A new pop-up dinner experience has been scheduled for Sunday, August 20, 2023. This time, we'll be going to Italy for a four-course Italian pesto feast with imported wine pairings all evening long. The Cinque Terre is in the Liguria region of northwestern Italy where pesto was invented.  Harkening back to ancient Roman times, garlic, cheese, and herbs have been pounded into a paste which eventually evolved into the modern version of pesto — a raw sauce that demands the freshest of ingredients. Tonight, we'll be making a large batch of pesto from scratch using fresh local basil from our farmer's market, fresh garlic, and Italian extra virgin olive oil. We'll use our raw pesto sauce in every dish on tonight's special Mediterranean feast which will include Minestrone Soup, Caprese Salad, Eggplant Parmigiana, and Frutti di Mare (seafood pasta), plus a shot of limoncello for dessert ( see the entire menu ). Seating is extremely limited. For more information about how

Although modern Hawaiian "luaus" are held every day for the entertainment of tourists, these ancient traditional celebrations have existed for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. In fact, these Polynesian feasts were held to celebrate anything from the launch of a new canoe to a battle victory or a ceremony to honor Hawaiian Gods. The traditional center piece of these feasts was usually Kalua Pork , a whole pig that's wrapped in banana leaves and slow cooked with hot stones in an imu (underground oven). These days, the same dish can be recreated in a smoker, slow baked for hours in an oven, or cooked in a pressure cooker. The key ingredient is banana leaves which is available frozen at your local Asian grocer. Steaming meat with banana leaves imparts a unique subtle sweet flavor and aroma to the dish.  Learn how to make this unique pulled pork dish, plus Hawaii's famous Huli Huli chicken , an authentic tuna poke bowl, and a very tropical coconut

If you're going to have a dinner party, the ultimate starter course could be a well-designed charcuterie board which requires no cooking -- just assembly. These days charcuterie boards are all the rage and there are no more rules as to what you can or can't add to your own special creations. But if you're going to respect tradition and give credit where credit is due, perhaps the most authentic charcuterie spread should be of French origin.  Not surprisingly, it was the French who coined the word  charcuterie  in the 1400s to describe a butcher shop specializing in dressed and cured meats (the original French term chair cuite simply means "cooked flesh"). So it makes sense that the first course in each of my upcoming "A Taste of France" cooking classes will feature a different regional charcuterie board. If you're attending all three of these classes, you'll get to taste a wide variety of delicacies from the Basque country (June 27), the Medi