20 Food & Drink Events for August and Beyond

Despite being the arrival of the dog days of summer, there are a lot of food and drink events to look forward to in August and beyond. Organizations such as Cochon 555 and the James Beard Foundation have scheduled some pretty epic dining experiences across America, whether they involve cooking over live fire or "all-star" chefs working alongside local chefs for one-night-only. At the end of this month, Nordic cuisine will be back in the spotlight thanks to concurrence of Copenhagen Cooking and the return of Noma's MAD Symposium. Plus, British chef Jamie Oliver is hosting a food and music festival in the Cotswalds, while April Bloomfield is curating a food conference in Brooklyn. Here's a rundown of what's coming up:

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.

Cochon 555
When: Various dates.
Where: Napa, St. Louis, Memphis, Louisville, Hawaii, and Las Vegas
What: Traveling celebration of all things pork Cochon 555 is winding its way around the country over the coming months for a few different events. There's the Heritage Fire event in Napa where heritage animals will be cooked over live fire, plus a series of heritage barbecue events in St. Louis, Memphis, and Louisville. Then the pork orgy moves onto Hawaii for Cochon Island and Las Vegas for Cochon All-Stars.

Potlikker Napa
When: August 18, 2013
Where: Napa, CA
What: The Southern Foodways Alliance descends upon California wine country in August with a great big feast that is Potlikker Napa. Hosted at Whetstone Cellars, pitmasters Samuel Jones (Skylight Inn, NC), Rodney Scott (Scott's Bar-B-Q, SC), and Nick Pihakis will be providing all kinds of smoked meats. And it gets better: the likes of Christopher Kostow, Daniel Patterson, and Drew Robinson will be doing the rest of the cooking.

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.

Copenhagen Cooking
When: August 23 - September 1, 2013
Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
What: Late August is going to be all about Nordic cuisine between the MAD Symposium and Copenhagen Cooking, which bills itself as Northern Europe's largest food festival. Events include a dinner that pits niche wine pairings against Mikkeler beer to see what matches best, celebrations of a Nordic summer (with a lot of crayfish involved), a risotto world championship and so much more.

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. Speakers include chefs such as Alain Ducasse, 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.

A Magnificent Taste
When: August 27, 2013
Where: Chicago, IL
What: Some of Chicago's best known chefs and restaurants are going to be on hand for the evening offering bites during the city's annual Magnificent Mile festival. Rick Bayless and Art Smith are headlining the event, with Rick Gresh of David Burke's Primehouse, Ryan Poli of Little Market, and more expected among the lineup. A portion of proceeds go to the charity Common Threads.

The Big Feastival
When: August 31 - September 1, 2013
Where: Oxfordshire, UK
What: British chef Jamie Oliver is teaming up yet again with musician Alex James to host The Big Feastival on a farm in the Cotswalds. There's going to be a ton of food options, from the "Street Food Alley" to options from Oliver's own restaurants. The Big Feastival is also going to have a food market, cheese stands, "boutique" bars, and more. Oliver tells The Telegraph that there's going to be a focus on British produce.

Looking Ahead:

Taste America
When: September and October 2013
Where: Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Washington DC, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, Boston
What: The James Beard Foundation launches its Taste America tour this Fall, offering a series of epic one-night-only dinners in cities across the country. These dinners will feature local chefs as well as a visiting "all-star" chef — so Sean Brock is headed to DC, Daniel Patterson is going to New York, Rick Bayless will be eating some tacos in LA, and Wylie Dufresne is hitting up San Francisco.

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.

Taste Talks
When: September 14 - September 15, 2013
Where: Brooklyn, NY
What: New York chef April Bloomfield is curating the inaugural Taste Talks food conference in Brooklyn this September. They'll be bringing in the likes of Mario Batali, Wylie Dufresne, Oliver Strand, Dan Barber, Jonathan Waxman, and Alessandro Porcelli to talk about food porn, restaurant coffee, and more.

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 John Currence, Erik Anderson, 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.

EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival
When: September 27 — November 11, 2013
Where: Orlando, FL
What: Disney World's epic food festival returns to Epcot this year for about a month and a half of festivities. Unsurprisingly, the globe-trotting theme park will offer international marketplaces, as well as seminars, mixology lessons and something called "a Party for the Senses." There will also be Marketplace Discovery passports available to be stamped.

Food & Wine All-Star Weekend
When: October 4 - October 6, 2013
Where: Las Vegas, NV
What: The fourth annual Food & Wine All-Star Weekend hits Vegas in October with headliners such as Joël Robuchon, Jean Georges Vongerichten, Michael Mina, and Shawn McClain. In addition to brunches, dinners and boozy showcases, they're also hosting a burger bash with Robuchon and Mina on October 5.

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.

· All Eventwire Posts on Eater [-E-]