Our Annual Dinner. This will be an in-person event – if the Heavens are aligned!! We look forward to working with Chef Daniel Bruce for our first in person event in 18 months. Boston Harbor Hotel. Host: Sandy Kraft

Note that if everything is great on the COVID side of things, this might be an in-person event. TBD!

Time and details to follow

A Zoom event: A Tasting of 6 Sherries with delicious foods to pair with them, led by Annie Manson direct from Jerez, Spain. Details to follow.

On Saturday, March 13, at 6 p.m. we are presenting a Zoom Virtual Dinner prepared and delivered to our member’s homes by one of our favorite French restaurants, La Voile. The Chef is preparing a  5 course dinner based on the typical fare of Bouchee de Lyon. We are also going to be including a bottle each of Cru Beaujolais, and Mâconnais white wine as part of the dinner.

 We are very fortunate to be joined by a very special guest, Bill Buford, the best-selling author, and journalist. Bill’s recent book   Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, is critically acclaimed and gives the reader a feeling of: being in Lyon, the Lyonnais(e) people and working in the kitchens of their great restaurants.  This Virtual dinner will be very special.

Celebrate this Romantic Holiday at an intimate table in your own home!   The WFSB has created an afternoon event we know will be a lot of fun, educational, romantic and safe at the same time!  When last we Zoomed in Firenze, we were across the street from the Uffizi. This time we are going in!

 If you ever thought that a piece of art or a statute was simply a wonderful image or sculpture, you will learn how much more there is to learn about the artist’s inspiration as well as the historical aspects of its creation.  Our leader will be the incredibly knowledgeable and well-spoken Lior Lev of Tuscany Tours. It’s not surprising to those who have witnessed him in action that Lior is regarded by many as the best guide in Firenze. He is a fount of knowledge.  Lior will focus his attention on works which relate to romantic art and wine and food. 

 While we enjoy Lior’s talk and the incomparable beauty on our screens, we will relish wines each of us has sourced from just south of Firenze in the Chianti regions; or perhaps a little of Michelangelo’s favorite white: Vernaccia from San Gimignano.  2015 and 2016 were both outstanding vintages and 2017 was very good. Let’s also include some Italian Antipasti, such as prosciutto, salami, olives, cheese, and some crusty bread. Add a Vin Santo if you are planning dessert. 

 After the presentation, we would like everyone to stay online to participate in discussion of the wines and food that we enjoyed during the presentation

Please join The Wine and Food Society of Boston for its Annual Holiday Gala, doing its Best to combat  the virus and Zooming this delicious and Festive meal created especially for us and delivered to you from the wonderful Gracie’s of Providence!!

Attire:  Fancy above the waist.  Please wear your IWFS medallions.

Please set a beautiful table for yourselves and send us photos.  We’ll try to show each other LIVE while on Zoom.

 Menu

Hudson Valley Foie Gras Torchon

Spiced Fig Jam, Black Garlic, Brioche, Sunflower Seeds & Sprouts

Arctic Char

Beluga Lentils, Tomato Preserve, Garlic Fondue, Shaved Fennel

Both of the above courses are to be accompanied by the beautiful Taittinger “La Française” Champagne**, included in the price for the dinner.

 Followed by

Russet Potato Gnocchi

Cultivated Mushrooms, Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Provolone

Crescent Farms Duck

Wild Rice, Delicata Squash, Quince, Juniper, Red Wine Jus

Brown Butter Cake

Walnut Butter, Caramelized Pears, Parsnip Mousse

We are pleased to announce a dinner together, via Zoom, with a menu prepared by Boston restaurant, “Troquet”.  Chef, Tyler Stout will prepare this excellent meal for us AND WE WILL BE ABLE TO DELIVER TO MOST OF YOU and arrange a good meeting place for others. We will have a “live feed” from Troquet, with owner Chris Campbell, Chef Tyler Stout, Program Director Lloyd Foster, and Winemaster Fred Ek. We are offering older Bordeaux wines from two of our members cellars to make this a most special event.

 The meal will feature Salmon Crudo to start and Rack Of Lamb as the main course, followed by a selection of Troquet’s excellent cheese and bread.  Winemaster Fred Ek and Lloyd Foster, Program Director, will Zoom in from the restaurant. Chris Campbell and his chef will comment on the food and cheeses.

Toni Mazzaglia’s, the owner of “ Taste Florence”, will lead us through the famous markets, shops, and wine enoteca of Florence

First we will visit, the Mercato Centrale, Florence’s famous fresh market. We’ll gander at street food, produce, fresh pasta, and more. 

