Valentine's Day Cooking Class With Floyd Cardoz: This Week In Food Events

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it and chef Floyd Cardoz wants you to be prepared with a feast that will woo anyone. Manhattanites can look forward to supporting local farms and purveyors at a fundraising market next Thursday night. Meanwhile, Chicagoans can treat themselves to a star-studded dinner while supporting a worthy cause.

The man behind Paowalla in New York wants to teach you to spice up Valentine's Day dinner — literally. Chef Floyd Cardoz is holding an interactive cooking class of 20 tomorrow and will be demonstrating a four-course meal complete with wine and cocktail pairings. The menu is as follows: chai tea, avocado lobster salad with pickled ginger, upma polenta with coconut milk and asparagus, steak with coriander and Bengali-roasted mustard carrots and coconut tapioca pudding with gingered strawberries. Spots are still available and tickets can be found here.

New York's Seaport District hosting local purveyors, wineries and craft brewers at the Fulton Street Market Fundraiser on Thursday, January 18 at 6 p.m. Live music, tastings and more will be available. Tickets are $39 with 70% donated to the Fulton Market Association, a non-profit organization that supports local producers and farms.

Some of Chicago's biggest chefs are coming together at a benefit dinner in the name of suicide prevention and raising awareness of mental health. Ryan Mc Caskey, Laura Kelton, Brian Ahern, Ryan Pfeiffer and Andrew Zimmerman will be preparing a six-course dinner at 121 Plates on Sunday, January 21 at GreenRiver. The number 121 symbolizes the 121 people who commit suicide every day in America. All proceeds from the dinner will benefit Sip of Hope, a coffee shop that donates all of its profits to support for suicide prevention and mental health education. Tickets can be found here.