Katherine Anne Confections has a truffle making class Oct. 28. more ›

In today's listings: celebrate Julia Child's birthday. Tonight's Brew & View schedule is loaded. BYOB at the Black Sheep and Custom House Tavern all month. more ›

Today's listings include a free performance by Gold Motel, the annual Gaming on Green event and a cooking demo direct from Paris. more ›

A popular Logan Square tavern turns five. more ›

Mercadito, the modern Mexican hotspot in River North, has been hosting a series of cooking demonstrations for the past several months. We got a chance to attend last month's sold-out show, run by Chef Patricio Sandoval, and came back slightly deaf, pleasantly full and rarin' to go again. Take a look at some of the dishes and drinks from our experience and learn about the next demo, scheduled for April 25. more ›

Playing Santa to a foodie this year? Us, too. Cooking classes make great gifts, but in a city where many different restaurants and cooking schools offer classes aimed at educating the home cook, how do you choose wisely? Take pasta. You can learn to make it from scratch at two of Chicago's popular "recreational" cooking schools, the Chopping Block and Cooking Fools. To help you make an informed purchase for your fellow-foodie, we did some fieldwork at both spots. more ›

Farmers' market season is in full swing and we can’t wait to fill up our eco-friendly shopping bags. Check out a few June cooking classes that will help you find exactly what to do with purslane, fresh berries and other fresh market goodies. more ›

"Summer, Summer, Summer-time...Summertime" in big Willie-style is time to start brushing off your grilling skills and impress your friends. No skills? Check out a line-up of May grilling cooking classes around town. more ›

More classes to sharpen your culinary chops... more ›

Calling all at-home cooks. Chicagoist has the scoop on cooking classes to help fine tune your culinary skills. Check out a couple coming up this month. more ›

Here's something different for Valentine's Day. Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy (600 W. Chicago Ave., Suite 860, 866-443-0437) in the old Montgomery Ward building is hosting a "Chocolate Date Night for Couples" tomorrow from 6;30-9:30 p.m. Learn to make chocolates and truffles from French pastry chef and Chocolate Academy head technical adviser Jérôme Landrieu, who will share some of his award-winning secrets. A special chocolate and wine tasting is included in the $200 per couple fee. more ›

Valentine's Day is coming and, like Anthony, we don't really look forward to making dinner reservations. We're good enough home cooks that we can seal a deal wielding fierce kitchen majicks. more ›

• Sheffield's annual Christmas cookies and beer pairing takes place this evening at the Beer School bar from 7-10 p.m. They'll be pairing cookies with various beers, including Southern Tier's Pumking and Great Lakes Christmas Ale. (3258 N. Sheffield)
• Nacional 27's Adam Seger will be the guest bartender this evening from 8 p.m. until closing at Fulton Lounge (955 W. Fulton). Seger's doing the hard holiday pimping of his Hum Spirit with $7 "you call it" Hum cocktails all night long.
• Registration opens today for World Kitchen's Winter 2010 calendar of events at Gallery 37 center for the Arts (66 E. Randolph). We've included a . each class costs $30, to RSVP call 312-742-8497, visit the World Kitchen website or buy tickets directly at the box office from noon-6 p.m.

Brush up on your "elimination challenge" skills with a class in improvisational cooking at The Chopping Block's Merchandise Mart location this Friday. From 6-8:30pm. Chef Abraham Conlon will be bringing in a secret basket of goodies and will "walk you through the creative and technical process of cooking without recipes." How exciting is that? You never know when you'll need these skills to beat this guy. Call to reserve a spot. more ›

Bonjour. We were invited to attend a cooking class at the Alliance Française de Chicago, which before Saturday we knew only as, “that pretty building on Dearborn where French people hang out and that we are slightly intimidated by.” Having the choice of romance languages to study, we chose Italian and Spanish over French (the “bonjour” at the beginning of this post is really the extent of our language skills.) Silly American. However, we decided there is no better way to begin our relationship with the Alliance and the French language than through food, so we gave it a shot. Kinda like Julie Powell but without all the whining and self-pity. And we never cried over beef stew. more ›

This Monday, Cooking Fools is offering a tropical cooking class and rooftop dinner with classic Caribbean cuisine or “Island Food. ” A meal influenced by African, Spanish, French, Indian and Amerindian flavors, dine on jerk chicken, smoked pork with Caribbean barbecue sauce, coconut rice, grilled island shrimp and more. The event begins with a complimentary Mojito and beer and wine by the glass will be available for purchase. Note: there are no heels allowed on the rooftop, so best throw on your fanciest flip-flops for the island party. Class is Monday, July 27, 6:00 - 9:00 PM and is $95.00 per person. more ›

Hello, cornholios. Where've you been all my life? Hmm...how many insults have food words incorporated into them? Perhaps that's another post for another day. This week: Free coffee, Mardi Gras fun, Academy Award parties...What could go wrong? more ›

Hold your tongues and stay away from the keyboard. Yes, we here at Chicagoist have levied more than our share of criticisms at Whole Foods. We're also familiar with the taste of crow, and have to give them credit where credit is due. When it comes to mission statements and core philosophy, Whole Foods walks the walk. We were joined by our markets writer Lisa Shames and primary food news writer Laura Oppenheimer Monday night... more ›