The Science of Wine, the annual fundraiser for the Orlando Science Center, returns to the Loch Haven facility on Saturday, April 27, from 7 to 10 p.m. The event has always blended fun and education, exploring the scientific aspects of winemaking while imbibing in the lab results. But this year’s agenda sounds scienceier than other years.

There will be two 20-minute presentations by Dr. Robin Back of UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management on South African winemaking, with samples of Fleur Du Cap 2018 South African Pinotage.

There will be scientific wine and cheese-pairing nuances from advanced sommelier Melissa McAvoy and Diahann Smith with Florida Dairy Farmers.

And in The Hive: A Makerspace, you can learn about making a wine caddy using a computer numerical control (CNC) machine. OK, we just went full nerd. 

If you’re really really quick you may still be able to score one of the few remaining seats to the Thursday, April 11, Chef’s Table dinner at Enzo’s on the Lake, featuring the wines from Italy’s Antinori Family. Chef Brandon will serve a five course dinner with pairings beginning at 6:30 p.m. Call the restaurant for more information and reservations, 407-834-9872.

Or do a little planning ahead to attend one of Enzo’s new Concerts Under the Stars featuring live music lakeside. The first is Sinatra Under The Stars on May 19 and ABBA Under The Stars on June 23. Please note that neither Frank Sinatra nor ABBA is expected to be there. Enzo’s Bites & Beverages will be available to purchase during the event. Tickets range from $20 in the picnic blanket area to $65 for premium table seating. Sinatra tickets here and ABBA tickets here.

You’ll also have to be quick to get in on the artichoke cooking class that chef Francesco Aiello is leading this Sunday, April 14, from noon to 3 p.m. at Francesco’s Ristorante & Pizza in Maitland. Call the restaurant at 407-960-5533.

Ricky Ly of Tasty Chomps, the local food blog, is organizing a fundraiser to benefit World Central Kitchen following the April 1 attack and killing of some of its aid workers in Gaza.

The fundraiser features an online auction, and as usual, Central Florida’s culinary community is stepping up to help. The auction items, which you can see here, feature restaurant gift cards, dining experiences with local food celebrities, and others. The list is growing, so check back often for updates.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) was started by Jose Andres, whose restaurant Jaleo is at Disney Springs. Over the years, WCK has moved in whenever disaster strikes – earthquakes, volcano eruptions – setting up kitchens under impossible conditions just to make certain people get fed. For several years, Andres’ name has come up when Nobel Peace Prize nominations come up.

Central Florida’s foodie folk have a healthy attraction to soup dumplings. Not to be confused with dumpling soup. Soup dumplings – xiao long bao in Chinese – are purse-shaped dumplings that instead of minced meat or vegetables have soup inside. 

It’s a neat trick that usually has first-time xiao long baoers wondering how they get the soup inside. But there’s no one in the kitchen with a syringe painstakingly injecting broth into the dumplings. Instead, the soup is reduced and cooled to a gelatinous consistency so that cubes of gelatin can be placed inside the wonton for shaping. When heated, voila – or whatever the Chinese word is for voila – the soup “melts” and heats as the dumpling cooks.

To get an idea of what the finished product should be, visit KungFu Kitchen, a restaurant in the Lake Buena Vista area from New York chef Peter Song. (The name of Song’s two New York restaurants are Kung Fu Kitchen, but for some reason the Orlando shop is KungFu, so we’ll go with that.)

Kaya, the Filipino restaurant in the Mills 50 District co-owned by Jamilyn Bailey and Lordfer Lalicon, has advanced to the finals in the James Beard Foundation Award’s Best New Restaurant category.

Kaya will be the only restaurant representing Central Florida in the finals. Jennifer Berdin and Mark Berdin of Kadence were semifinalists in the Best Chef – South category, as was Henry Moso of Kabooki Sushi, but none advanced to the finals. Moso was a finalist in that category last year, the first Central Florida chef to reach the final ballot in the awards’ history.

The 2024 Gala for Orlando Shakes in Partnership with UCF, celebrating the professional theater’s 35th season, is Sunday April 14, and once again I’ve selected a collection of restaurants and experiences for the event’s silent auction.

Unfortunately, the gala is sold out. But you can still participate in the silent auction. In fact, it’s open online now. Just click here.

An impressive array of restaurants and resorts have donated gift cards, dinners, overnight stays and in a couple of cases dinner and an overnight stay. I may be bidding against you on some of these items.

Proceeds will help Orlando’s oldest professional theater to continue producing top notch shows – “Ain’t Misbehavin’” runs April 10 through 28 – and also support its educational programs that help introduce kids to the wonders of live productions.

Here is a sampling of some of the items you’ll find on the gala’s silent auction page.

The Florida Michelin Guide updates will be announced on April 18, and while I already told you the names of the restaurants that will be added to the guide in some way – whether as recommended restaurants, Bib Gourmands or starred we don’t know yet – I can tell you that according to my sources at least one newly-starred Orlando restaurant will be added to the list. Can’t tell you the name yet, but you won’t be surprised. Or at least you won’t be as surprised as when the restaurant first entered the list without a star. 

A listening room is about to become a tasting room. I told you a while back that Judson’s Live, the terrific new venue at the Dr. Phillips Center, was planning a series of wine tasting events featuring master sommelier George Miliotes, owner of Wine Bar George at Disney Springs.

Now I can tell you that the first in an initial series of three events titled “Tasting with
Master Sommelier George Miliotes at Judson’s Live” will be Sunday, April 7, at 1:30 p.m. Subsequent tastings will be May 5 and June 2.

The JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek recently sent two of its restaurant managers and sommeliers to Louisville, Kentucky, and Buffalo Trace Distillery to hand select a barrel of Eagle Rare whiskey just for the resort.

The tasters settled on Barrel #122 and the distillery siphoned the 10-year-old single barrel select bourbon into bottles stamped with a special label designating it as JW Marriott Bonnet Creek’s own. You can sample the whiskey now in any number of craft cocktails at the resort’s bars. Maybe try it in The Elite, bartender Samantha Deacy’s creation at the Sear + Sea lobby bar that she demonstrated for us in an episode of On the House.

(There’s probably a good chance you’ll get a taste at our upcoming Dinner Party at the resort’s rooftop bar, illume. Watch for an announcement of the date and details soon, but keep this in mind: The last time we did a Dinner Party at JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek it sold out within 30 minutes of being announced in my newsletter.)

Smokemade Meats + Eats will softly open its new permanent home beginning Friday, Mar. 22. It will open at 11 a.m. and close when it runs out of food. So, I don’t know…noon, maybe? Anyway, if you want to try it in its first days, get there early. Pitmaster Tyler Brunache has been serving his Texas-style barbecue in a popup fashion over the past few years. Smokemade took over the former PIzza Hut hut at 1400 S. Crystal Lake Drive, Orlando, in the Curry Ford West District that most recently had been Italian House Pizza & Restaurant. Smokemade’s website currently lists hours only Friday through Sunday.