Join the good people at Corner Table for the 5th Annual Jazz88 Restaurant Tour Late Night, this Saturday, November 21st. Chef Scott Pampuch will prepare a four-course dinner with wine pairings! It's a 9:30 p.m. seating, and it's limited to 40 attendees. Tickets are still available.  Please follow this link and read all about it.

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Minnesotan Todd Macdonald is the new chef at Cru in NYC. Todd’s parents Bob and Sue are two of the most committed supporters of the local food and wine scene that I know of, and they are ardent boosters of great food and chefs around the world. Their son is a talented young man who deserves this shot in a big way. His parents have been to more Michelin-starred restaurants than anyone I know outside our industry, and their blog can be found at andrewzimmern.com.

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Last weekend, I was at the Food & Wine Experience at the Kohler resort in Kohler, Wisconsin, about an hour north of Milwaukee. Make your reservations for next year now, and you'll thank me for giving you the early heads up on this Food & Wine Magazine-partnered event. Jaques Pepin, Ulrich Koberstein, Marcus Samuelson, Jon Ashton, Claudine Pepin, Tory Miller from L’etoile, Adam Siegel from Lake Park Bistro (2008 regional JBA winner), Joe Bartolotta, Hosea Rosenberg, and about a dozen other great chefs (and about 45 winemakers) did an outstanding job teaching classes, performing demos, hosting book signings, and, of course, executing an amazing tasting dinner on Saturday night. Food events of this size are always more fun than the monster-sized events where guests never get to meet the talent and share time with them. At Kohler, all the chefs spent hours interacting with guests and sharing the experience.

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Doug Flicker’s Piccolo will open in the old Agri space restaurant that is currently Café Agri at 43rd and Bryant, and it should be up and running by January. I know it seems counter-intuitive to believe that a restaurant designed to serve a relatively small menu of small plates to a small group of patrons (no more than 30 seats) makes a difference on the local dining scene, but sometimes it’s the impression that counts the most.

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'Tis the season as they say. Regardless of what type of event or fundraiser it may be, local chefs and restaurants are usually a committee's first call for contributions. No group rallies around causes as well as the food world does.

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I thought last night's Top Chef Las Vegas might have been the best hour of food television I have ever seen. Michael and Jen have a sexual energy in that kitchen that had me screaming at the TV set for them to lose their serious looks and have at it right on the prep table while their lapin roasted.

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For me, the most poignant moment of the State Fair came late (9 p.m.) on Sunday evening, when my family and I were strolling in the Creative Activities building.

 

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Strange rumblings from readers regarding Nick and Eddie. My e-mail inbox has been lighting up like a Christmas tree for a week with reports of an exodus from the kitchen—Vranian gone (supposedly “bought out” a few weeks ago, which is oftentimes restaurant code for many other things), Steven Brown gone, and Flicker helping out at D'Amico Kitchen. Several friends who are regulars buzzed me to say they had asked about some of these chefs and were told they weren’t there anymore. Some of these folks were just cooking at N & E between other gigs, but some of them have been publicly despondent about the place on their social media pages.

 

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So I send in my blog last Monday and my editor Adam e-mails me the next day that I am an episode behind in Top Chef. Not only was my pick 86-ed Wednesday, but Art’s pillow had been cold for a week as well. That’s what happens when you don’t know where you are or what day it is. Anyway, it has been a busy week…here are some things to check out. They are much more timely than my last blog:

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With all the news about the new D'Amico Kitchen at the Chambers, it might be a good time to share something I got in my e-mail the other day. Check out these pix of the closing night at Cucina. (Go to Ciao Cucina under Portfolios.) Great stuff.

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