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Stuff to do: August 2008
• by Byron Kerman
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CLASSES, DEMOS AND TASTINGS
Chefs at the Market Cooking Demos
Aug. 2, 9, 16 and 23 – 10 a.m., Soulard Market Courtyard 314.622.4180 · stlcin.missouri.org/soulard
Remember those Spanish eggplants you bought at Soulard Market last week? Well, honey, they ain’t gonna cook themselves. Sometimes you need a little inspiration (other than the imminent spoilage of your produce) to turn the goods into the goodies. The Chefs at the Market demos feature chefs shopping for fruits and veggies and such at Soulard Market and then immediately cooking up their finds to inspire us in our own kitchens. This year is the 10th anniversary of the free event, and all the participating chefs hail from Soulard-area restaurants. Check out the skills of Chris Stein of Patty Long Catering (Aug. 2), Justin Keimon of Franco (Aug. 9), Dan Jameson of Lucas School House (Aug. 16) and Jack MacMurray of Sage (Aug. 23).
Kitchens with a Mission: Cupcakes! Hands-On Class
Aug. 30 – 10 a.m. to noon, L’École Culinaire
314.587.2433 · www.lecoleculinaire.com
Children understand the supernatural potency of these junior desserts, and it is children ages 8 and older who, with their parents, are invited to a cupcake cooking class at the intense backdrop of L’École Culinaire. Chef Nicole Shuman will instruct in the ways of mixing, beating, spatula-licking, baking, decorating and devouring. Students will even make filled cupcakes and a fancy tiered cupcake cake. L’École’s new Kitchens with a Mission program includes a variety of fun classes with 10 percent of the till going to a good cause – in this case, to Kids in Need.
FUNDRAISERS
Great Stone Hill Grape Stomp
Aug. 9 – 1 p.m. (registration recommended by 11 a.m.), Stone Hill Winery, Hermann · 800.909.9463
www.stonehillwinery.com
Pedicures are encouraged for participants in the annual Great Stone Hill Grape Stomp. Also, the foot pumice. Followed by the loofa. And maybe some Tinactin. Turns out, there’s no cause for concern – the grape juice stomped out of Herrmann’s finest grapes and collected in buckets will not be turned into wine. It will, however, be turned into charity, as the stomping and admission fees raise funds for River Bluff Industries, a sheltered workshop for the mentally and physically challenged in the Hermann area. The annual grape stomp is a cute reminder of how we did things thousands of years ago, before electricity, pasteurization and other trifles of civilization. The party includes prizes in a bunch of different age categories and live music.
Thirst for Life
Aug. 16, kickoff party – 7 to 10 p.m., Atomic Cowboy; Aug. 28, Thirst for Life, visit Web site for times and locations · 314.645.6451
www.stlefa.org
Thirst for Life, formerly Cocktails for Life, is one of the many annual charity nights at local restaurants that involve the simple act of eating out to raise big bucks for worthy groups. The key is the generosity of restaurants that dip into the night’s profits to make big donations, in this case to PAWS, Pets Are Wonderful Support, an organization that offers support to HIV-positive people so they can keep their pets. All you have to do is drink at any of the dozens of pubs and eateries, including Agave Mexican Table, Atomic Cowboy, Attitudes, Aya Sofia, Bad Dog Saloon, Baileys’ Chocolate Bar and the Billy Goat (and that’s just the A’s and the B’s). Visit www.stlefa.org for the growing list of participating destinations. A kickoff party, Take Me Out to the PAWS Game, is slated for earlier in the month at Atomic Cowboy.
Go Green, Give Green
Aug. 23 – 8 to 11 p.m., William A. Kerr Foundation Building (21 O’Fallon St. on the Riverfront)· 314.533.4541 · www.riverstyx.org
The new issue of locally produced, nationally renowned litmag River Styx includes a type of poem never before published in the journal: something called a recipe. Now, the recipe typically begins with a list of foods. Each food is preceded by a number and a unit of measurement. It’s all very cryptic. Then, in the expository, prose portion of the poem, a series of instructions are offered for handling the items in the list. Like Rilke’s Archaic Torso of Apollo, the recipe poem is an exhortation to change. If any further explanation is needed, simply heed the words of St. Louis-born poet laureate Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” The new River Styx, A Readable Feast, features poems, stories, essays and art about food, plus recipes. The party to celebrate the new issue is called Go Green, Give Green: Go Green because the festivities happen in the environmentally progressive William A. Kerr Foundation Building; Give Green because the admission and other moneys collected go toward a $10,000 matching-grant challenge. The feast is catered by Revival.
Kookin’ for Kids
Aug. 24 – 6 to 10 p.m., Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
www.saintvincenthome.org
The 17th annual Kookin’ for Kids is a charity blowout with more participating restaurants and local celebs than we have room to name. The St. Vincent Home for Children benefit features a fantastic line-up of about two dozen restaurants whipping up the specialties of the house right there and then for the donors. Oceano, Vin de Set, Fitz’s, The Melting Pot, Joanie’s, The Plush Pig, Seki, Sportsman’s Park and many more are in on the action. Guests enjoy silent and live auctions, live music and celebrity waiters. There are so many local-TV sports, weather and news personalities (Elliott Davis, Kent Ehrhardt, Heidi Glaus and so on) at this one, if a bomb went off, only Corky the Clown would be left to read the news. In a related story, St. Vincent’s shelters abused and neglected children, works with families to improve living environments for kids and provides special-education services.
TOMATOES!
Nature Sweet Best Homegrown Tomato Challenge
Aug. 16 – entries accepted from 9 to 11 a.m., judging at 11:30 a.m., Missouri Botanical Garden · 314.577.9400 www.mobot.org
Attention, Miracle-Gro nation: Your annual summer struggle to produce red, edible tomatoes and ward off the rabbits could be worth big bucks. The Nature Sweet company has ponied up two $2,500 cash prizes for the winners of the St. Louis-area tomato-growing contest – one in the large tomato category and one in the small. The prizes are given using the criteria of “sweetness and taste.” Only amateurs are eligible – commercial growers cannot compete. Expect a big line of dreamers with dirty knees at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Cohen Amphitheater on the morning of Aug. 16. Two people are going to walk away with enough scratch to buy chicken wire and wooden stakes for the whole town.
Tomato Ball and Fest
Aug. 16 – 8 to 10 p.m., Aug. 17 – 1 to 7 p.m., Iron Barley 314.351.4500 · www.ironbarley.com
Iron Barley leaves no stone unturned and no tomato unconsidered at this year’s gala Tomato Ball and Tomato Fest. The celebration of the in-season fruit kicks off with Saturday night’s Tomato Ball, featuring a tomato-centric buffet and live music by the Rum Drum Ramblers. Sunday’s six-hour Tomato Fest, also a benefit for Lift for Life Academy, looks to be another blowout with mouth-watering BLTs, local farms selling heirloom tomatoes and other goodies, a tomato art and poetry contest, craft booths, live music, raffles, kids’ activities, Bloody Marys made from fresh tomatoes, and freshly brewed and tapped New Belgium and Boulevard festival beers. All are encouraged to bring their dishes for the tomato recipe contest, which has previously honored tomato beer, fried green tomatoes and stuffed-tomato cupcakes. All are also welcome to enter the unusually shaped tomato contest. (Last year’s entrants included the ominous-sounding “the hemorrhoid” and “the twins.”)
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