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Saturday, July 19, 2008,
6 - 9pm
Artesa Winery

For A View to the Future*
And
30th Anniversary Gala

The San Francisco Professional Food Society is 30 years old, and
We’re celebrating with world-class wines and panoramic views of
Carneros and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Come toast our vintage years, our vibrant present, and our bold and exciting future

A SFPFS BBQ for the new millennium

25
Master Class: An evening of Cupping Coffees
Wednesday June 25, 2008
6:15 p.m. Registration (limited to 17 people!)
6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Program

Please join the SFPFS for this insightful master class on coffee cupping. The class will be led by coffee expert, author, and co-founder of The Coffee Review, Kenneth Davids. The master class will include 2 coffee cuppings and an extensive discussion on roasting and cupping coffee. The event will be held at Pacific Bay Coffee Company in Walnut Creek.

APRIL
1
Stirring the Pot Wine and Food Pairing Myths
SOLD OUT

Magical combinations of food and wine are a great joy of the culinary world. But are there really “right” and “wrong” wines for a given meal? How do you determine what goes with what? Now that we’ve gone beyond “white wine with fish, red wine with meat,” do we have to memorize a bunch of new rules? Is this worth obsessing about? And isn’t everybody’s palate different, anyway?


MARCH

26
Book SIG meeting in San Francisco.  Featured book: Salt

10
Special Educational Program:
The Art of Making Gelato…Especially Chocolate
Presented by Malcolm Stogo, Guittard Chocolate & the San Francisco Baking Institute

Monday, March 10, 2008

Curious about making gelato for your business? Get a behind-the-scenes look at commercial gelato manufacture in this special educational program brought to us by Chef’s Table sponsor Guittard Chocolate Company. International ice cream expert Malcolm Stogo and Guittard staff will discuss the basics of gelato making, show how chocolate is used in gelato and demonstrate the San Francisco Baking Institute’s commercial Carpigiani freezers. Of course, samples will be enjoyed and questions answered


Sunday Lunch in the Wine Country
Sunday, March 2, 2008
12:30 PM
Ubuntu

Spend a lazy Sunday in Napa during mustard season and enjoy a special vegetable-only menu at Ubuntu Restaurant and Yoga Studio. Chronicle reviewer Michael Bauer claims Ubuntu “may just be the top vegetarian restaurant in the country.” Chef Jeremy Fox, formerly of Manresa, Charles Nob Hill and Rubicon, draws on the restaurant’s own biodynamic gardens and the bounty of wine country farms to create his dynamic menus. He promises Food Society members a menu to please omnivores and herbivores alike. Don’t miss this chance to dine at Ubuntu which the Chronicle calls the most exciting restaurant to open lately and which Food & Wine included on its 2008 Best Restaurant Dishes to Try list.



2008
FEBRUARY

6
SAVE the DATE
For our Annual General Meeting and New Members’ Reception!

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

California Culinary Academy, San Francisco

6:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Get the inside scoop from seasoned SFPFS member’s, catch up with old friends,

meet your 2008 SFPFS board, find out what we cooked up in 2007, hear what we have in store for 2008.




Charles Chocolates with Chuck Siegel
Thursday, February 21, 2008


Join us at Charles Chocolates in Emeryville as Chuck Siegel leads us on our own private tour of the production process and a guided chocolate tasting.

“Charles Chocolates aims to “de-mystify the art of making chocolate by providing a full view into our kitchen,” says Chuck. “By watching our chocolatiers make the chocolates from start to finish, visitors will gain a much deeper and richer understanding of how our chocolates are made.” Just as the restaurant industry created a deeper understanding and appreciation for food through the concept of the open kitchen, Charles Chocolates offers an extremely special, intimate, and comprehensive view into their “open chocolate factory”. Don’t miss it!




26
Wine Sig


JANUARY
23
The Future of Chinese Cuisine in the U.S.
A Panel Discussion with Albert Cheng, Nicole Mones, Alex Ong and Martin Yan;
moderated by Olivia Wu

In a year that will surely see China in the news, we speculate on the future of Chinese cuisine in the U.S. Is its lackluster reputation due to immigration problems, ingredient issues or, as Nicole Mones recently wrote in the New York Times, a relationship issue between mainstream American diners and talented Chinese chefs? As Chinese regional cuisine gains more attention in the homeland, will it ever trickle down? Or is it already here, waiting to be discovered and celebrated?


29
Cooking Teacher's SIG:  Our next meeting will be at Ramekins in Sonoma on January 29, 2008. Ramekins’ General Manager Lisa Lavagetto and Public Relations Mary Karlin will discuss the business of cooking teachers, classes and schools. A tour of the facility is included.

Attendance is limited and is expected to fill up quickly. To be added to the attendance list, or for more information, contact Rene.Matthew@comcast.net



2007
NOVEMBER
13
Wine SIG: Non-Champagne region sparklers

OCTOBER
29
Decoding Molecular Gastronomy
A Panel Discussion on modern cooking with Harold McGee, Elizabeth Thomas, Mark Dommen, Elizabeth Falkner & Daniel Patterson

Monday, October 29, Evening Time TBA | Ketchum Public Relations

Molecular gastronomy is one of the most misunderstood terms in today’s culinary world and one of the most incendiary. Just whisper “foam” to get a rise out of many Bay Area food professionals. Ferran Adrià of Spain’s famed El Bulli may be best known among practitioners, but Bay Area chefs like Mark Dommen of One Market, Daniel Patterson of Coi, and Elizabeth Falkner of Citizen Cake and Orson and have adopted aspects of this provocative cooking style that uses food additives and scientific equipment to prepare food in delightful (or terrifying!) new ways.



