From the folks who brought you the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, the Gourmet Latino Festival comes to New York  and New Jersey June 4-12. The festival will include two wine dinners featuring tasty south-of-the-border food and drink, plus seminars like “Agave & Maize: The Crown Jewels of Mexico’s Spirits and Cuisines”, “Exploring Peru’s Gastronomy and Its Pisco Trail,” and “Feel the Spirit of Brazil.” June 8-12, 16 participating restaurants will offer up “authentic” Latin cuisine…

What: The Gourmet Latino Festival

When: June 4-12, 2010

Where: New York & New Jersey

Tickets are $35 for the seminars and $75 for wine dinners.

I can imagine few things more mouth-watering than a table full of Heath pottery. Except perhaps a table full of food that is placed inside Heath pottery. Or dinner at Chez Panisse, served in Heath pottery. I took this photo at their spectacular showroom in Los Angeles (there are also stores in Sausalito, where the dishes are made, and in San Francisco’s Ferry Market building); alongside the brilliantly colored and earth-toned stoneware pieces, there is a bounty of flatware, linens (made out of actual linen!), cookbooks, and glassware. It’s a food-lover’s paradise–in fact, celebrity chef Jeremy Fox (the very recently departed chef of Napa’s Ubuntu and Food&Wine‘s “Best New Chef” of 2008) was loading up a cart of Heath wares while I was there. (He was needing to impress someone, that’s for sure…Perhaps investors for a new L.A. venture? Hmm?) He added a pile of Heath’s artful tiles to the plates and bowls–he apparently uses them to serve tiny amuses bouche. Clearly, Heath makes everything taste better.