Events

Diamond Chef 2014 Pits Capello, Guizol this Tuesday

June 1, 2014 by arfoodie 1 Comment

Disclaimer: Although I’ve attended for free for years as a student or volunteer, this year marks the first time I’ll be sitting at a “big kid” table at Diamond Chef. Organizers offered me a ticket in exchange for my normal coverage, so I’m telling you and the FTC powers that be. Sorry for two “sponsored” things in a row, technically.

It’s time once again for that iconic culinary throwdown, the Diamond Chef competition final, this year pitting Executive Chef Daniel Capello of Chenal Country Club against Executive Sous Chef Marc Guizol of the Capital Hotel. The ticketed event will be held this Tuesday, June 3, 6 p.m. at the Statehouse Convention Center. Tickets are still available, $200 each or $2,000 for a table of 10.

Diamond Chef is a fundraising event for the Pulaski Technical College Foundation, specifically for the Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute, or CAHMI (Read: “Cammie”) for short. If you know me at all, you know I’ve got quite the soft spot for CAHMI, being a graduate and now sitting on the advisory board. Every dollar raised at Diamond Chef helps students have the equipment and opportunities they need to be the well-trained workforce that Arkansas deserves.

I’ve had the privilege of covering the Diamond Chef event for several years now (excepting last year, when I was at Disney World — my bad), since my days as a culinary arts student at Pulaski Tech. Since then, the event has become even bigger, better and more fun!

Students and faculty line both sides of the doors while welcoming Diamond Chef guests.

The event starts with a cocktail hour in the lobby, giving attendees a chance to mingle and start bidding on the well-stocked silent auction. Later, attendees are ushered into the ballroom, flanked on both sides by CAHMI students and faculty in their white chef coats. The guests are then seated at round tables for 10 while dining on a multi-course meal. (And because I know you’re wondering, none of these meals are made by the frantically-competing chefs, just by the amazingly talented culinary staff at Statehouse.)

While you watch, the two finalists, each with two sous chefs, are presented with the one secret ingredient that must be used in every dish presented that night, and they have but 60 minutes in which to do it. At least three courses are required, but being the overachievers that they are, we often see more. A panel of expert judges will score the chefs on creativity, taste and presentation, while Chef Andre Poirot of Crowne Plaza Little Rock will serve as a technical judge, scoring the chefs on sanitation and organization. Note: I’ve seen chefs lose by a fraction of a point for sanitation. It matters!

The seated part of the event also includes a live auction, filled with fantasy prizes and trips for foodies. (I swear, one day I’ll bid on a trip to eat at the renowned French Laundry, if that auction item appears again.)

I hear you…”Wasn’t there a Diamond Chef just a few weeks ago?” Well, yes, gentle reader; I’m glad you remember. That was the preliminaries, an exciting, multi-round free event that chooses this year’s challenger to the previous year’s Diamond Chef champion. See, here’s a selfie I took with Chef Guizol just after his big win!

We were having a silly moment. He was pretty happy. He also said his out-of-town friends saw everything on Fancy Pants Foodie!

At this preliminary event and at other food events around town, I’ve been amazed at Chef Guizol’s skill. It’s a testament to the stacked deck of awesome over at the Capital Hotel that someone of his stature is second in command (to Executive Chef Joel Antunes) and is flanked by tournant (or roundsman, basically a chef who can do anything at any station) Arturo Solis, whose performance at last year’s AHA Culinary Classic was as astounding as any head chef in town.

Guizol came away as the winner of last year’s Arkansas Hospitality Association Iron Chef competition, so he’ll be a formidable competitor at this year’s Diamond Chef.

Meanwhile, Chef Daniel Capello is a Diamond Chef legend. He won the title last year as well as in 2010, and has long been active in culinary competitions and other events such as Wildwood’s Wine and Food Festival, CAHMI’s Chef Ball, and the March of Dimes Signature Chef event.

The main thing that stands out to me about Capello is his generosity to the local food community. If you are a culinary student or up-and-coming chef in Arkansas, chances are you’ve had the chance to visit with him and glean from his experience. His attendance at all the aforementioned events show that he’s not too busy or too good to share the culinary wealth.

