16 Food & Drink Events for July and Beyond

Though the month of July is perhaps best known for a certain gross hot dog eating contest, there are a whole lot more food and drink events going down across the country and beyond. You can feast on barbecue in Chicago, drink an absurd amount of cocktails in New Orleans, and work your way through tastings from some of the best restaurants in both San Francisco and Portland, OR. The upcoming months also bring some pretty heavyweight gastronomic conferences such as Copenhagen's MAD Symposium, Peru's Mistura, and San Sebastian's Gastronomika. Here's the full list, and please do have fun out there:

Le Grand Fooding
When: July 2 - July 4, 2013
Where: Milan, Italy
What: Kicking off the month in food events, Le Grand Fooding hits Milan, Italy, with a theme of Culturama. Saporiericette notes that celebrity chefs have been deliberately left off the lineup of this year's event so as to highlight the actual dishes prepared — cult classic dishes such as hamburgers, tiramisu, couscous, and more.

Windy City Smokeout
When: July 12 - July 14, 2013
Where: Chicago, IL
What: Chicago's newcomer barbecue restaurant Bub City is hosting the first-ever Windy City Smokeout this year in celebration of all things smoked meat. In addition to their own barbecue, there are going to be meats from The Salt Lick, Lillie's, and pitmaster Myron Mixon. The soundtrack to it all will be country tunes from the likes of Pat Green, David Nail, and Brushfire.

Tales of the Cocktail
When: July 17 - July 21, 2013
Where: New Orleans, LA
What: Tales of the Cocktail returns to New Orleans for yet another booze-filled year this month with seminars, tastings, dinners, plus the announcement of the winners of the seventh annual Spirited Awards. Seminars include topics like The History of Ice and Advanced Sherry, while dinners will be held at the likes of Arnaud's, Dominique's on Magazine, Emeril's Delmonico and more.

Counter Culture
When: July 25, 2013
Where: Carlton, OR
What: Anne Amie Vineyards is hosting a pretty super lineup of Portland, OR, chefs during this year's Counter Culture, billed as a "celebration of urban street food & international wines." From 6 p.m. until 10 p.m., a $75 ticket will get you tastings from the likes of Pok Pok, Le Pigeon, Woodsman Tavern, Biwa, Bollywood Theater, The Country Cat, and so much more —not to mention wine from vineyards across the state and beyond.

LUCKYRICE
When: July 27, 2013
Where: Los Angeles, CA
What: Sang Yoon is playing host to the Los Angeles stop on the LUCKYRICE night market tour, which is also making stops in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Miami later this year. A tasting menu from the likes of Lukshon, Starry Kitchen, and more includes dishes like a Thai lobster roll, Punjabi chicken tikka masala, dragon eggs with sauteed kale salad, and Vietnamese duck curry. Hinoki & the Bird and Connie & Ted's are among those providing the libations.

SF Chefs
When: July 28 - August 4, 2013
Where: San Francisco, CA
What: Coming up this month is the fifth annual SF Chefs festival and its outstanding lineup of Bay Area chefs. Dominique Crenn, Mourad Lahlou, Thomas McNaughton, Gary Danko, Stuart Brioza, Chris Cosentino and Corey Lee are all among the bold names participating in the weekend's events, while Sean Brock is coming in from Charleston to join in on it all. There are all kinds of classes and demos, including the Eater Chef Challenge that pits a team of San Francisco chefs against another team from Los Angeles.

Looking Ahead:

Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival
When: August 22 - August 25, 2013
Where: Los Angeles, CA
What: Big names like Grant Achatz, Rick Bayless, Scott Conant, Giada De Laurentiis, Susan Feniger, Duff Goldman, Edward Lee, Mary Sue Milliken, Masaharu Morimoto, Charles Phan, and more are all planning to participate in this year's Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival. Events here include an Asian night market with Iron Chef Morimoto, a cocktail demo from Achatz, and something called Bacon & Bourbon that probably needs no further explanation.

MAD Symposium
When: August 25 - August 26, 2013
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
What: Once again, Noma's René Redzepi is hosting his highly anticipated food festival Mad Symposium in the late summer. The lineup isn't totally settled yet, but speakers include chefs such as Alex Atala, Frédéric Morin, David McMillan, Christian Puglisi, Margo Henderson, Pascal Barbot and Roy Choi, plus other food luminaries such as fermentation expert Sandor Katz and Mexican cuisine expert Diana Kennedy.

