Chef Joan Ida from Tria Restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is cooking this evening at Wildfire in Knutsford Terrace. The six-course wine dinner includes dishes such as salad of crispy sweetbread, quail egg and truffled hollandaise, tamarind-glazed pork sparerib with seared sea scallop, red plum and toasted peanuts, and duck three-ways (wood-roasted duck breast, wild-mushroom and duck confit risotto, and foie gras with cherries and Sichuan peppercorns). The wine dinner is $700 plus 10 per cent. Bookings: 3690 1598
Sopexa, which promotes French agricultural products, is holding two events this week. The annual French Wine Fair takes place on Saturday at the Happy Valley Racecourse from 1pm to 5.30pm. Sample wines from more than 150 vineyards and chateaux representing French wine-growing regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Loire Valley and Cotes de Rhone. There's a free shuttle bus between Admiralty MTR
station (Exit A) and the venue. Admission is $95 and includes a $30 cash coupon for purchases made that day at the Wine Fair. Sopexa is also holding the Alsace Wine Workshop on July 26 at the Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok. Thierry Frisch from the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace will conduct a guided tasting of Alsace wines with food. Admission is $280. For information call Haze Wong of Sopexa on 2909 6969 or Gladys Hau of Sategy Communications on 2881 5256.
Wade Watson from Lux restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong is working with guest chef Steven Gonzalez on six-course dinners to be served from July 26 to 29. The chefs will cook dishes such as oxtail and potato empanada with shaved fennel slaw, seared diver scallops with coral dust and lime essence and cumin, and cocoa-dusted bison tenderloin with vanilla mashed potatoes. The dinner is $495 plus 10 per cent. Dishes also available a la carte. Bookings: 2868 9538
The Verandah at the Repulse Bay is serving five new souffles starting July 25. The flavours include lavender, rose and Turkish delight, pina colada (left) and Toblerone. Prices range from free to $88 - diners scratch a card that reveals the price of their souffle. Bookings: 2292 2822
