SAUCE MAGAZINE
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Gardening Gurus Spring Talks at Bowood Farms
March 6 – 2 p.m., and March 10 – 6 p.m., Bowood Farms · 314.454.6868 · bowoodfarms.com
It has been suggested, by a cadre composed of equal parts heretics and rumbustious blowhards, that spring is just around the proverbial corner. Let us indulge these Pollyannas for the moment and consider the free gardening seminars at Bowood Farms. Stewart Clark is a man who believes in knowing the enemy. He schleps a live mole to his Unmole Your Garden talks and invites all comers to inspect the cute but pesky burrower (March 6). Fruit maven Alan Branhagen is the horticulture director at the new 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden at Kansas City’s Powell Gardens. His slide talk, Best Fruits for Your Home Garden, will get you excited about growing apples, peaches, cherries, lemons, limes and figs in Missouri soil (March 10). Head to bowoodfarms.com to learn about other free gardening classes, too.
Cooking Class With Jazz St. Louis’ Gene Dobbs Bradford
March 11 – 6:30 p.m., Beck/Allen Cabinetry · 314.289.4037 · jazzstl.org
Jazz St. Louis’ Gene Dobbs Bradford knows all about the syncopation and, it turns out, all about the mastication, too. The accomplished amateur cook is whipping up a spring feast starring (tentatively) hibiscus-marinated leg of lamb, goat cheese scalloped potatoes, asparagus sautéed with mint and crispy shallots, “possibly a salad and definitely a dessert,” he said. The entire attendance fee benefits the soul-elevating youth education programs of Jazz St. Louis.
Weekend Gardener Seminars
March 13 – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Gateway Center · 618.650.7050 · web.extension.illinois.edu/madisonstclair
Why didn’t we know that the University of Illinois College of Agriculture Extension offers an awesome array of gardening classes all year long? Well, now we do, and we’re excited about the full-day Weekend Gardener Seminars happening at the Gateway Center in Collinsville. Foodie classes, taught by an impressive group of experts, include Growing a Backyard Vegetable Garden, The Elusive Morel Mushroom, From Pots to Pots: Container Gardening and Cooking With Herbs, and Tomato Challenges. Preregistration required.
Urban Homesteading Film & Workshop Series
Starting March 15: Films – 7:30 p.m., Workshops – 9 a.m. to noon, Schlafly Bottleworks · 314.630.5910 · slowfoodstl.org
Brick City Gardens and Slow Food Saint Louis are teaming up to sponsor an ambitious lineup of organic home-gardening workshops and films. Starting this month, the Urban Homesteading series features free screenings of films including Homegrown, Mad City Chickens, Dirt! The Movie and Fresh. The workshops (which are not free) include No-Till Vegetable Gardening with Patrice Gros, Chickens 101 with Julia Weese Young and The Art and Science of Composting with Frank LeBeau, among others. Visit slowfoodstl.org for a full schedule.
Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts St. Louis Events
Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts St. Louis · 636.696.4850 · chefs.edu
Bonjour, mon ami. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a talking baguette named Pierre, and I am excited about my new French pals just across the Seine, I mean, the Missouri River. They are the local arm of the famed French cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu, and they welcome the public to a spate of fun events each month. In March, they are offering a St. Patrick’s Day Open House at which prospective students and the merely curious may tour the campus and sample Irish cuisine (March 13 – 10:30 a.m. to noon); an Artisan Breads class (March 20 – 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.); and a Sushi 101 class (also March 20 – 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.). Sounds like fun, non? And the sound you hear? Oh, that is my accordion. Tres bien, oui? What? You do not like it? Oh. Pierre will stop playing now.
Classes at the Wine Merchant
Various dates – 6 p.m., The Wine Merchant in Clayton · 314.863.6282 · winemerchantltd.com
You want reasonably priced classes on wine, liquor, cheese and so on? They got ’em at The Wine Merchant. Impress a date or convince your spouse you are not a sedentary object by dragging him or her to Best Buys Under $15: Spain, Hey Bartender!, Champagne Alternatives, Tuscany & Piedmont Reds: Italian Gems!, Wine & Cheese Pairing: Introduction, or Vintage Cocktails Part IV. And that’s just in the first two weeks of the month; countless others are offered through the end of March – that’s a lotta classes. Ladies and gentlemen, start your decanters.
