Eat Drink Read
WHEN: May 13, 5-8 PM
WHERE: Green Acre Campus Pointe, 10300 Campus Pointe Dr.
Eat.Drink.Read is the annual fundraiser for the San Diego Council on Literacy. A phenomenal cause, but often good causes have lukewarm concepts. This has been a great one. Chefs cook meals based on their favorite books. Too many chefs to mention, but a few include Drew Deckman (Deckman’s en el Mogor), Brian Malarkey (Searsucker/Green Acre), Matt Gordon (Urban Solace), Jason McLeod (Ironside), Karen Krasne (Extraordinary Desserts), etc. Baja Wines & Food, Green Flash Brewing, Stone, Ballast Point, Café Moto, etc. will provide beverage.
COST: $75-$150
James Beard Weekend
WHEN: May 29-31
WHERE: Lodge at Torrey Pines
This weekend is a mini Super Bowl for people who love food. Fewer than 10 female chefs in the US hold a Michelin Star, and one of them will be cooking all weekend at The Lodge. The other chef beat Bobby Flay on “Iron Chef America” and cooks at one of the best restaurants in Arizona. The third chef is one of the city’s and country’s best, and one of the first in San Diego to pioneer tip-to-tail and farm-to-table eating. Those chefs are Carrie Nahabedian (of Chicago’s NAHA), Beau MacMillan (Food Network star and chef of Sanctuary Resort) and A.R. Valentien’s Jeff Jackson—and for this weekend they will basically recreate what it’s like to dine at the James Beard Foundation’s famed house in NYC. (Only, even better, it’s under the sun at the Lodge’s famed property on the coast). The plans include a Friday night cocktail reception and dinner at A.R. Valentien, breakfast at The Grill, a daytime tour of Point Loma farms on Saturday, a five-course farm-to-table dinner with MacMillan and Nahabedian featuring wines from Nickel & Nickel and Far Niente, and then a Sunday brunch on the Arroyo Terrace overlooking the 18th hole at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Packages range from $1,350 to $1800. Rarely do you get three chefs of this caliber, all hunkered in the same spot, cooking for an entire weekend. A staycation for your mouth.
COST: $1,350 to $1800
Ironside “Chef’s Catch Series”
WHEN: June 2, 6 PM
WHERE: Ironside Fish & Oyster, 1654 India St., Little Italy
Ironside is one of my top restaurants on this year’s “Best Restaurants” list, and their 2-star Michelin chef Jason McLeod is inviting some buddies to San Diego to cook with him for the next few months. The idea is stellar, too. The chefs will take a fishing trip off the coast of San Diego and Baja. Whatever they catch, they’ll bring to the restaurant and cook for a family-style feast. The first in the series is Andrew Gregory from the Woodsman Tavern in Portland, Oregon—named one of Bon Appetit’s “50 Best Restaurants” in 2012 and Food & Wine’s “Best Bar Food in the U.S.” in 2013. There is no advance menu, since it depends on what they haul fresh out of the water.
COST: $59
The Best Food & Drink Events This Month: May-June 2015
Beau MacMillan, James Beard Weekend
