Extra Sauce - An evening of food tasting with Zahra Tangorra

Join us for a conversation, audience Q&A, and a tasting menu of dishes inspired by the book and made by Zahra! Zahra will be in conversation with Ana Cruz-Kayne. At twenty-two years old, Zahra Tangorra was trying on adulthood and attempting to find herself when a harrowing near-death experience stopped her in her tracks. It felt like a twisted version of a second chance. Who am I? she asked herself. What do I love? The answers started coming to her: Stuffed shells and giant meatballs at J&J’s, the Italian red sauce joint of her Long Island childhood. Her mother’s chocolate mousse pie and her father’s sweet and savory pea soup. The people, places, and experiences that made her her, the relationships both loving and fraught—they were all, for better and sometimes worse, inextricably bound up with food. In this memoir that celebrates both the delicious and the messy in life, Zahra reckons with the adrenaline-filled highs and devastating lows of opening cult-favorite Brooklyn restaurant Brucie and then closing it at the height of its popularity. From cooking her father his last meal and the unexpected yet beautiful things she found at the bottom of her grief to the relationships she couldn’t save through cooking, like her fractured family and the lover she had to leave in Tuscany, Zahra writes about the immense courage it takes to allow ourselves to be loved, extra sauce and all. Each ticket includes a tasting menu of dishes inspired by Zahra's memoir. Come try: Spanakopita dip with crudités Coconut cookies ...and more! Wine pairing recommendations will be available for purchase as well. Zahra Tangorra is a chef, restaurant consultant, and writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She is the chef and owner behind the cult-favorite Italian American popup Zaza Lazagna and the beloved former Cobble Hill restaurant Brucie. Brucie and Zaza have been featured in multiple publications and TV shows including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Village Voice, TIME, The Daily News, Eater, Grub Street, Glamour, MTV, The Martha Stewart Show, and ABC News. Zahra’s writing has been featured in New York Magazine, Lenny Letter, Speaking Broadly, and Epicurious. Ana Cruz Kayne is a NYC based actress and writer. Acting credits include— Film: “Barbie”, “Jerry and Marge Go Large”, “Little Woman”, “Saint Janet”, “Uncertainty”, “Another Earth”. Television: “Painkiller”, “Lioness”, “Partner Track”, “The Enemy Within”, “The Bold Type”, “Bull”, “Blue Bloods”, “Louie”, “Rescue Me”, “Law & Order”. Stage: most recently “Someone Spectacular” at the Signature Theater in NYC. Currently writing a one woman show about the intersectionality of mothers, daughters, sperm donors, and more! BA from Barnard College.