Benefits, Wine and Food Tastings, and Lessons on the Cuisine of Chihuahua - Dining Calendar Benefits (Appetites Welcome) On Gansevoort Plaza, the cobblestone area at Gansevoort Street and Ninth Avenue in the meatpacking district, chefs will serve tastes of their specialties on Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. to aid the NYC Lab School for Collaborative Studies. Tickets: $35 in advance at tastesnyc.org; $45 at the event. A five-course dinner will be prepared by New Jersey chefs on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Alba Vineyard, 269 Riegelsville Warren Glen Road, Milford, N.J., to aid the Foodshed Alliance: $125, (908) 995-7800 or foodshedalliance.org. The Citymeals-on-Wheels outdoor tasting party in the gardens at Rockefeller Center is set for Monday at 7:30 p.m., with dishes from nearly 50 chefs on the theme of food and film. Stanley Tucci, who co-directed and appeared in "Big Night," is the honorary chairman. Tickets start at $600: (212) 687-1290. Barbecue, beer and bands will support the Gowanus Canal Conservancy on June 6 from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Green Building, 452 Union Street (Bond Street), Gowanus, Brooklyn: $47.57 for members, $57.92 for nonmembers and $21.69 for children 12 and younger. Adult prices include two beers. Tickets: brownpapertickets.com, event 246241. Wine and Food Tastings There will be a tasting of sake and sochu in many styles on Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost Street (Meeker Avenue), Williamsburg. Light food from Ganso, Harris Salat's restaurant that's opening soon, will be served: $25 from (718) 389-2982 or thebrooklynkitchen.com. On Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m., Haven's Kitchen, 109 West 17th Street, will offer a tasting of dishes from all parts of a hog, with cocktails and music: $59.02 in advance from hoghaven.eventbrite.com; $65 at the door. Fresh herring from the Netherlands will arrive at the Grand Central Oyster Bar on June 6 at noon and will be served until 9:30 p.m. that day, and then from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. through June 22, at $7 for a pair of fillets, $7.95 for herring salad. Reservations: (212) 490-6650. Kurt Timmermeister, a cheesemaker on Vashon Island near Seattle, will talk about his Camembert-style cheese, Dinah's Cheese, on June 6 at 7 p.m. at Beecher's Handmade Cheese, 900 Broadway (20th Street). It will be tasted with wine, and each guest will get a wheel. Tickets: $43.19 at the store or at bcnykurtwood.eventbrite.com. The Cuisine of Chihuahua Zarela Martínez's program on the food of Chihuahua, in Northern Mexico, begins Sunday at noon at Jimmy's No. 43, 43 East Seventh Street, with a tasting and demonstration on using a pig from nose to tail: $65. On June 6 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Casa Mezcal, 86 Orchard Street (Delancey Street), it continues with free tastings of mezcal and sotol. On June 7 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Centrico, 211 West Broadway (Franklin Street), there will be food prepared by her son the chef Aarón Sánchez; presentations by an anthropologist and a pottery-maker; and a talk on the Rarámuri runners of the Copper Canyon; all free, with a cash bar. On June 9 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Ms. Martínez will teach a class in Chihuahua cooking at Sueños, 311 West 17th Street; $50. Tickets: zarela.com/2012/chihuahua-queridos.