The Demon Chef is back in town! Michelin two-star chef Alvin Leung of Bo Innovation (Hong Kong) is visting SF to collaborate with chef Adam Mali (~BRASSERIE S&P~) at the Mandarin Oriental on Saturday June 15th. The “East Meets West” dinner features five courses with cocktail and wine pairings. You’ll get to experience Leung’s molecular xiao long bao (so amazing) and Mali’s duck breast with morels and bing cherries; take a look at the menu here. 6:30pm cocktail reception, 7:30pm dinner. $250 per guest or $2,000 per table of 10 guests (plus tax and gratuity). Reserve by calling Joycelyn Postrado: 415-986-9605. 222 Sansome St. at Pine.
Here’s some pretty cool high-concept dining: For the month of June, a slew of San Francisco’s finest chefs will be working with artist Ben Kinmont on an art and food project called On Becoming Something Else. The project, which got its start in Paris in 2009 and is now happening locally through SFMOMA, starts with seven paragraphs written by Kinmont about the departure of artists from their art. A different Bay Area chef will create a dish inspired by each paragraph, which will be available on their menus for the entire month of June. There’s lots more information on the project here.
Then, on Tuesday June 18th, all the chefs will come together at ~BAR TARTINE~ for a dinner with all seven courses. The chef lineup is pretty awesome too: Nicolaus Balla and Courtney Burns (Bar Tartine), Jessica Boncutter (Bar Jules), Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski (State Bird Provisions), Russell Moore (Camino), Leif Hedendal (Dinner Discussions), Brett Cooper (Outerlands), and Evan and Sarah Rich (Rich Table). Yeah, pretty much a local dream team. The finale dinner costs $110 per person, including the seven courses and two publications crafted for the event by Kinmont. Tax, tip, and beverages are not included; reservations can be made by calling Bar Tartine at 415-487-1600.
On Sunday June 9th, ~M.Y. CHINA~ is hosting a benefit dinner for the James Beard Foundation called Friends of James Beard: Celebrating the Family Table. Chef Charlie Trotter will be the special guest for the evening, along with Yigit Pura (Tout Sweet), Michael Rotondo (Parallel 37), and Tony Wu (the head noodle-puller at M.Y. China). The focus will be celebrating and acknowledging the family component of dining, as generations learn from one another and sit down to eat together. Enjoy four courses, each paired with wines from Michael Mondavi Family Estate, plus dessert. A cocktail reception beings at 6pm, followed by a family-style dinner at 7pm, and tickets are $200 for the general public and $175 for James Beard Foundation members. Proceeds benefit the James Beard Foundation and the Martin Yan Scholarship Fund.
To enter to win a pair of tickets to this fabulous event (value $400), all you need to do is forward today’s tablehopper newsletter to one friend (but even more would be so very fabulous), and add a note to your friend(s) about the James Beard Foundation dinner, M.Y. China, or why you read tablehopper, or all of the above! Be sure to Cc: or Bcc: me at luckyme@tablehopper.com so I know you sent it—I promise I won’t use anyone’s email address. The deadline to enter is Thursday June 6th at 11:59pm. We’ll notify the winner on Friday and get your tickets to you! Good luck!
Chef Alvin Leung’s beer-steamed Hervey Bay scallop with crispy seaweed, pumpkin purée, and vegemite butter. Photo courtesy of Bo Innovation.
