bacon

Los Angeles Wine Bar Plans Evening Of Bacon Delights

Like your bacon with a side of bacon? Then February 2 should bring you to Corkbar in downtown Los Angeles for a three-course bacon tasting menu. The wine bar is teaming up with artisanal bacon purveyor the Cast Iron Gourmet on this delicious event. A collaboration between Corkbar executive chef Albert Aviles and the Cast Iron Gourmet chef/owner Rashida Purifoy, featured items will include frisée and bacon salad with roasted tomato, shallot, bacon lardons, and grain mustard vinaigrette; Báhn Mi sliders, made with cured pork belly, Hoisin glaze, Sambal aïoli, micro cilantro, and pickled daikon and carrot, served on a brioche bun with a side of Sriracha sauce; and a bacon chocolate cupcake with caramel whipped cream and bacon lardons. The menu costs $25. An optional wine pairing is available for $13, and includes a 2009 Melville Viognier, Santa Ynez Valley; a 2006, Holus Bolus Syrah, Santa Barbara County; and a 2008 Justin "Obtuse" Port, Paso Robles. A limited number of reservations will be accepted for this event.

"The idea for the 'Swine & Wine' menu came about after Rashida came into Corkbar for dinner," Aviles says. "We both share a mutual admiration for all things bacon and next thing we knew, plans were in the works for a bacon-centric tasting menu here at the wine bar."

Corkbar is also offering guests a chance to win two complimentary "Swine & Wine" dinners by becoming a Corkbar Twitter follower and tweeting @Corkbar the name of their favorite bacon dish-anything from an at-home recipe to a favorite restaurant dish-between 12 a.m. PT on January 13 and 11:59 p.m. on January 31, 2011 (existing Twitter followers are eligible, though they must still tweet within the aforementioned timeframe). The winner will be notified via Twitter's direct message service on February 1, 2011. Dinners are redeemable exclusively on February 2, 2011 and are non-transferrable. The Cast Iron Gourmet will also be offering special bacon-centric prizes for social media fans that attend the dinner, visit www.facebook.com/CastIronGourmet or follow the company on Twitter for further details.

Tags: bacon, bacon event, bacon tasting menu, cast iron gourmet, corkbar, lardons

Cochon 555: A Delicious Celebration of Heritage Pig Breeds

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Events

Bacon is just the start when it comes to the world of pork. After Cochon 555: 5 Chefs, 5 Pigs, 5 Winemakers you might never look at the pig the same way again. The culinary competition and tasting event takes place on January 23, 2011 at 5 pm at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City. Five local chefs will prepare a menu created from heritage breed pigs, nose to tail, for an audience of pork-loving epicureans and local judges.

Pork dishes will be paired with wines from five different small wineries, including Scholium Project, Alysian Winery, Elk Cove Vineyards, Copain Wine Cellars and Failla Wines. Winning chefs will compete against other regional winners at the finale Grand Cochon at the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, June 19, 2011. The 2011 NYC competing chefs include Brad Farmerie of PUBLIC and Double Crown, Peter Hoffman of Savoy, George Mendes of Aldea, Sean Rembold of Marlow & Sons and Bill Telepan of Telepan Restaurant. Tickets start at $125 per person and VIP tickets for $200 include a private tasting of West Sonoma Coast Vintners (Failla, Peay, Red Car, Freestone, Evening Land and Freeman) and select wines by Domaine Serene. Plus start the celebration early with artisan cheeses from Murray's Cheese and a sustainable oyster station.

Tags: bacon, culinary competitions, culinary events, food event, food events, pork

Blame Andy Warhol for Drop in Auction Sales

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

It's no surprise that last year's art market looked nothing like that of 2007. Last year, the top 10 artists by sales racked up $1.7 billion and accounted for 20 percent of the global art market on 1.5 percent of transactions. This slip in the big revenue number is a lot different from 2007, in which the top 10 brought in $1.8 billion, a year-over-year gain of 50 percent, according to ArtPrice.

Andy Warhol was the problem last year.

The top artist of 2007 fell substantially last year. In 2008, only $236.7 million in Warhol sales occurred – compared to $420 million the year before. As a result, Warhol slid from the #1 spot to #3, and Picasso regained the apex. Francis Bacon moved from #3 to #2 on sales of $256 million. Unbelievable growth of 514 percent in his work from January 2005 to January 2008 turned abruptly, and the artist finished last year down 48 percent ... not that he'd give a tinker's damn about it.

Despite the economic challenges, the price of admission grew. Last year, sales in a particular artist at auction had to reach $91.8 million to hit the big time, up from $87 million in 2007, $59.6 million in 2006 and a comparatively paltry $33.7 million in 2005.

Take a look at the scorecard after the jump.

Source

Tags: andy warhol, AndyWarhol, bacon, claude monet, ClaudeMonet, damien hirst, DamienHirst, degas, francis bacon, FrancisBacon, gerhard richter, GerhardRichter, hirst, pablo picasso, PabloPicasso, picasso, warhol