a Mediterranean diet from NorthBay Endocrinologist Dr. Deborah Murray.

Proceeds from this event will help fund School Garden grants which help local schools start and maintain vegetable gardens, encouraging Solano’s children to learn to love healthy foods.

 Tickets: $20 0nline/$25 at the door

This weeks theme is “At War” with

Literary Guest: Maxine Hong Kingston

and

Culinary Guest: Yasmin Golan

The theme “At War” is inspired by At War, a visual art exhibition on view in SOMArts’ Main Gallery through Feb. 29, which explores identities in conflict, ranging from ethnic, gender, and sexual identity to conflicts of artistic identity indicated by disparate processes, practices, and mediums.

Award winning Chinese author Maxine Hong Kingston will read a section on war and peace from her free-verse memoir “I Love A Broad Margin to My Life.” Yasmin Golan, an interdisciplinary culinary artist whose previous projects explore the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq through food, joins Kingston. Kingston will follow her reading with a short, on-the-spot writing exercise for the audience.

Get your ticket here.

Nigel has always been a farmer with great tenacity and spirit and even a diagnosis of cancer has not slowed him down. In a letter posted on the Eatwell website Nigel said, “I have everything to live for and quite frankly have only just got up to speed. I was asked by a doctor about my mental health, asking if my glass was half full or half empty. My reply was overflowing. I consider myself extremely lucky. I love what I do.” They are also offering fresh free food to others, whose family members have Eatwell CSAs, battling illnesses.

We love what Nigel does too, and we know that this is the time when we should come together and support him. Join us for this evening of delicious food, drink, camaraderie and community support. Get tickets here.

Can’t attend the dinner? Donate online in any amount and the funds will go directly to Nigel. CUESA will receive the funds via the online channel Crowdrise, and 100% goes to the Walker family.

In this interactive hands-on class, discover the next big food trend as Azalina shares specialties from her tribal village, Mamak, on the Malaysian coast of Penang. She grew up with her parents farming native spices in their backyard garden and learning to coax and enhance the nuances of each.

When Azalina moved to San Francisco with her husband, she began to rediscover and reinvent some of her favorite dishes. She started cooking the curries she remembered from her childhood because they were flavors that she wanted to pass on to her two children, even though they are growing up so far from where she was born. She called up her parents and had them ship her some of spices and solid palm sugar so she could keep up with her family and friends’ demand for the unique Malaysian flavors she was creating. Malaysian food is a unique combination of influences – most notably, Indian and Thai. Almost every dish uses over ten different kinds of spice and ingredients like coconut milk and chilies abound.

Join the class

Can’t make it to Cavallo Point? Catch Azalina at La Cocina on April 11th

I was lucky enough to attend a Slow Food event last week at Ristobar that reminded me how lucky I am to live in San Francisco and how easy it really is to eat meat in the right way.  The Fasciocco Brothers from Abruzzo, Italy held a demo on breaking down a whole pig into prosciutto, sausage, spiedini, and more.

As they expertly worked with the meat, Slow Food’s Lorenzo Scarpone interpreted and educated the audience on the Italian connection to the pig and the Zen of butchering.  While the demonstration was riddled with wisdom, I’d like to share 3 soundbites that got me thinking about America’s meat situation.

“An animal should only have one bad day” he started. The pig that day was from Stone Valley Farms where the pig’s happy life was reflected in the color and quality of the carcass lying in front of us. Even if you live in a Californian city, there is really easy access to fantastic farms that treat animals in a humane way. These farms need support from you.

Lorenzo continued to translate. “The head isn’t attached not because we thought you’d be scared, but because we have already prepared it for some sausages.” I was surprised at this statement. I’ve noticed in America there is this fear of seeing a whole dead animal. People can look at a steak or a rack of ribs, but once they need to literally face it as an animal, it becomes too much. I took it as a sign of San Francisco’s growingly progressive knowledge and attitude about butchery that the Italians didn’t see that trait in us as an audience.

We took a look at the loin of the animal. “Italians have a history of curing meat because a loin when fresh can feed a couple of people one night, but a cured lonza can feed 20 people, 5 times by slicing the flavorful salumi paper thin and serving in on bread. “ Everyone is saying Americans are eating too much meat. My solution: we should all just take a step back and consider what meat we should be eating. Then, learn new ways to prepare meat and take a look at the story behind the preparation. By considering all these things, we will eat smarter. Think about what you are eating no matter what you are putting in your mouth, but especially when consuming meat.  I’d like to thank organizations like Slow Food San Francisco and the Butcher’s Guild who are helping to shine light on good butchery practices. I urge every meat-eater to find one meat related class taught by a local artisan butcher and attend. If you can’t face a full-beast butcher class, attend a knife skills class or a lecture on meat practices in the US or abroad. It’ll not only change your life but can help change America’s meat policies.

Recommended classes/events:

Avedano’s holds monthly classes for all levels on the lost art of butchery, sausage making, and knife skills.

Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats is responsible for motivating me to learn more with his whole beast butchery classes. He also just released a new book, Whole Beast Butchery.

Fatted Calf holds a weekly informal happy hour frequented by ranchers, farmers and people coming to pick up their dinner. Drop by the butcher shop and watch the masters do their thing while enjoying a drink and some hor d’oeuvres.

