How about night school for grownups who love to eat and drink? Instead of AP chemistry, sign up for the Boston Wine School’s “WINE 101: Wine Tasting for the Complete Novice,” a fourclass series held on Tuesday nights starting October 7 and taught by Wine Master and educator Jonathon Alsop. “The goal is to help beginning wine drinkers respond with verve to the server’s perennial question: ‘What kind of wine do you like?’ ” Alsop says. The course fee is $200; visit www.bostonwineschool.com for info.
Boston University ramps up its Food & Wine Seminar Series (www.bu.edu/foodandwine) this fall with hands-on cooking classes and demonstrations. On October 6, puzzle through the evolution of Latin and Spanish cuisine with Jose Garces, chef/owner of Amada and Tinto in Philadelphia. For $50, participants will taste dishes paired with wine and take home a copy of Garces’s new book, Latin Evolution. On October 6, there’s a $125 hands-on “Modern Asian” class with Jason Santos, chef at Somerville’s Gargoyles, on the techniques, ingredients, and flavors of today’s Asian food. October 15 brings “Artisan Cheeses” ($80) with Ihsan Gurdal, owner of Formaggio Kitchen and South End Formaggio. Gurdal will discuss the traditional methods of cheesemaking and the craft of affinage, or cheese maturing; there will also be tastings paired with wine.
Finally, start the weekend off right at Bouchée, the oh-so-French brasserie on Newbury Street, which is now serving a very Gallic breakfast — think quiche du jour and breakfast flatbread with eggs, ham, Gruyere, and fine herbs — on Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Entrée prices start at $6. We have to ask, though: is French toast really French?
