The Dandelion Chandelier Luxury Food and Drink Calendar highlights global luxury food, wine and craft beer festivals in February 2018, plus the top five things you need to know in restaurant news to be literate when you meet up with your foodie friends. Eat, drink, sip and savor. For the rest of the Luxury Calendar, click here.
Culinary explorers of the world, you’ve got some tough choices to make this month: Peking duck in Manhattan? A pork-fest in Dallas or Sacramento? Or perhaps a beer festival in Belgium? Or you could get your calçot on in the outskirts of Barcelona. Personally, we’re leaning toward Charleston: warm weather, nice people and great food. Maybe we’ll see you there? Before you head out, check out our new feature, the top 5 things you should know in the world of restaurant news — it’ll ensure that you’ll be sufficiently literate to dish with your foodie friends at work and elsewhere. Bon appetite!
Five Things to Know in Restaurant News this Month:
1. The newly-reopened 40-seat restaurant Noma in Copenhagen took just 24 hours to sell out 10 weeks’ worth of reservations. Its set price is $370 per person, with an optional $180 per person wine pairing.
2. Ayesha Curry (aka wife of Steph Curry) recently opened International Smoke with Chef Michael Mina in San Francisco, and the barbecue restaurant is already garnering rave reviews.
3. Award-winning Italian chef Massimo Bottura is at the helm of the Gucci Osteria restaurant in the new “Gucci Garden,” a themed museum of fashion and design in the Palazzo della Mercanzia in Florence. The restaurant is surrounded by video installations, art, and – of course – a Gucci boutique.
4. Rap star Pitbull’s new South Beach restaurant is set to open this summer on Ocean Drive. iLove305 will include a main dining room, three VIP rooms, a private lounge and four bars.
5. The eagerly-awaited midtown Manhattan Peking-duck restaurant DaDong is officially open near Bryant Park. There’s an outdoor terrace and a bar that serves cocktails with ingredients like black-lava salt and coconut water. New York Magazine makes it all sound impossibly luxurious: “The house fried rice is tossed with Wagyu beef, and the chef’s signature roast duck comes with an optional supplement of caviar.”
Festivals, Fun Facts, and Fundraisers:
It’s kishû season! The sweet, diminutive tangerine-like citrus fruit is a product of Japan, and until recently has been nearly impossible to find in the US. Available only during the winter months, the season for the fruit is short – you’ll have foodie bragging rights if you serve them at your next dinner party. Churchill Orchard in Ojai, California is a great source.
The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina hosts Gourmet & Grapes at The Sanctuary, raising funds and awareness to support cancer research and patient programs at the Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina – Feb 1-4
Parisians observe La Chandeleur, a Catholic holiday celebrated 40 days after Christmas, known as la fete des crepes; traditionally, crepes were consumed to use up any extra wheat left from the prior harvest, plus they resemble the sun, celebrating the lengthening days – Feb 2
Taste of the NFL will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota this year on the eve of the Super Bowl; the annual fundraiser benefits organizations engaged in the fight against hunger – Feb 3
CoffeeCon, the “consumer coffee festival and coffee university” touches down in LA at The Reef with tastings, brewing gear demonstrations, and onsite classes for at-home baristas – Feb 3 – 4
The Bruges Beer Festival is reportedly one of the best beer festivals in Belgium, with more than 70 breweries and over 300 different beers; new beers are launched at the festival each year – Feb 3-4
The annual Montréal en Lumière winter festival celebrates performing arts, gastronomy, music, theater, dance and more; 500 renowned chefs, wine producers and other culinary speakers will be featured – don’t miss the Festival of Quebec Cheeses – Feb 22- March 4
Calçotada is a famous Catalan winter festival in northeastern Spain celebrating the harvest of calçot – a type of green onion somewhere between a spring onion and a leek. The festival comes along with a number of unusual food traditions, including pouring wine into your mouth from a great height – late January through late March
The Lemon Festival, or Fête du Citron, is held each year in Menton, France; the Menton lemon is a very bright yellow, elongated rather than round, and prized by chefs for its rich essential oil. The festival features lemon-themed parades and elaborate installations made from citrus fruit. During the festival, the lovely Biovès Gardens take on dazzling hues of yellow and orange – Feb 17 – March 4
At the annual Bacon Fest in Sacramento, California, chefs cook meat from organically fed hogs, and their dishes are accompanied by local craft beers. You’ll find bacon gelato, bacon salad, bacon ramen, bacon tater tots (what???) and even a Kevin Bacon tribute band performance – Feb 6-11
The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival, held annually in a lovely vineyard in New Zealand since 1985, is said to be the country’s longest-running wine festival – Feb 10
COCHON 555, a traveling culinary event centered on a nose-to-tail pork cooking competition, touches down in Dallas at the Four Seasons Resort and Club. Chefs from around the country come together with local farmers and prominent winemakers, distillers and brewers to showcase heritage breeds and farm-to-table menus – Feb 11
Gin Festival London at Wapping’s Tobacco Dock will feature tastings of more than 100 gins, as well as music, street food, a gin-based cocktail bar and masterclasses from some of the UK’s finest gin distillers – Feb 16-18
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival has raised more than $26 million to date for the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University (FIU). This year’s edition will feature more than 90 events, including signature soirées, parties and intimate dining experiences, tastings, demonstrations and more – Feb 21 -25
The Southern Foodways Alliance Winter Symposium: Narratives that Transform in Birmingham, Alabama is an annual event showcasing storytelling and how narratives about food shape our world and our worldview; the organization has issued a special invitation that sounds intriguing to us: “If you are a curious eater who wants to see and hear eight great stories about the dynamic American South, join us” – we’re in! – Feb 24
The Chocoa Festival is a two-day celebration of all things chocolate in Amsterdam, where visitors can sample new flavors with wine, coffee and craft beer at more than 75 stands; there will also be a discussion about what ‘sustainable chocolate’ means, and the kind of chocolate consumers can buy to make a sustainable choice – Feb 24-25
At Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, the annual C-CAP Benefit will honor José Andrés, chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup and minibar by José Andrés. The event will include tastings from over 30 of New York’s best-known chefs and a live and silent auction with once-in-a-lifetime culinary, culture, and travel packages. The event will raise funds to support C-CAP, a national non-profit that provides underserved high school students with education and career opportunities through the culinary arts – Feb 27
The Food Tank Summit series – the “think tank for food” – brings together some of the world’s most engaging food system leaders; each event features speakers in interactive panels moderated by top food journalists, plus networking and delicious food. The next one is in Washington, DC with the topic “Cultivating the Next Generation of Young Food Leaders” – Feb 28
At South Carolina’s Charleston Wine + Food, chefs, wine makers, artisans and other food professionals present tastings, demonstrations and events over five days – Feb 28 – March 4
And last but not least, Pancake Day (also known as Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent) is celebrated in London on Feb 28.
See all the February 2018 Events:
— The Arts
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