Hawaii Food and Wine Festival
When: September 1 - September 9, 2013
Where: Oahu and Maui, HI
What: This third iteration of the Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong-founded food festival is bringing in a huge number of big-name talent, including Grant Achatz, Floyd Cardoz, Josiah Citrin, Chris Cosentino, Dominique Crenn, Dean Fearing, Hubert Keller, Mourad Lahlou, Anita Lo, Nobu Matsuhisa, Masaharu Morimoto, Charles Phan, Richard Rosendale, Nancy Silverton, Christina Tosi, Ming Tsai, Tetsuya Wakuda, Jonathan Waxman and more.

Mistura
When: September 6 - September 15, 2013
Where: Peru
What: Peru's annual gastronomic festival Mistura returns this year, reportedly with a special focus on seafood. For 10 days, the country will celebrate its entire gastronomic chain, from farmers to vendors to restaurants and culinary schools. It's organized by the Peruvian Gastronomy Society and in the past has been guided as well by Peru's own Gaston Acurio.

Meatopia UK
When: September 7, 2013
Where: London, England
What: New York's ode to all things meat is headed to London for the first time ever with a slew of butchers, chefs, live music, booze, and, of course, more meat than you know what to do with. Twenty-five chefs will each create a dish, while DJs spin and guests peruse art installations. Though the event was just recently announced, already Americans such as Aaron Franklin, Tim Byres and Seamus Mullen are in, as well as hometown chefs such as Fergus Henderson and Neil Rankin.

Feast Portland
When: September 19 - September 22, 2013
Where: Portland, OR
What: The second annual Feast Portland is back and pretty much everyone is going to be there: Hugh Acheson, April Bloomfield, Danny Bowien, Stuart Brioza and Nicola Krasinski, Sean Brock, Floyd Cardoz, Andrew Carmellini, Tom Douglas, Brad Farmerie, Jason Franey, Aaron Franklin, Duff Goldman, Stephanie Izard, Matt Lightner, Thomas McNaughton, Paul Qui, Andy Ricker, Sarah Simmons, Christina Tosi, Michael Voltaggio and, of course, Portland's own hottest chefs. Once again there will be a sandwich invitational and a night market, plus plenty of Northwest wine, dinners, classes and speakers.

Music City Eats Festival
When: September 21 - September 22, 2013
Where: Nashville, TN
What: Nashville is getting its own big-time food and music festival this year with the debut of the Music City Eats Festival. The Kings of Leon are behind the musical aspect, which includes a Tom Petty tribute called Petty Fest Nashville. The city's top talent — including Erik Anderson and Josh Habiger, Matt Farley, and Sarah Gavigan — will be preparing dishes at the Flavors of Nashville. Meanwhile big-name chefs from all over will come in for Harvest Night, including John Besh, Tom Colicchio, Mike Lata, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, Nancy Silverton and Jonathan Waxman. It's the same weekend as Feast Portland, so choose wisely.

Gastronomika
When: October 6 - October 9, 2013
Where: San Sebastian, Spain
What: This year's Gastronomika is going to have a huge focus on London and its vibrant dining scene, bringing in chefs such as Clove Club's Isaac McHale, Pollen Street Social's Jason Atherton, and a whole slew of others, including Spanish chefs working in London. But, of course, Spanish superstars such as Eneko Atxa, Elena Arzak, Martin Berasetegui, Quique Dacosta and Andoni Luis Aduriz will be there, as well San Francisco's Corey Lee.

New York City Wine & Food Festival
When: October 17 - October 20, 2013
Where: New York, NY
What: Chefs from all over New York City are going to be in attendance at this year's New York City Wine & Food Festival, for which tickets went on sale at the end of June. There's going to be cronut mastermind Dominique Ansel, Blue Hill Farm's Dan Barber, Eleven Madison Park's Daniel Humm, Momofuku's David Chang, and the one and only Daniel Boulud. Plus chefs such as Alex Atala, Rick Bayless and John Besh are coming in from elsewhere in the world. for tastings, seminars, dinners, and whatnot.

Life is Beautiful Festival
When: October 26 - October 27, 2013
Where: Las Vegas, NV
What: When the Life is Beautiful Festival hits Vegas in October, chefs such as Scott Conant, Jonathan Waxman, Hubert Keller, Cat Cora, Rick Moonen, Donald Link, Tom Colicchio, Paul Bartolotta, Charlie Palmer, Nancy Silverton, and more will be there for the first-ever edition of this two-day celebration "of how beautiful life truly is." There's also an art component and a pretty badass musical lineup including The Killers, Beck, Passion Pit, and Jurassic 5.

Something missing? Email it in and we'll add to the roster.

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