Went to a thing here at the university last night that involved Diana Kennedy speaking on cooking in Mexico and hawking her new book. It started with her presenting a slide show and lecture with MC duties by Darrell Corti and another local food maven. After the slides were done, local chef Kurt Spataro, who studied with her before opening a restaurant focused on regional Mexican cuisine, related some anecdotes about his time with her and read a couple of passages from the book.
This staged part of the show was so-so. Kennedy's slides were interesting and I learned a bit about Oaxacan cooking. Spataro was funny and the passages he read (one on preparing iguanas and one on how they butcher goats down there) were quite entertaining. He was absolutely correct in calling Kennedy the "Anti-Rachael Ray". On the other hand, there was a little too much precious heroine-worship going on in the room and they were a touch heavy-handed in promoting the book.
After the staged part, there was a reception that featured wines from Ceja and Mi Sueno wineries (both owned and operated by Mexican families in the Napa Valley), mezcal, and several antojitos prepared by Spataro. The foods were excellent albeit nothing fancy - a couple of different quesadilla variants, a meatball in a chipotle sauce, and a little taco with lettuce, chile strips, and some kind of tasty sauce. Mexican beers were also available. I thought the wines were pretty tasty, particularly those by Ceja. Prices were high on them, though, which is par for the course for anything coming out of Napa.
This all happened in the "Sensory Theater" in the new Robert Mondavi Institute here at Davis. It's an amazing facility, with kitchens for teaching and for service, a room of mementos from Mondavi, and the theater itself. It's set up for teaching sensory evaluation of food and wine, so each seat has a table in front of it with removable baffles to isolate the participant from his/her neighbors. The color of the lighting can be adjusted in order to mask the color of whatever's being tasted. The Institute also has a state of the art winery, brewery, and food production facility (think canning, roasting, etc.) as well as labs and classrooms. It's really something.
Overall, not a bad evening. I learned a little bit and had a tasty, light supper.