Bourdain, Ripert, Park Road Books - and a food-writing club

You have to act fast (before 10 a.m. Friday, July 29), but Park Road Books has a special offer for tickets to "Good Vs. Evil: An Evening With Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert," which is coming to the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on Oct. 26. If you buy tickets here through Park Road Book's deal, you can save $5. (After 10 a.m. tomorrow, you just buy them through the Blumenthal site at the regular prices, which range from $34.50 to $150. Go here.)

Park Road Books also will be the bookseller at the event, which is a nice perk for a great independent bookstore that has brought so many cookbook authors to town. (To read my colleague Pam Kelley's recent story on Park Road Books, go here.)

And in other cookbook author news, Rick McDaniel, the author of "An Irresistible History of Southern Food," will sign copies of his book at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at PRB. McDaniel was quoted in my recent story on pimento cheese. (And you can read that here.)

One more thing (I saved the best for last): Park Road Books is starting a food writing club to discuss great food writing of the book variety. The first meeting is at 7 p.m. Aug. 30 to discuss "Cheesemonger: A Life on the Wedge," by Edgar Gordon. What a cool idea.

Bourdain and Ripert: Together on stage

Chef Eric Ripert and professional mouth Tony Bourdain are coming to Charlotte on Oct. 26 with their stage show "Good Vs. Evil: An Evening With Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert," at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.

Ripert is the chef of New York's famed restaurant Le Bernardin and the host of PBS's "Avec Eric." Bourdain, for the three people on the planet who haven't encountered him, is the host of Travel Channel's "No Reservations."

According to the Blumenthal, they will "share stories and muse on the place of food in our personal, community and global life." Tickets range from $34.50 to $150 for VIP packages and go on sale at 10 a.m. July 29, online at blumenthalarts.org, by calling 704-372-1000 or at the Blumenthal box office, 130 N. Tryon St.

So which one will play good and which will be evil? I can tell you that Ripert certainly has the nicer smile. And Bourdain certainly has the biggest . . . hmm. Let's just call it an ego.

Sorry, I'm struggling with what to say about Mr. Bourdain. He doesn't struggle with what to say about me and my profession. Back in March, he unleashed a diatribe on his blog in which he claimed that newspaper food editors spend all our time writing "kicky new muffin recipes."

Since I can only recall writing one muffin story in my life (back in the early 1990s, on how to make low-fat muffins that don't have the texture of rubber balls and certainly weren't kicky), I'm not sure how to welcome him to Charlotte. Perhaps I should send muffins.