SEPTEMBER
4
Tasting SIG, 7pm, in Oakland.  Topic: Vanilla
Subsequent meetings will be the first Monday of every 3rd month.

JUNE

7
Feta Tasting
How do you silence 11 talkative SFPFS members at a food event? Display 15 different feta cheeses, hand them pencils and evaluation sheets, and expect them to select their favorite feta. The concentration of this group meeting on June 4 was impressive—most of us had never thought this seriously about feta cheese before, although admitted to wondering which we liked best when selecting French, Bulgarian, Greek etc.
Event Writeup

10
A table and a half of SFPFS members turned out to support The Bread Project’s first sold-out fundraising and “final exam” dinner at Old Oakland’s B Restaurant on the warm sunny evening of June 10.
Event Writeup

18
Wine Sig Rose Tasting
In spite of the cool evening fog of the Richmond district, the SFPFS Wine SIG met on June 18 to conjure up images of warm sunny afternoons sipping glowing pink wines, now enjoying a renaissance among wine enthusiasts.
Event Writeup

23
The Livermore Wine Country is

a) hot as blazes—they pretty much cook their grapes out there;
b) able to make decent white wines, but not reds; or
c) dead in the water—a region time has passed by.

The correct answer: “None of the Above,” as 20 Food Society members and guests learned in tasty detail Saturday June 23rd.
Event Writeup


MAY
21
Jacques Pépin joined Laura Werlin, SFPFS member and freelance food writer, in a lively conversation May 21 in the Fairmont Hotel’s Crown Room for our second educational forum, or Stirring the Pot, of the year.

Pépin was visiting San Francisco in honor of Chez Jacques: Traditions and Rituals of a Cook (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), his most personal book to date. In this lush, coffee-table-sized book, favorite recipes mingle with personal lore, photographs and Pépin’s own artwork to form an illustrated memoir.

Event Details
Event Writeup by Christina Mueller Welter



APRIL
22
Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Tour - History in the Hills

Nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains a mere hour from San Francisco, is one of California’s great winegrowing regions. These are the hillside slopes where Paul Masson raised the bar for California winemaking a century ago, and the home of Martin Ray, the legendary, mercurial wine pioneer of the 1940s and 1950s. Today dozens of top-flight producers inhabit the region. Besides their spectacular scenery, the Santa Cruz Mountains enjoy some of the coolest vineyard sites among California wine regions, perfect for intense Pinot Noir and dazzling Chardonnay; in warmer areas of the appellation Cabernet is king.

Join us and imprint this exciting area firmly on your personal wine map. We’ve arranged for some talking and tasting with three skilled and personable winemakers—Tony Craig of Savannah-Chanelle, Brian Caselden of Woodside Vineyards and Jeffrey Patterson of Mount Eden Vineyards, our hosts for the afternoon. Surrounded by land first planted by Ray, they will discuss the history of the area and the ins and outs of Santa Cruz micro-climates, then lead us through a tasting of their wines.

Event Details
Writeup by Tim Patterson

MARCH
14
Traveling Table
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
7:00 pm

A Chinese Banquet at Chef Chu’s
1067 N. San Antonio Road, Los Altos

Continue the celebration of the Chinese Year of the Golden Pig! Join the San Francisco Professional Food Society for a special Chinese New Year-style banquet at Chef Chu's acclaimed and recently remodeled restaurant in Los Altos. Chef Chu will prepare a special menu in honor of the occasion as well as speak to members about New Year’s traditions and how he has adapted them over the years to appeal to the American palate.



23
Food Tour:
Cowgirl Creamery in Pt. Reyes
The Art of Cheese Making

March 23, 2007
Cowgirl Creamery at Tomales Bay Foods

Tour nationally renowned Cowgirl Creamery and get up close and intimate with cheese! Our visit will include a brief history of the company and a discussion of its connection to West Marin and sustainable agriculture. We will walk through the cheese-making process, learn how to buy, store and taste cheese and have a hands-on demonstration. Then we will indulge in a complete tasting of Cowgirl’s fresh and aged cheeses. 


FEBRUARY

20
Lessons from a Master Taster: Darrell Corti
In conversation with Clark Wolf
Tuesday, February 20, 2007, 5:30 pm | Acme Chophouse

Described by Ruth Reichl as the man “who knows more about food and wine than anyone else in the world,” Darrell Corti, of Sacramento’s famed gourmet and specialty grocery store, Corti Brothers, joins Clark Wolf to discuss the principles of tasting that guide him in buying fine food and wine from Italy and around the world. Following their conversation, Darrell leads us in a tasting lesson of three products. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn from a true master!

Additional information coming soon.

24 Willie Mays Plaza (at SBC Park), San Francisco


26
Mark your calendars!  Dede Sampson has returned from a trip to Paso Robles and is loaded down with some delicious red and white bottles representing the fabulous terroir of the region.
This meeting will take place in the East Bay in the East Bay Oakland hills at 7pm sharp.
An email with more details will be sent soon, or write admin@sfpfs.com for more information.
Hope to see you there!