Author: Simone Wilson

It’s time again for the 46th Annual Big Fat Greek Festival. You can munch for two days on Greek sausage, flaming feta cheese, stuffed grape leaves, baklava, and stuffed honey cookies. Top it off with double-strength Greek coffee.

If two days isn’t enough, you can take home a copy of It’s Greek to Me, the festival’s cookbook, which will be sold for $15 at the pastry shop.

The festival is being held at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 573 N. Highland, on Friday and Saturday, May 12th and 13th, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. For tickets and more information, call 327-8177 or visitwww.memphisgreekfestival.com.

Also nipping at our heels: Memphis in May’s World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, aka the “Super Bowl of Swine,” happening May 18th through May 20th. For $7 per person you can watch teams like the Church of Swinetology and the Best Little Boar House in Memphis compete.

The cooking contest will be in Tom Lee Park, Thursday and Friday, May 18th and 19th, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday, May 20th, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. For more info, call 525-4686 or visit www.memphisinmay.org.

Still haven’t gotten Mom a gift for this Sunday’s Mother’s Day? Consider giving her Compliments of the Women’s Exchange of Memphis, which offers something for every taste, be it savory beginnings such as fried green tomatoes with red-pepper rémoulade or eggnog French toast with cranberry maple syrup for brunch. In one section, local and regional chefs share their favorite recipes. Among them are Alex and Judd Grisanti, Jeff Dunham, Erling Jensen, Mac Edwards, John Fleer, and Rick Farmer.

Compliments of the Women’s Exchange of Memphis is available at local bookstores for $29.95

Another idea for Mom is Heart & Soul: Stirring Recipes from Memphis by the Junior League of Memphis. The recently published fourth edition features a new design but the same favorite recipes. Heart & Soul sells at local bookstores for $24.95.

The Memphis Botanic Garden is offering a Mother’s Day Jazz Brunch on May 14th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be live jazz, flowers for Mom, a children’s craft station, and a gourmet buffet. Advanced tickets are $25 for members and $30 for nonmembers. Tickets for children ages 2 to 12 are $8. For more info and reservations, call

685-1566 ext. 124.

Memphis Botanic Garden,

750 Cherry Rd. (685-1566)

Jim’s Place East will have a special “Art and Appetite” menu for its Mother’s Day lunch. On the menu, you’ll find a mix of Mediterranean and American dishes as well as Southern favorites. Paintings by local artist Dixie Austin will be on display.

Jim’s Place East, 5560 Shelby Oaks (388-7200)

Joseph Carey, founder of the Memphis Culinary Academy, is on fire. His latest book, Chef on Fire: The Five Techniques for Using Heat Like a Pro, is not a recipe book. It’s a guide to the five techniques that will make you more savvy in the art of cooking. Carey’s point: There are only five things you can do to food with heat. Destroying it isn’t one of them.

Carey will be signing Chef on Fire at Burke’s Book Store from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 15th.

Burke’s Book Store, 1719 Poplar

(278-7484)

Is a less-than-perfect cake at your otherwise picture-perfect wedding your worst nightmare? Things could be worse. Back in the day — we’re talking way back, likely dating to the Roman Empire — it was customary for the groom to take the cake and smash it on the bride’s head.

Back then, the wedding cake wasn’t a cake at all. It was barley bread that was baked for the occasion, and the protocol required the groom to eat part of the bread and then smash the rest over his bride. The act symbolized the breaking of the bride’s virginity and the dominance of the groom. Then the wedding guests would scramble around to get their piece of the cake — excuse me, bread crumb — to ensure their own fertility.

Today, couples spend between $500 and $1,000 on both the wedding and groom’s cakes, and for that kind of money, they expect nothing less than perfection (and definitely no barley bread). With an abundance of bakers to choose from — commercial bakeries specializing in wedding cakes, grocery stores, home bakers, family friends, and sometimes even the bride herself — it shouldn’t be hard to find the right cake for every budget and every bride.

“That perfect wedding cake that all brides dream of and see in magazines doesn’t exist for us,” says Karen Barnes. Barnes, the owner of Delicate Designs, has been making wedding cakes out of her home kitchen in Memphis for nine years. “I will always find something that can be improved on a cake that looks absolutely perfect to everyone else,” she adds.

The competition in this business is great, the brides are very particular, and the responsibility to make the couple’s special moment even sweeter weighs heavy. It’s understandable that many soon-to-be-weds choose the reputable commercial bakery.

“[Commercial bakery] Miss Muff’n does beautiful wedding cakes,” says Heather Ries, a pastry chef who just started Sugar Shack, a small wedding-cake business in her home kitchen in Hernando Mississippi. “That’s what they specialize in, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting a cake from a bakery like that. But if you get a wedding cake from someone like me it’s often more personal, and it’s absolutely fresh. I don’t have much storage space or a big freezer. I make every cake to-order from scratch, which means I have to gut my refrigerator and sometimes even use part of my mother-in-law’s fridge.”

If you’re wary about going the home-baker route, you shouldn’t be. Just check their credentials, look at pictures of cakes they’ve done, meet with them to discuss your cake, and get everything in writing. Most home bakers started with smaller special-occasion cakes before they ever sold their first multi-tier wedding cake.