CUESA regularly hosts talks about meat, raising animals and much more. (They also operate the Ferry Building Farmers Market where you can tastes the results of happy, healthy meats!)

Join 18 Reasons and local apiarist Robert MacKimmie for a class on the basics of sustainable and socially responsible beekeeping!

Beekeeping is not as simple as it sounds! Successful beekeeping is based on knowledge – knowing what decisions to make wisely, and when. While the bees themselves can skillfully navigate for nectar and pollen on their own, human management of their parasitic infestations, along with viral and bacterial diseases, has become the “life or death” determiner of colony survival. Beekeeping can be glorious, mostly focused on honey production, pollination, a wonderful sense of prosperity, the life-affirming diligence of nature’s best workers. If not well tended, losing a hive to mite collapse, mostly because of ignorance, can be traumatic.

This class you will learn:
1. The amount of time, location and equipment required for bees
2. Bee biology/ selection of bee stock
3. Where to buy and how to build equipment
4. Beeswax versus plastic in a hive
5. The phases of getting started, hive build up, management practices to avoid swarming, hive health, honey production and harvest.
6. Needs for Fall, Winter and anticipating Spring will be briefly touched on.

Learn to keep bees alive, healthy and prosperous – avoid being one of the many ‘Voodoo’ beekeepers who let them die, and then repurchase new bees every year. Learn what it takes to experience the joys of being a “beekeeper,” and not just suffering the sad fate of being a “bee haver.”

There will be a honey tasting to get our palates excited for some local sweetness!

About the instructor:
Apiarist Robert MacKimmie has successfully tended bees for 16 years. He manages 70 hives, mostly in San Francisco, producing neighborhood-based, micro-climate honeys for allergy sufferers, and spectacularly exquisite honeys for those who love one-of-a-kind nectars. He keeps six of his hives on the rooftop of Bi-Rite Market, available on their shelves just below the hives, which he labels with batch and jar number. Robert also sells his SF honeys at the Inner Sunset, Castro, and Larkspur’s Marin Country Mart Farmers’ Markets. He is an inspired instructor who conveys a highly-complex subject with clarity and enthusiasm. 7×7 Magazine notes that Robert is, “one of SF’s most highly regarded urban bee colony cultivators,” and MSN cites his reputation as, “San Francisco’s pre-eminent urban beekeeper.”

The Annual Food and Wine Event is hosted by the Culinary Arts Department of Contra Costa College, and features over fifty local restaurants and wineries. The popular sip and taste gala offers a delicious diversion with celebrity chefs, fine wines, artisanal chocolates and old fashioned food entertainment including a live auction, a designer cake walk and gourmet mystery bags. A silent auction will offer array of unique beverages, dining and culinary accessories.

The event funds study abroad scholarships sending promising CCC culinary students on a two week endeavor in Europe. Previous settings for the study abroad scholarships included a tour of China with Martin Yan and a two week educational journey with Italy’s prestigious Marco Polo Culinary Institute in Parma and more.

The proceeds support the Culinary Arts Management Department of Contra Costa College, which offers students from diverse backgrounds an otherwise unattainable, affordable, high quality, professional vocational training. Students are prepared to enter into the exciting careers in restaurants, hotels, resorts, bakeries and related culinary fields.

Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door. The entrance fee includes a souvenir wine glass. Advance tickets are available now at www.contracostabooks.com

visit the Food and Wine Event web site.

Feb 28th features Chef Jason Berthold of rn74.

The evening will kick off with a welcome Cocktail provided by Chopin and small bites of Dungeness Crab, and Sunchoke soup. Then the main events:

A Live Cooking Demonstration & Tasting of California Asparagus, Gold Beets, Comte, Black Truffle & Vin Jaune

and

A Live Interview where you will get to hear all the stories and experiences of how he got to where he is today!

Click here for tickets ($35)

During the April 26th class, you’ll celebrate the Best of the West: up-and-coming cheeses from California, plus showstoppers from Oregon, Washington State, Colorado and Utah.

Guests will be welcomed with an hors d’oeuvre and aperitif before sitting down for the guided tasting: seven cheeses in a range of styles with two appropriate wines.

For both wine-loving locals and Wine Country visitors, the classes offer the chance to taste with an expert. Fletcher is well known for her two bestselling books on cheese (Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying and The Cheese Course, both from Chronicle Books), as well as for her weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also the author of Cheese Plate, an iPhone app.

Tickets are $45 per class. For reservations, visit www.janetfletcher.com.

The April 5th Class will showcase the best artisan cheeses made East of the Rockies. Vermont is the star, but you can expect some memorable tastes from Wisconsin, New York and Virginia, too.

Guests will be welcomed with an hors d’oeuvre and aperitif before sitting down for the guided tasting: seven cheeses in a range of styles with two appropriate wines.

For both wine-loving locals and Wine Country visitors, the classes offer the chance to taste with an expert. Fletcher is well known for her two bestselling books on cheese (Cheese & Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing, and Enjoying and The Cheese Course, both from Chronicle Books), as well as for her weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle. She is also the author of Cheese Plate, an iPhone app.

Tickets are $45 per class. For reservations, visit www.janetfletcher.com.