Traditional and inventive dishes will be prepared by five Indigenous chefs for New York City Eatss, a benefit and tasting to support the American Indian College Fund, on May 2. The chefs are Ben Jacobs (Osage Nation), Andrea Murdoch (Andes region, from Venezuela), Bradley Dry (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), Sherry Pocknett (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation), and Loretta Barrett Oden (Citizen Potawatomi Nation). Dancers from the Redhawk Native American Arts Council, a nonprofit, will perform during the event. The American Indian College Fund, founded in 1989, provides scholarships for Indigenous students and supports tribal colleges.
New York City Eatss, May 2, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., $150 per person and up, The Lighthouse at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers, at West 21 Street, collegefund.org.
100 Years of American Restaurant Menus
A century of American dining, from 1841 to 1941, is represented by more than 220 menus going on display Wednesday at the Grolier Club, a bibliophile and graphic arts society. Included are menus from Mississippi riverboats, Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural ball and Taylor’s Saloon (1861-62), a restaurant that admitted women unaccompanied by a man, rare at its time. They are from the Henry Voigt Collection of American Menus; according to Mr. Voigt, a member of the Grolier Club who curated the exhibition, printed menus first came into general use in the 1840s as hotels and restaurants began to proliferate, hence the start date for the exhibit.
“A Century of Dining Out: The American Story in Menus, 1841-1941,” April 26 through July 29, free admission, Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, grolierclub.org.
Floral Cupcakes for Mom
Beautiful bouquets of buttercream can adorn the Mother’s Day table for dessert, or provide an Instagram finale for a springtime tea, luncheon or dinner. Finger-licking pastel flowers decorate new chocolate and vanilla cupcakes by Mackenzie Limited, a mail-order high-end prepared foods company based in Owings Mills, Md. They come frozen — in clusters of eight, four of each flavor — and wrapped in florist paper, to thaw in just an hour or so.
Cupcakes in Bloom, $84.95 for eight, mackenzielimited.com.
Fresh Spices Directly From India
Vahdam India, a company that primarily specializes in organic teas, has added spices that come directly from Indian farms, like the teas, to its inventory. An introductory set of nine single origin spices, called Kitchen Essentials, come packed in metal tins (most 70 grams, or 2.47 ounces) and are notable for their freshness. I’m no fan of onion and garlic powders, but the aromas of those in the set changed my mind. Most of the spices are organic and can be purchased individually from a collection of 25, including some, like moringa powder and whole black cumin seeds, that are not in the basic set. The celebrity Indian chef Vikas Khanna is a spokesman for the new spice line.
Vahdam India Kitchen Essentials, $79.99 (sale price, discounted from $100), individual tins, $11.99 each, vahdam.com.
Serve Your Salads in Style
Up your springtime salad game with leafy servers and bowls by Nima Oberoi, a San Francisco-based designer and founder of the Lunares collections. The pieces in her new Verdura line were inspired by her garden. Salad spoon and fork servers, in two sizes, have enameled handles that resemble leaves. Bowls with a silvery finish on the outside and swirling green interiors come in three sizes, at 6.25, 12 and 15-inch diameters. The metal is aluminum and food-safe, but not dishwasher-safe. Verdura salad servers are $85 to $95 per set; bowls are $49, $169 and $259 each.
At this year’s International Antiquarian Book Fair, a rare deluxe edition of “The Book of Bread” by Owen Simmons, published in London in 1903 by Maclaren & Sons, is expected to fetch $10,000. The book, bound in leather, is considered to be one of the earliest photobooks published. It was intended as a commercial baker’s manual and shows loaves and slices, actual size with instructions, among other details. (It notes that the best bread is made from freshly milled flour, a practice newly followed by artisan bakers 120 years later.) The author was a founder of the National Bakery School in England in 1894. This book will be on display at the fair alongside a number of other culinary treasures, including “The American Distiller,” from 1804 and dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, said to be the first American book on distilling.
ABAA New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, April 27 through 30, Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Avenue (66th Street), nyantiquarianbookfair.com.
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