saturday9
At the Culinary Historians of Chicago event “Courting Le Cordon Bleu,” Kathleen Flinn, author of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School, discusses the history of Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and her experience as a student there. A ChicaGourmets lunch with Flinn, including recipes from her book, follows at Chez Joel (1119 W. Taylor, 708-383-7543). 10 AM-noon, Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark, 708-788-0338, rsvpchc@yahoo.com, $5 lecture, $69.50 lunch.
Green City Market officially reopens today at its outdoor location (it ran through the winter this year at the Notebaert Nature Museum) with a celebration at 9 AM. New initiatives include monthly ethnic cuisine festivals and a program to showcase heirloom fruits and vegetables and heritage meats. Other events this season include a series of festivals for strawberries, carrots, tomatoes, melons, and apples; the Localvore Challenge; and the Harvest Benefit. Tickets for the Chefs’ Barbecue, Thursday, July 16, from 6 to 8 PM, went on sale this week and are available at the market or the Spice House (1512 N. Wells, 312-274-0378). 7 AM-1 PM, south end of Lincoln Park, 773-880-1266.
monday11
Urban Belly’s Slow Food Dinner features duck and foie gras dumplings; short ribs with scallion-fried rice; Asian Bolognese with udon noodles, ground pork, and Chinese black beans; and strawberry-rhubarb pie. Each course will be paired with a Goose Island brew, including Naughty Goose, Matilda, and the new Belgian-style ales Sofie and Juliet. 7 PM, Urban Belly, 3053 N. Califorinia, 773-583-0500, $40.
To celebrate American Craft Beer Week—which kicks off today and continues through 5/17—the Drinking and Writing Brewery presents its third annual Beerfly Alleyfight, a mix of “homebrewed beer, homecooked food, and homegrown art” this Saturday (tickets tend to sell out early, so buy them now). Ten home brewers will bring beer and food pairings, and a local artist will interpret each entry “in an ass-kickin’, alleyfight way” in a boxing ring. The artists include Neo-Futurists Jay Torrence and Diana Slickman, dancer Mindy Meyers, potter Marla Seibold, and last year’s Best in Show winner, Eliza Burmester. Sat 5/16, 1-5 PM, Rock Bottom Brewery, 1 W. Grand, 773-968-2345, $30.
tuesday12
Chef Gale Gand will demonstrate pastry-making techniques and sign her latest cookbook, Gale Gand’s Brunch. 6:15 PM, Now We’re Cookin’, 1601 Payne, Evanston, 847-570-4140, nwcookin.com, $50.
wednesday13
Vera Videnovich of Videnovich Farms and Jody Osmund of Cedar Valley Sustainable Farm discuss their CSAs at a Q and A session at the Hideout; Videnovich offers small boxes of vegetables for $15 a week, while Osmond has a three-month deal with monthly boxes of meat and eggs for $255. 6-8 PM, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433.