ONGOING
STL Fish Fry Crew
Fridays through the end of Lent, various locations 314.772.3600 · groups.yahoo.com/group/STLfish
Steve Smith, owner of the Royale pub in South City, makes each year’s Lenten season a real pleasure. For a number of years now, he’s invited one and all to join him on the fish-fry circuit. Smith and a small group meet up at different churches or VFW halls each Friday to experience new flavors, fish and fellowship. The group will tentatively hit Epiphany on March 5 and St. Pius for its Irish music and chow on March 12 (join the group at groups.yahoo.com/group/STLfish to keep up). The wandering fish-fry posse offers a great way to experience new parishes and neighborhoods, have a beer or two, meet cool St. Louisans of all generations, make new friends and see how different ethnicities celebrate Lent.
Child-Free Lunch & Shopping
Fridays in March – noon to 2 p.m., Whole Foods in Town & Country · 636.527.1160 · wholefoodsmarket.com
“I want! I want! I want!” This is what it’s like to take your child to the store. You’ve managed to instill some good manners in the kid, and yet, this is his or her monologue every time you push a cart down aisles lined with colorful packages. Here’s a thought – every Friday in March, the Whole Foods in Town & Country offers two hours of free in-store babysitting while you shop. Whole Foods Kids Club Coordinator Diane Van Booven enraptures small groups of eight children with books, crafts, coloring, etc., in the market’s Whole Lifestyle Center. A healthy snack is provided, too. Call for reservations. Just think – you could sample some Stilton at Whole Foods’ formidable cheese counter without your child insisting on sampling some too and then spitting it on the floor. Nice, hm?
SPECIAL EVENTS
St. Louis Sweet Spots Discovery Tour
March 13 – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., starts at Missouri History Museum · 314.361.9017 · mohistory.org
Imagine, if you will, a magical tour bus that makes stops in Sugarland Village, where the flowers are chocolate, doughnuts grow on trees, and the rivers foam with root beer and vanilla ice cream. Now imagine St. Louis radio legend Johnny Rabbitt driving that tour bus and cracking jokes between stops at bakeries, ice cream shops and dessert emporiums. Wake up, children – the dream is real. The Missouri History Museum sponsors a St. Louis Sweet Spots Discovery Tour that starts with a preview of the museum’s new Bixby’s restaurant, including a sweet snack. Then the voyagers board the tour bus and head to Nadoz for a behind-the-scenes tour of the bakery. It’s on to the Carondelet Bakery, which dates back more than 100 sweet and sticky years. Then it’s time to head to Serendipity Ice Cream for a backstage tour of the operation, followed by lunch – and dessert, of course – at the venerable Cyrano’s. The next stop is Chocolate, Chocolate and More, and the tour winds up at a bakery on The Hill. Travelers enjoy a sweet treat at each stop, and Rabbitt shares stories of candy shops and soda fountains on the bus.
Teapot Flower Luncheon to Benefit Food Outreach
March 24 – 11:30 a.m., Deer Creek Club · 314.652.3663 x118 · foodoutreach.org
“America’s Flower Man,” Dale Rohman, will be stopping by a country club in Ladue to stuff teapots with flowers for ladies who lunch. Rohman, who appears regularly on HGTV, the Discovery Channel and NBC’s Later Today, will demonstrate how to transform teapots into unique, show-stopping floral centerpieces. Guests will be served spiked tea as they enter, and the lunch menu includes chicken piccata, asparagus, broiled tomatoes and a grilled pineapple ring with coconut ice cream and rum sauce for dessert. The proceeds benefit Food Outreach, which provides nutritional support to our low-income neighbors battling cancer and HIV/AIDS.