Next, we will visit the surrounding San Lorenzo area, where Toni first lived in Florence. She’ll show you historic bakeries, where you’ll meet the owners and snag a Tuscan pastry recipe.

 Now, we’ll peek into an historic wine shop, la Casa del Vino.  Toni will point out the Food & Wine highlights and share a quick antipasto recipe that you'll love to make and share for years to come.

Here, we will make a quick crostino using toasted bread, beans, garlic, and olive oil.

This is also a good time to have a taste of pecorino cheese and parmigiano cheese that we will procure for the event. During this wine shop visit everyone will drink the 1988 Castello di Querceto La Corte  which we are providing for the event and which we can then sip for the remainder of our time together!

 We'll head to another historic wine shop, Enoteca Alessi, and zoom down into their cellar and tasting room. 

 Here, we will finish our event with vertical tastings of balsamic vinegar.

Please join us for our second Zoom event, featuring Champagne and Bordeaux.

The WFSB will supply the wines and some delicious hors d’oeuvres and dessert cheeses.  You will supply Steak and veggies for the main course. We will ship to each participant - regardless of location - a package from Formaggio Kitchens of Hors-d’oeuvres and Dessert Cheeses plus some accompaniments for them.

Wines

2015 Château Lyonnat Lussac-St. Émilion   $15/bottle – a fabulous vintage.

NV Champagne Le Mesnil Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut

YOU will provide for your dining pleasure a delicious steak and your choice of vegetables for the main course (and a good melon, if you can find it, that would go very well with the hors d’oeuvres). Weather permitting, you’ll grill the steak. Yummm! For those of you who don’t love steak, anything you choose for the Bordeaux will be fine.

We are delighted that Sid Cross, Honorary President of The International Wine and Food Society

will be our Celebrity Guest Speaker! 

As members of the IWFS you probably see his wine blogs frequently.

Chablis is a wonderful white wine for summer enjoyment and we want this tasting to provide more than enough information so you understand the variety of wines produced within the appellation.

Here’s how it will work: 

• You will obtain one bottle of Premier Cru Chablis per person from our recommend selctions

• If you can’t get to one of our pick-up points, we will try to help out with deliveries to additional pick-up locations or you can go to your favorite local wine store and select a nice Premier Cru – one for each participant per household. We need your response fast in order to figure this out.

• You will buy your own snacks – from suggestions,

Join us at the Seaport Hotel for a fabulous spring themed dinner, created for us by Chef Richard Rayment . Those of you who have joined us at the Seaport in the past, know that Chef Rayment has created many fabulous dinners for us over the last 15+ years, each one unique and creative. We look forward to our annual dinner in the fabulous Flagship Room overlooking Boston Harbor.

Despite a abnormally warm 2015, a hail storm in 2016, a fall frost in 2017 and another warm and unusually large harvest in 2018, there are a number of delicious Chablis bottlings available in stores and on wine lists at all levels.

On March 21st, we will be just two days into Spring 2020 and looking at fresh white wines to enjoy with lighter meals as the weather warms. We will assemble a range of wines from Petite Chablis to Premier and Grand Cru with a small detour to the not well known but nearby Sauvignon Saint-Bris appellation, a white which echoes the freshness and appeal of the Coupe Chablisienne.

Please join us for a very special wine dinner at Mama Maria’s, with Antonio Benanti of Benanti Viticoltori. BENANTI is a family-run, exclusive winery located on the slopes of the Etna Volcano in Sicily. It is among the most prominent producers of fine wines in Italy. The family has been producing wine for several generations.

The winery is currently run by twin brothers Antonio and Salvino.  These two passionate and internationally-minded Sicilians have returned home after spending several years abroad to follow in their father Giuseppe’s footsteps with the aim of taking the winery to new heights.

BENANTI was named Italian Winery of the Year by the Gambero Rosso wine guide in 2007 and Top-100 Winery of the Year by Wine & Spirits magazine of the USA in 2012. Their entry level 2017 Etna Rosso was one of Wine Spectator’s Top 100 wines of 2019.  Here is a great article in Wine Spectator regarding Benanti Wines. https://www.winespectator.com/articles/benanti-sicily-italy-wine-camuto

The event will include an Antipasti course, 3 main courses, and dessert. We will be serving 5 wines, including the highly rated, 2011 Benanti Etna Serra della Contessa, from the cellar of Peter Graffman.

