On Monday, September 30, Fonda San Miguel welcomes
nationally known pastry professor Nick Malgieri, author of the James Beard
Award-winning book, How to Bake (Harper/Collins, $35, hard) for a class
and booksigning. Malgieri devised the curriculum and supervises the baking and
pastry department at Peter Kump’s Cooking School in New York City. He has also
written several successful books on pastries and desserts. Malgieri’s $50 class
should be informative for professional and amateur bakers alike. Call 459-3401
to attend… Always on the lookout for hot food trends, Word of Mouth Catering
owner Rebecca Wallace took a whirlwind culinary weekend tour of top Dallas
restaurants: dinner and great desserts at the hot Star Canyon, dinner at the
very cosmopolitan Riviera Hotel, drinks at Joey’s, lunch at the renown Highland
Park Cafeteria and she observed a wedding set-up after brunch at the Mansion on
Turtle Creek. Word of Mouth appeared near the head of a list of Austin’s
top-grossing caterers in a recent issue of the Austin Business
Journal… And just how many caterers would be calm enough to host a little
press party in their kitchen the day of another major event? Up-and-coming
Pascal’s Catering held an open house to introduce their cuisine to potential
customers on a recent Saturday afternoon before catering a wedding in the
evening. Austinites may remember French chef Pascal Jeannin from his tenure at
Le Bistro d’Armand, his long stint as chef at Louie B’s, or know his
pat� products, Pat� du Bistro, available in local stores. In
addition to preparing pat�s in his USDA-inspected kitchen, these days
Pascal and his staff are creating party foods for a variety of events. Media
and advertising people joined engaged couples looking for wedding caterers to
sample elegant party foods in Pascal’s kitchen. Tres bon… If your busy
family is agriculturally challenged, the Whole Foods Market Farm Tour for Kids
is just the ticket. On Saturday, September 21 buses will depart from the
Gateway store at 10am for a trip to White Egret Farm where the little tourists
will visit a working goat dairy, milk goats and learn about the pigs, cows,
turkeys and other farm animals. A picnic lunch will be served at Webberville
Park and kids will receive a Whole Foods Goodie bag. All children must be
accompanied by an adult and children under 3 who can ride in laps are free. The
cost is $20 and registration is at the customer service desk at the Gateway
store… Hot sauce entrepreneur J.P. Hayes reports that he’s stocked the
shelves at Sgt. Pepper’s Hot Sauce Microbrewery with products from most of the
winners in the commercial bottlers division of the Chronicle contest…
The first annual Chilympiad Hot Sauce Contest takes place on Saturday,
September 21 at the Hays County Civic Center. Awards will be presented at
3:30pm and a tasting will follow; winners will also be posted on their website
at http://www.axiom.net/chilympiad… Xena, a relatively new restaurant just
west of the Arboretum on Jollyville Road is hosting wine happy hours. Until 7pm
every day, knowledgeable wine buyer Len White presents 5 red and 5 white
varietals for a mere $10 per bottle. Sonoma County wines can be sampled at Bon
Fresh Food Market on Bee Caves Rd., 5-8pm on Fridays… Wired Tabascoreg.
aficionados should visit the company’s hot new PepperFest website for Louisiana
recipes, merchandise and event information at http://www.TABASCO.com.
This article appears in September 20 • 1996 and September 20 • 1996 (Cover).