I hope you’l join me this Tuesday at the Diamond Chef final event. It’s a great event for a great cause. Our students at CAHMI very much appreciate your support of their education!

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Diamond Chef Final
benefiting Pulaski Technical College
Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute
Statehouse Convention Center
6-10 p.m. (Cocktails from 6-7)
$200 each / $2000 for a table of 10

Bake Sale Results, Cheese-Off, and a Helena Pop-Up

May 9, 2014 by arfoodie 2 Comments

Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale Results

I am happy to report that, as of this writing, we are hovering around the $2,600 mark for this year’s Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry!

While we’re a little shy of our $3,000 goal, it’s still a great haul, and it’s more than we raised last year. Many, many thanks to our committee members, volunteers, bakers, donors and everyone involved!

If you’d still like to help, I’m not closing our sale until next Friday, May 16. You can donate cash directly to No Kid Hungry at this link, and it will credit to our fundraiser. Share with your friends and co-workers!

(One day soon I’ll tell the side-story for that day…short version: I stepped out for a couple hours to hang out with MC Hammer, for business reasons.)

Get Cheesed Off: Pimento Cheese Competition and Tasting

While at the sale, the PR Maven at Salesforce dropped by to pick up some goodies and tell us about some goings on this weekend. Every year, the day before Mother’s Day, the museum holds an awesome event, the Territorial Fair. (Seriously, if you have kids — or even if you don’t — you have to go!)

This year, they are adding an even more savory element: A pimento cheese competition. Oh my word.

Competitors include Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Hillcrest Artisan Meats and Capital Hotel Bar and Grill. Visitors to the Territorial Fair can sample all the pimento cheese entries from 1 to 4 p.m., voting for a People’s Choice award to be given at the end of the day.

The Territorial Fair and the Pimento Cheese-Off are free. Historic Arkansas Museum is located at 200 E. Third Street in Little Rock.

The original Interstate Grocery, which was the first sponsor of the King Biscuit Time radio show. This storefront will be the location of tomorrow night’s pop-up.

It’s Sold Out, And It’s So Cool: “Interstate Grocery” Pop-Up in Helena

Saturday night, Helena will host what’s likely one of the hottest culinary tickets in the state, a night with Chefs Shane Henderson and Jason Godwin. Henderson is currently a chef with food wholesaler Ben E. Keith (but you probably remember him as the opening chef for Argenta Market), and Godwin has experience in catering and restaurants, best known as the chef proprietor of Dogtown Coffee and Cookery.

They’ll serve four courses of Delta-centric delights at this sold-out event, meant to highlight not only the foods of the region, but also the success a similar permanent restaurant might enjoy in the area. Tickets were $30.

Julia Malinowski, director of the Helena Advertising and Promotion Commission, hopes the event will bring attention to the city’s potential for a “date night” type restaurant.

“Many of our residents are traveling 45 minutes to Greenville (Miss.), where investors have opened up opportunities for several restaurants to open,” she said. “We have some people willing to invest right here in Helena in a great restaurant if just the right person comes along.”

While it’s too late to join the party this Saturday, it’s pretty much a done deal that there will be more. Watch this space for details (with more notice next time, my bad) on future events.

Craft party for the Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale this Saturday!

April 7, 2014 by arfoodie Leave a Comment

Feeling crafty? Join us this Saturday!

Tag-making and craft party for Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale

Saturday, April 12, 3-6 p.m.

Home of Joel and Amanda DiPippa (Please RSVP for address – note “craft party”)

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The fine folks over at No Kid Hungry want more than just food bloggers to participate in their big bake sale this year, which we’re participating in on May 3. With that in mind, we’re holding a special event this Saturday for those who like to craft!

We’ll make tags for our own baked goods, or for someone else if you aren’t baking. Or, you could make thank you cards (see awesome example by Cassi Wortham), decorations for the sale itself, signage, anything that will make our sale more awesome!

If you want, you could even make something to sell in our online auction, starting next week. Packs of greeting cards, gift tags, etc. would work here, too.

Just show up with your own cardmaking/scrapbooking/papercraft supplies and be ready to share!

If you haven’t already, RSVP by filling out your interest in the craft party on our Google doc.

See you there!

Save the Date: 2014 Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale is Coming!