 We are being joined at the dinner by Peter Hemingway of Federal Wine and Spirts and by the Oz Wine Company, Benanti’s importer in Massachusetts. Peter is Federal’s Italian Wine expert, and they are a source for purchasing Benanti Wines, which are highly allocated in Massachusetts. We are also opening this event to clients of Federal Wine and invitees of Oz Wine as a way of introducing the Wine & Food Society of Boston to them.  The event will be limited to 40 people.  We are opening up the registration to Federal Wine’s clientele and the Oz Wines who is the importer, on February 1.

Price: $125 pp

Join us to Celebrate the 85th Anniversary of the Wine & Food Society of Boston. This will be a very special event with a special re-enactment, by the WFSB Players, of Andre Simon’s visit to Boston to invite fellow Bostonian’s to form the very first North American branch of the International Wine and Food Society. We will have selected very special wines, funded in part from our award from IWFS for winning the “Grand Prize” in 2018 , in holding the best event in the the world, in celebration of the 85th Anniversary of the Internation Wine & Food Society.

This event will probably be a first for all involved: Vinod Kapoor, has owned and operated Masala Art in Needham for some time. When designing the restaurant, he incorporated a nine seat ‘spice bar’, where his chef does presentations to show both the individual flavor and aromas of a given spice and then show how it adds to the complexity of a dish. From all reports, it is eye opening and most of all fun. There will be a full meal prepared before you with commentary by the chef. It’s not business as usual but it sure will be interesting and most importantly delicious with wines to match.

You likely just received the IWFS publication on spices. We all know it is one thing to read about something and another to experience it and just by luck we were already planning this spicy seminar concurrently.

Thursday November 7th will open up if we fill November 6th . Please RSVP for which night(s) you could make it. We will fill November 6th, first.

Kamakura is the name of chef Youji Iwakura’s hometown in Japan and his new restaurant at 150 State Street in Boston near the Custom House Tower. The restaurant was converted from a small townhouse to a beautiful multi floor restaurant. We have reserved the top floor for our exclusive use. Weather permitting the glass roof will be open.

Iwakura san was a sushi chef at the late lamented Ginza restaurant in Brookline and later commanded the sashimi bar at Clio restaurant, which was called Uni. At Kamakura he is introducing the highly traditional Japanese approach to seasonality called Kaiseki to Boston. He has planned a multi course dinner to be served with some wine and mostly boutique sake.

The menu includes seasonal specialties including robata duck, cooked over the marvelously aromatic charcoal from Japan. And we will finish with a dessert from Youji san’s wife who is a  talented pastry chef.

There are but twenty seats for this event, as we are limited to the use of the top floor with the retractable roof.

The WFSB season opening event will be held at the exquisite Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead. The Eastern Yacht Club is located on a point in the harbor overlooking the ‘Old Town’ section of Marblehead.

 The spacious, high ceiling, glass front dining room features a panoramic view of the harbor.

Graceful mahogany pillars add to the nautical feel. In short, this is a gorgeous place for a Wine and Food Society event and is hosted by WFSB members Liz and Jim Ayer, who are Eastern Yacht Club members.

 We will begin at 12:30pm with Champagne and hors d’oeuvres on the veranda overlooking the Harbor followed by a luncheon menu developed by the dining room manager, Brandon Farrell, and Executive Chef Steve Sharad.

 Our Winemaster Fred Ek, will be selecting interesting and unusual wines to complement the cuisine.

 We hope you will join us on this September Sunday for a lovely day on Marblehead Harbor

The Wine and Food Society of Boston annual Holiday dinner. a very special Holiday Gala celebrating the 85th Anniversary of the founding of the IWFS.

We will have flights of different pâtés served with 3-4 wines each to help you determine what wines to serve with different types of pâtés, terrines, mousses, etc.  This will be fun, tasty and educational all in one!  Watch for the announcement!  Seating will be limited, and will be open first to paid members.  We will have a deadline for them, though, so get your name in fast if you want to be in the queue.

Two of our Members Peter & Jennifer  traveled to Spain in the Spring of 2015 and were inspired by many of the magnificent wines in the regions they visited. They are assembling some of the best examples of wines from regions of Spain for this exceptional opening event at their home. Chef John Hendron of Seasons to Taste has created a very special, five-course, regionally inspired Spanish menu, based on the wines selected by Jennifer, Peter, Fred Ek, and Lloyd Foster.

An Oregon Wine Dinner

With appropriate cuisine. Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has certainly gained popularity over the last decade and there are some excellent white varietals which have been lurking in the shadow of Pinot Noir.  Lloyd Foster has in depth knowledge of the region, having travelled there frequently. He will share his understanding of the region in the unique setting of the historic Oregon Club. The Oregon Club is an, upscale restaurant serving steak, pasta, seafood & cocktails in a former 1920s speakeasy.