Sneak Preview: August At COOK


You hear that sound? That’s the sound of the little elves that work in COOK‘s event department busily cobbling together the August schedule of classes.

Because August is Feastival month and because COOK’s Audrey Claire Taichman is one of the prime movers behind Feastival, the schedule for August’s classes is dedicated to those chefs who will be participating in this year’s ginormous party/fundraiser. What does this mean for you? It means that August’s schedule is full of some of the best chefs in the city, all coming together to hang out, have a few drinks and cook some delicious grub. And because you’re a wise and good-looking fan of Foobooz, you get to take a peek at the lineup a day early.

August Highlights at COOK

On August 1, Jeremy Nolen of Brauhaus Schmitz will be doing an Octoberfest in August (which I’m guessing means lots of beer and lots of tube-shaped meats). August 2 is the 5th in our Foobooz Open Stove Night series, bringing together two cooks from famous restaurants who will be tortured face off against each other in a cooking competition for your fun and amusement.

A couple days later, they’ll have Jeffrey Froehler from Barclay Prime spilling all his steakhouse secrets, followed by Jason Cichonski from Ela just standing there being handsome (and also teaching you all he knows about New American cuisine). August 8? That’s going to be “TGIFoieday” (get it?) with Ben Puchowitz of Matyson. I’m guessing he’ll be serving some liver (and, with any luck, will make another round of the foie gras creme brulees that blew everyone’s minds when he came in for one of our previous Open Stove Nights).

On August 9, Mitch Prensky will be doing burgers and dogs (but really really good burgers and dogs–check out his menu at Supper for the kinds of culinary shenanigans he gets up to). On the 15th, Hiroyuki “Zama” Tanaka (of Zama) will be doing a full-blown omakase menu for guests, paired with summer wines from the Wine Merchant. Seth High from Route 6 will be doing seafood (natch) on August 20. Lucio Palazzo of La Calaca Feliz will be throwing a full-on Mexican fiesta on August 22nd. Jason Goodman from Buddakan will be defending modern Asian fusion on the 23rd, followed by Chris Allen of Lotus Farm to Table doing a class called “Go Fish!” (probably about pork, right?) on the 24th. On Sunday the 26th, you can chill out with Lee Styer of Fond and Jessie Prawlucki of Belle Cakery for what has to be their 300th visit to COOK already (they’re always awesome together). And on the 28th, Jon Cichon of Lacroix will be doing a night all about…tomatoes? Yeah, tomatoes. But who cares, right? Dude is from Lacroix. Something tells me he’ll do alright.

So anyway, you know what all this means, right? It means that if you want to be a part of the fun, you’ll have to be at your computers tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2pm when this schedule goes live. It’s all going to sell out fast, so be prepared, have a plan, and be quick with the clickety-clickety, got it?

Cook [Official website]

August schedule [Cook]