March 13, 2014 by arfoodie 1 Comment

Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry
Saturday, May 3, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.+
6th and Main, North Little Rock
(Next to the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market)

Click here to bake or volunteer

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Hey friends,

I see from my search terms that some of you are looking for details about the upcoming Arkansas Blogger Bake Sale for No Kid Hungry! So, I suppose it’s time to tell you what’s up for 2014. (First note: You may have noticed that the word “Food” is missing from the formerly-Food-Blogger-Bake-Sale. This came from the No Kid Hungry national folks, as to involve more non-food bloggers, which we did anyways.)

Background

If you’re unfamiliar, No Kid Hungry is a national nonprofit with several programs that fight childhood hunger in the United States. I’ve been a part of one of them, Cooking Matters, which teaches lower-income families about nutrition and basic cooking skills. Our books, program materials and much of the food were made possible by bake sales just like this one. Bake sales make a difference!

Event Details

This year’s bake sale is Saturday, May 3, at our same location at the Argenta Certified Arkansas Farmers’ Market, 6th and Main in North Little Rock. The hours will be at least 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., but we’re thinking about extending them to catch more folks going to another event in the area later that day.

New this year: a crafting/tag-making/decor prepping party for those of you who can’t bake your way out of a Ziplock bag. (Ha! Or even if you can…) That will be on April 12, 3 – 6 p.m. (will send address to RSVPs). We’ll make tags for the baked goods, thank-you cards for donors, crafty items for the auction and some decor for the bake sale itself.

Bigger and better this year: an online silent auction for larger baked goods and even non-food goods and services donated by area businesses. Check it out here in coming weeks.

How to Help

Open this Google doc and fill in whatever you think you might be able to do or provide. It’s okay if the details are sketchy right now. 🙂 The possibilities include:

Bake items for the sale (both individuals and professionals)
Help during the sale
Donate items for the pre-sale auction (doesn’t have to be food)
Attend the crafting/tag-making party

You can also just help us promote the sale itself on your own social channels. Please tag our Facebook page as well as No Kid Hungry’s Facebook or Twitter.

THANK YOU, and watch the Facebook page and our bake sale website for more details!

2014 Diamond Chef Prelims Play by Play

March 6, 2014 by arfoodie 1 Comment

Chef Philippe Ducrot of Pulaski Tech (right) looks on as his sous works on a basket ingredient.

Check here for live updates on today’s 2014 Diamond Chef preliminary competition. Today’s results will choose the competitor who will cook against Chef Dan Capello in the Diamond Chef final event on June 3.

You can drop in anytime today between 2 – 8 p.m. to watch the action yourself. Free appetizers and beverages will be available for the final rounds, 5 – 8 p.m.

Heat 1:
Chef Philippe Ducrot of PTC Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute vs. Chef Coby Smith of Arkansas Heart Hospital.

Basket ingredients:
Eye of round, buttermilk, meyer lemons, parsnips, toasted sesame water crackers, tequila, salted caramel Cracker Jacks, sassafras.

Winner: Chef Philippe Ducrot of Pulaski Tech.

Heat 2:
Chef Marc Guizol of the Capital Hotel vs. Chef Elliot Jones of YaYa’s.

Basket ingredients:
Chuck roll, ice cream mix, guava, fava beans, Funyuns, marinated peppers, peppermint Schnapps, lemon verbena powder.

Winner: Chef Marc Guizol of Capital Hotel.

Heat 3:
Chef Jason Morell of Starving Artist vs. Chef Payne Harding of Cache.
Winner will move on to compete against Chef Guizol.

Basket ingredients:
Beef bottom round, cottage cheese, seckel pears, porcini mushrooms, cheddar and jalapeño chips, hearts of palm, Szechuan peppercorns, Gentleman Jack.

Winner: Chef Payne Harding of Cache.

Semifinal:
Chef Philippe Ducrot of Pulaski Tech vs. Chef Payne Harding of Cache.

Basket ingredients:
Tri-tip, sour cream, dragon fruit, Belgian endive, mango chutney, cheddar munchies, Gold Bacardi rum, hibiscus powder

Winner: Chef Philippe Ducrot of Pulaski Tech.

