Krishnendu Ray to join distinguished panel on New York's culinary past and future at New York Public Library

A Farewell to Quenelles: Changing Restaurant Culture in New York
Wednesday, October 15 at 7 p.m., South Court Auditorium, Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street)

Is it au revoir for haute cuisine? Will molecular gastronomy ever rule New York? What's with the love affair with all things porcine? If no one blogs about a restaurant does it still exist? How do I get a reservation at Momofuku Ko?

Don't miss this spirited conversation about the culinary future (and storied past) of our famously food-critical city, featuring Mitchell Davis, cookbook author and vice president of the James Beard Foundation; Paul Freedman, Yale professor, former Cullman Center Fellow, and the author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination; Josh Ozersky, a.k.a. "Mr. Cutlets," author of The Hamburger: A History and Meat Me in Manhattan; Krishnendu Ray, NYU Professor and author of The Migrant's Table; and Laura Shapiro, the award-winning author of Julia Child and other books, as well as a contributor to Gourmet Magazine.

A Farewell to Quenelles will be accompanied by a one-night-only exhibition of New York City menus drawn from the Library's unparalleled Frank E. Buttolph Menu Collection. Curious to know how New York tastes evolved from calf's head soup to grilled corn pebbles? The exhibition will include not only the oldest American menu in the collection - - the Astor House "Lady's Ordinary" menu from 1843 -- but also last week's offerings at the revolutionary WD-50 on the Lower East Side.

TICKETS: $15 General Admission; $10 Library Donors and Seniors. FREE for students with valid identification. Tickets may be purchased by visiting www.smarttix.com or by calling the Smarttix box office at (212) 868-4444.

For more information about the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, visit www.nypl.org/csw.