Food news from around Puget Sound

Going back to (cooking) school

Why let kids have all the fun? Cooking schools around the region are rolling out fall and winter schedules, teaching everything from knife handling and pantry stocking to dim sum, sauce making and Persian cuisine.

A sampler: Learn to create bread dough, spongecake, scones, apple pie, pumpkin spice cake and chocolate souffle at Sur La Table's baking boot camp, 6:30 p.m. Oct. 22 for $69 per person (ages 18 and older). Cindy Mushet, author of "The Art and Soul of Baking," leads the class at the kitchen chain's Kirkland location (call 425-827-5541 for details).

NuCulinary cooking school offers a variety of classes in Asian cuisine at the Bellevue Uwajimaya store, including a homemade Chinese dinner and a range of Vietnamese vittles (www.nuculinary.com or 206-932-3855). Seattle's Blue Ribbon Cooking teaches English comfort food with a lager tasting and cooking to fill a Japanese bento box (www.blueribboncooking.com or 206-328-2442). Cooking classes also abound at PCC Natural Markets, Whole Foods and through a variety of private facilities and instructors.

Local chefs are ready for some football

Kaspar Donier of Kaspars Special Events and Catering and John Howie of Bellevue's Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar are among a team of chefs across the country contributing to "The Sunday Night Football Cookbook," a collection of recipes from chefs, NFL players and celebrities.

Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck joins the fun with Come Back Chili. Howie offers Sizzling Dungeness Crab Cakes; Donier shares his recipe for Barley Mushroom Risotto. Other eats include Bobby Flay's Skewered Lamb Tenderloin With Cracked Wheat Salad, Baltimore chef Nancy Longo's Soft-Shell Crab Tempura With Tomato Dipping Sauce and Emeril Lagasse's Country Gumbo. Find it online or at bookstores for $27.95.

Sip, sip at the grocery store

Thirty grocery stores around the state will offer wine and beer samples as part of a Liquor Control Board pilot program that launches Oct. 1.

Participating Puget Sound-area stores include Albertsons in Mill Creek, Top Food & Drug in Woodinville, Safeway locations on Bainbridge Island, in downtown Bellevue, Sammamish, Northeast 137th Street in Kirkland and QFC locations in Seattle's Wallingford and Capitol Hill neighborhoods, downtown Bellevue and on 161st Avenue Northeast in Redmond. Fifteen independently owned grocery stores are still being finalized. Each market will hold at least six tastings during the yearlong program and must limit customers to no more than 4 ounces total per visit (samples must be 2 ounces or less). Visit liq.wa.gov for more details.

Other morsels

All aboard, Husky fans: Ivar's Salmon House has reintroduced its Husky Brunch Cruise for home games this fall. The spread on board features alder-roasted salmon, oysters and clams, Dungeness crab, shrimp, a carving station with prime rib and ham, crepes and omelets, clam chowder and more, plus a dessert bar. It's $49.95 per adult and $34.95 for kids 12 and younger. Call 206-632-0767 for reservations.

Heading to New York: Chef Brian Scheehser of Kirkland's Trellis restaurant (in the Heathman Hotel, 220 Kirkland Ave., 425-284-5900, www.trellisrestaurant.net) will cook at the James Beard House Sept. 24 as part of its Best Hotel Chefs in America series. He'll showcase organic produce from his own Woodinville farm in a menu that includes King Salmon With Apple-Wood Smoked Sauteed Granny Smith Apples and Cider Reduction and Lemon Sage Flan.

Coming this fall: Urbane, a new, local-food-focused restaurant and bar at 1635 Eighth Ave., Seattle; Pizza Fusion, part of a chain of organic, green-centric pizza parlors that deliver via hybrid cars, at 1412 12th Ave. in Seattle (www.pizzafusion.com).

Got food news? Send it to kgaudette@seattletimes.com

Karen Gaudette, Seattle Times staff reporter