FINAL:
Chef Philippe Ducrot vs. Chef Marc Guizol.

Basket ingredients:
Strip loin, plain lowfat yogurt, passionfruit, sunchoke, saffron, instant oatmeal, vodka, cocoa nibs.

Winning dish by Chef Marc Guizol of the Capital Hotel.

PRELIMINARY COMPETITION WINNER:
Chef Marc Guizol of the Capital Hotel.

Chef Guizol will compete against last year’s winner, Chef Dan Capello, in the ticketed final event at the Statehouse Convention Center on June 3.

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ProStart Culinary/Hospitality Winners Announced; Diamond Chef Prelims Tomorrow

March 5, 2014 by arfoodie 1 Comment

A student from North Pulaski High School’s Simply Delicious restaurant competing last week. North Pulaski’s team won the culinary competition.

If the weather outside hasn’t caught on that it’s almost spring, the event calendar is getting the hint. This time of year brings back some of our favorite food-themed competitions and events.

Last week, the annual ProStart Student Invitational brought the state’s top high school culinary and hospitality programs to Pulaski Tech’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute for a couple days of intense competition. (What, you didn’t know ProStart was a thing? It’s like home ec on steroids, doing a lot of the stuff we did in culinary school.)

Thursday, six culinary teams were set up in the institute’s open atrium, each at a professional workstation. Each team presented a multi-course menu to a team of judges, and I got to watch some of the cooking action. These guys and gals had it going on.

In the end, North Pulaski High School’s Simply Delicious restaurant team won the culinary competition. On Friday, Northwest Arkansas Community College Early College Experience won the hospitality management competition. Both teams will advance to the national ProStart competition.

Tomorrow, the Diamond Chef preliminary competition takes place from 2 – 8 p.m., also at Pulaski Tech CAHMI. This free event is to identify this year’s competitor against last year’s champion, Chef Dan Capello of Chenal Country Club, in the ticketed final event on June 3 at the Statehouse Convention Center.

The schedule has just been announced:

Heat 1, 2pm: Chef Ducrot of PTC Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute vs. Chef Coby Smith of Arkansas Heart Hospital.

Heat 2, 3:00pm: Chef Marc Guizol of the Capital Hotel vs. Chef Elliot Jones of YaYa’s.

Heat 3 at 4p: Chef Jason Morell of Starving Artist vs. Chef Payne Harding of Cache.

The final two rounds after that will determine this year’s competitor.

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Photos from last week’s ProStart competition:

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Diamond Chef Prelims Set for March 6 at PTC

February 19, 2014 by arfoodie 1 Comment

Chef Dan Capello, Executive Chef of Chenal Country Club, competing in last year’s Diamond Chef preliminaries. Capello won last year’s final and will compete against this year’s preliminary winner. Photo courtesy of Pulaski Tech.

UPDATE 3/5/14: Specific competitor heat times announced here.

What better setting for this year’s Diamond Chef preliminaries than a shiny new culinary school, right?

The annual Diamond Chef competition is a fundraiser for the Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute, taking place in two phases. The preliminary competition, taking place at the school on Thursday, March 6, culls the field of several talented local chefs (see graphic below) down to one competitor, using an elimination-style setup. Each heat features a mystery basket of ingredients that both chefs in that round must use.

Then later in the spring, at a ticketed event at the Statehouse Convention Center, the finalist goes mano-a-mano (or woman-o, if one had entered) on-stage against the previous year’s winner, Chef Dan Capello of Chenal Country Club, while the audience enjoys a multi-course meal. In the final, a single secret ingredient is revealed that must be used in each of at least three courses.

This year marks the preliminary event’s move to the institute’s new building, which opened to students last fall. The preliminary had been held at the former Peabody Hotel in years past.

If you’ve never been to the preliminary competition, it’s a great time to jump in. As opposed to the final, this event is free, and this year it will include some complimentary hors d’oerves and beverages from 5 – 8 p.m. (Thanks, sponsors!) You can drop in anytime between 2 and 8 p.m. to watch the action.

