DATEBOOK

Relief Efforts: By eating in your favorite restaurant this week, you may be able to contribute to the disaster relief efforts in New York. A number of restaurants in the Southland plan to donate a portion of their proceeds on Thursday to one of several funds, including the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and the Windows of Hope fund, set up to provide aid to family members of food service workers who were victims of the World Trade Center tragedy.

To learn more about the many participating restaurants, go to these two Web sites: https://www.windowsofhope.org or https://www.dineforamerica.com. You can also contact your favorite restaurant.

Some restaurants are holding fund-raisers on other days, such as Wahib’s Middle East Restaurant, which tonight presents a buffet of Lebanese food from 6 to 8. A $15 donation will benefit the Red Cross. Wahib’s Middle Eastern Restaurant, 910 E. Main St., Alhambra. (626) 281-1006.

THURSDAY

Food, Wine & Microbrews: The Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County throws this food, wine and microbrew beer tasting every year to raise funds for feeding the hungry. Orange County restaurants and regional vineyards and microbreweries hand out their wares to the strains of live jazz. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The Macy’s Home Store/Crate & Barrel wing of South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bear St., Costa Mesa. (714) 771-1343. https://www.foodfest.org. $40 in advance; $50 at the door.

FRIDAY

Southern Culture Class: Learn about Creole and Cajun food and culture. 7 p.m. The University Club (near the corner of Zelzah Avenue and Dearborn Street) at California State University, Northridge Extension, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. (818) 677-2786. $45.

SATURDAY

Cooking From the Garden Seminar: The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens hosts this all-day seminar with edible-landscape writer Rosalind Creasy, gourmet seed retailer Renee Shepherd, heirloom vegetable expert Barbara Spencer of Windrose Farms and edible-flower maven Cathy Barash. The seminar breaks for lunch at noon whereupon you can attend a special herb luncheon by Huntington chef Dory Ford. (Or make your reservations in the Rose Garden Tea Room.) 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-3571. $55 for the seminar, $28.50 additional for the herb lunch.

Eat at the V.A.: Brooke Williamson, chef at Zax restaurant, teaches this class with lunch afterward at the Veterans Garden on the grounds of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. 10 a.m. The Veterans Garden at Constitution Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, inside the Veterans Administration Center, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. (310) 268-4062. $30.

Slow Food or No? Evan Kleiman, chef and owner of Angeli Caffe and host of the “Good Food” radio program on KCRW, discusses the Slow Food movement and its relation to fast food in this meeting of the Culinary Historians. 10:30 a.m. In the Mark Taper Auditorium of the Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., downtown L.A. (213) 228-7101. Free.

TUESDAY

Italian Wine Dinner: Chef Thomas Munoz goes Italian with this wine dinner, making fennel and mushroom salad with shaved Parmesan, striped bass on a white-bean puree, braised lamb shank with eggplant gnocchi and more. The Flask Liquor pours Italian wines for the night. 7 p.m. Emmanuel, 11929 Ventura Blvd., Studio City. (818) 766-3128. Make reservations through the Flask at (818) 761-5373. $79, pre-paid.

OCT. 17

Pepin Visit: Jacques Pepin, former dean of special programs at the French Culinary Institute in New York and host of television cooking shows (including the PBS series “Jacques Pepin Celebrates”), comes to town to promote his new book “Jacques Pepin Celebrates” (Knopf, $40). He signs copies at 7 p.m. in the Bookstore of the California School of Culinary Arts, 561 Green St., Pasadena. (626) 683-1354. Free, no reservations needed. At 8 p.m. he makes a five-course meal of rabbit rillettes , onion soup gratinee , venison steaks with black currant sauce and cheesecake from his book. Restaurant 561, 561 Green St., Pasadena. (626) 405-1561. For reservations, call Linda Urban at Vroman’s Bookstore, (626) 449-5320. $85 for dinner, pre-paid.