Diamond Chef Arkansas Preliminary Competition
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute
13000 Interstate 30, Little Rock
Drop in 2 – 8 p.m. (hors d’oerves and beverages 5 – 8 p.m.)
FREE

Gluten Free Chicken Pot Pie Class at PTC March 22

February 14, 2014 by arfoodie 4 Comments

Amazeballs gluten free chicken pot pie, if I do say so myself. Learn to make your own at my class!

I had a lot to do last night.

Pinterest-y Valentines for the Kindergartener’s friends. A not-so-Pinterest-y Beyblade Valentine mailbox for same Kindergartener. Spray-painting elements for said box outside. Realizing that wasn’t going to work and going out for red plastic plates. Baths. Homework. All that momma stuff.

For some unknown reason, I decided it would be a dandy night to make chicken pot pie from scratch. Well, sorta from scratch; my mom brought a rotisserie chicken over at lunch, and the leftovers pretty much demanded to be pot pie. They told me so.

It’s just as well, since I’m teaching a class next month at Pulaski Technical College’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute on this very dish. Why not practice a few times? Yum.

The whole pot pie. In class, we’ll probably make individual-sized ones. Equally delicious.

Last night’s version used (gasp) frozen veggies, just because it’s what I had and I forgot to go to Kroger. Sue me. (In class, we’ll bust out our real knife skills on real-life veggies. Because you need the practice.) Well, I did dice a real onion and some garlic, so there’s that.

Want to make your own? Of course you do. This dish was amazing, even with cheater ingredients. We’ll go over how to mix your own gluten-free all-purpose flour (and save a ton of cash) in our class. I’ll teach you how to make flaky pie crust that nobody will know is gluten-free, even your picky gluten-eating family. And we’ll package them up to freeze and bake whenever the pot pie siren calls. (Or, you can bring it home for dinner that night.)

The class is $75 for four hours of instruction and lots of tomfoolery. But productive tomfoolery. Let’s just say we’ll have fun.

Sign up for this class by calling (501) 907-6670, ext. 3407 or emailing Emily Story, Director of Community Education at PTC. See you there!

Gluten Free Pot Pie Class
Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute
Community Kitchen
Saturday, March 22, 2014
12:30 – 4:30 p.m.
$75 per person

Giveaway: Tickets to Tomorrow’s Signature Chef Gala for March of Dimes

October 23, 2013 by arfoodie 10 Comments

Note: This post is a giveaway of two tickets to tomorrow night’s Signature Chef Gala for March of Dimes, valued at $150 each. See the end and follow directions to win tickets!

About this time last year, I tagged along with Kelli Marks of Sweet Love to help her with a fun event, the Signature Chef Gala for March of Dimes.

At this event, chefs from the top restaurants in Arkanasas serve small plates from stations surrounding an elaborately decorated, festive ballroom at the Statehouse Convention Center. It’s quite the soiree.

Back at the bakery, Kelli had already prepared three desserts for the event: a pumpkin latte cake, a chocolate panna cotta with cocoa nibs, and a spice cake. My job was to help plate, garnish and describe the goodies to the crowds.

Mmmmm….cake.

I love working at this kind of event, where you get to interact with attendees. I cut cake and slung sauce like a mad woman. Okay, so I tried to help loosen up that caramel sauce by putting it in some hot water and turned it all crystally…that was my bad. But Kelli never got frazzled, getting everything out and working the crowd like the pro she is.

Kelli Marks of Sweet Love describes each dish to a Signature Chef Gala patron.

And, of course, her stuff was delicious. People came back several times saying hers was the best table of all.

This year, the event promises to be just as awesome (probably even more so, since I won’t be working!). The chefs scheduled to participate are:

Stephen Burrow, Clinton Presidential Center
James Hale, Acadia
Kelli Marks, Sweet Love
Donnie Ferneau
Kent Walker, Kent Walker Cheeses
Dan Capello, Little Rock Country Club
Titus Holly, The Pantry
Rachel Boswell & Sally Mengel, Loblolly Creamery
Marshall Smith, SO Restaurant
Chris Bray, Bray Gourmet

The Signature Chef Gala is known for elaborate decoration, great music and amazing food.

Tomorrow night (Thursday, Oct. 24) is this year’s Signature Chef Gala, and I have an opportunity for you and a date/friend/whoever to attend!

Just comment saying which chef’s table you would visit first and why. One comment will be chosen at random tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 23) at 6 p.m. You can get an extra chance by sharing this post on Twitter or Facebook; just let me know you did so in your comment. Please only comment if you will be available to attend tomorrow night.

Good luck!

March of Dimes Arkansas
Signature Chef Gala
Statehouse Convention Center
Thursday, Oct. 24
6 – 9 p.m.

Update: Turns out our earlier winner is unable to attend, so we did a second randomizer. The winner is Shannon Riley! As before, I counted the comments, counting twice for people who shared on another platform and not counting duplicate comments. (I know, it’s confusing when I have to approve it before it appears. Sorry!) I put the total number in a random number generator and counted down to that number.

We’ll do something like this again when we have more time to build up to it. I didn’t give you much time to get the word out, but I’m so glad to be able to share tickets to this great event!

Foodie Event Roundup for the Week

October 4, 2013 by arfoodie Leave a Comment

Ooof. Food coma. Lemme see what I can muster.

This is always a busy time for foodies, with all kinds of events and classes going on. Here’s the scoop on just a few of these things, both for those who enjoy cooking good food and those who just want to enjoy eating it.

Strip steak with exotic mushroom demi-glace and War Eagle grits and braised greens. Fourth course of five at last night’s The Next Course dinner for Youth Home.

Last night’s The Next Course event at the Clinton Presidential Center for Youth Home was amazing! Their equally-amazing event coordinator, Larry Betz, is working on getting the instructional videos shown at the event ready to share with you here, so we’ll wait a little while for the event wrap-up. But I will then definitely share some of the recipes with you, and maybe I’ll tackle one myself. They are fancy pants, indeed.
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Tomorrow is the Main Street Food Truck Festival in Little Rock. The guys over at Eat Arkansas wrote a fine roundup of all the goings-on this year, with one notable difference: NO TICKETS. Hooray! Hopefully that will help with the line situation. (See my snarky post from last year on that whole sitch.) Also hopefully, we will have better weather this year than last. I helped my friend Travis Meyer with his smoked sausage stand last year and we got totally soaked. But it’s a great event, and I hope you’ll come, even if you have to wait a bit or get a little wet.
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I just found out that Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts is not doing their Harvest Festival or annual culinary competition this year, but is instead doing an acoustic music event this weekend. So if you were looking for that secret ingredient to be announced (I know I wasn’t the only one…right?), you’ll have to keep on waiting. But do go to the new event, which looks like a lot of fun!

Other notable upcoming events and classes:

“Southern Comfort with Chef Mark Abernathy,” community education class at Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute. Spend an evening learning techniques and recipes exploring Chef Abernathy’s Modern Southern cuisine, as served at his restaurants Loca Luna and Red Door. Wednesday, Oct. 9, 6 – 8 p.m., $70. Must pre-register by Oct. 6.
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“Pasta Party! For the Love of Pasta — Fresh and Dried Pasta and Assorted Pasta Dishes,” community education class at Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute, with Chef Cynthia Malik. Thursday, Oct. 10, 5:30 – 8 p.m., $45. Must pre-register by Oct. 7.
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Outstanding in the Field’s vintage red bus travels across the nation with supplies for fine dining in the field of your friendly neighborhood farmer, this time in Proctor, Ark.
Outstanding in the Field. The OITF vintage big red bus will be making a stop at Delta Sol Farm in Proctor, Ark. next Thursday, Oct. 10. This farm-to-table event — served literally in a field — is one of many the organization has held across the nation, this time highlighting Little Rock’s Chefs Matt Bell of South on Main and Alexis Jones of Natchez, as well as Memphis Chefs Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen and Jonathan Magallanes of Las Tortugas, all led by Memphis’ Chef Kelly English of Restaurant Iris. Tickets are $180 and may be purchased at the event website.
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“Tasting Like a Pro,” Wine and Spirits community education class at Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Institute. Learn firsthand, without all the pretentious junk, the common techniques used by winemakers, sommeliers, critics, judges and other professionals, as well as the important wine attributes and essential aromas and tastes of the world’s most recognized wines. Thursday, Oct. 10, 6 – 8 p.m., $75. Must pre-register by Oct. 7.