“Most people who take our fundamental cake class don’t plan on making wedding cakes their business,” says Jim Farmerty of Mary Carter Decorating Center, which offers cake-decorating classes at his store year-round. “They usually want to make cakes for their family and church or their children’s birthdays. The wedding-cake business develops over time.”

That’s how Karen Barnes got started. When she was a little girl, she watched her grandmother bake and got upset at her own inefficient Easy-Bake Oven. Since then, she knew that baking was her thing. Now she makes several wedding and special-occasion cakes a month.

“I want couples who don’t have $500 to spend on a wedding cake to be able to get a good-looking and good-tasting cake,” Barnes says. “Sure, they can get a cake for just over $100 from Wal-Mart and it might look fine, but you’ll definitely taste the difference.”

Farmerty also knows all too well that money is often a key issue when it comes to the final decision on who is going to get the bid. He’s been in the business long enough to know how couples do the math: “People don’t understand how a cake can cost $250 when a box of cake mix sells for 99 cents. What they don’t consider is the time it takes to bake, decorate, and assemble a four-tier wedding cake from scratch.”

And it’s not just the baking and decorating that takes time. Wedding cakes that seem like a good deal might come with surprise costs such as a delivery fee or accessory rentals. Home bakers usually just charge for the cake and will go the extra mile when it comes to cake delivery and set-up. “To do a four-tier wedding cake takes about 24 hours of straight work time,” says Ries, and Barnes agrees.

The bottom line: Wedding cakes don’t come cheap, especially if you want a cake that tastes as good as it looks.

“It is common to charge between $3 and $5 per serving for a wedding cake,” says Ries. “A cake for 100 people costs $350 on average, and that’s pretty good compared to places like New York, where people charge between $7 and $12 per serving.”

Memphis isn’t the most fertile ground for vegetarian and vegan dining. Many attempts — La Montagne, the Midtown Food Co-op, One Love Soulful Vegetarian Café and Juice Bar, and Square Foods — have failed or morphed into something else.

Bastet Ankh Re is holding down the fort with her small culinary enterprise, Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine. Re, founder of the currently dormant Vegan Sisters of Memphis, used to serve Lion’s Bread’s 100 percent vegan food out of a storefront on Airways. Recently, she’s set up shop at Precious Cargo.

Re’s Lion’s Bread menu is in addition to Precious Cargo’s regular fare of meat and vegetable dishes and sandwiches. Re doesn’t try to convert Precious Cargo’s meatloaf-and-gravy eaters into vegans, but every now and then she does get one of the regulars to try her barbecue tofu with sweet potatoes and kale or her vegan lasagna.

Precious Cargo is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. until.

Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine at Precious Cargo, 381 N. Main (406-0598)

If you were sad to see Square Foods in Overton Square close earlier this month, cheer up. Although Square Foods as you knew it is gone, Jeanice Blancett, the store’s owner, has been working feverishly to secure the lease for a new location and to hammer out the details for the store’s somewhat different concept.

Square Foods will move into the former site of Pie in the Sky on Cooper. For the new store, Blancett and her crew will focus less on the market side of the business and more on Square Foods’ popular in-house dining, including sandwiches, smoothies, and vegetarian entrées and its grab-and-go section. The store will also carry bulk foods, cheeses, and essential grocery items such as milk and bread. Blancett hopes for a May 18th opening, which was the day that Square Foods opened its doors on Madison Avenue four years ago.

Square Foods will be open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Square Foods, 937 S. Cooper (728-4371)

According to legend, Sid Fanarof was dating a French girl when he opened the first zpizza restaurant in Laguna Beach California, in 1987. The way it is with those Europeans, they have trouble pronouncing the English “th,” making it sound like “ze.” And there you have it: zpizza was born as a pizza parlor in an artsy, free-spirited community in California, where a few dedicated pizza lovers and a French girlfriend wanted to reinvent the pie.

Quality ingredients were very important, and that’s why zpizza is now a national franchise offering hand-tossed pizzas with gourmet ingredients such as organic tomato sauce, Wisconsin skim mozzarella, cremini and shitake mushrooms, and crusts made from premium Montana winter wheat (whole wheat or regular). Additional menu items include the ZBQ Salad, the Yuppie Veggie Sandwich, calzones, and Apple Pie Pizza for dessert.

In June, zpizza will open its first area store on Germantown Parkway in Cordova. Won’t guarantee that you’ll find a French girl there, though.

zpizza, 1250 N. Germantown Parkway

South Philly, the downtown Philly cheese-steak shop, is now serving its fully loaded sandwiches at the Poplar Lounge. Although South Philly owners Corey Miller and Mike Dinwiddie had plans to expand their business, the Poplar Lounge opportunity came by chance. “They’ve always had a kitchen at the Poplar Lounge with one guy doing all the food,” Miller says. “He passed away, and we got offered the spot.”

The menu at South Philly “east” is the same as at its downtown location. Right now, Miller and Dinwiddie are focusing on dinner from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, but they want to open for lunch soon.

For the cheese-steak lover on the go, the new location comes with a take-out window, and home delivery is in the works too.

South Philly in the Poplar Lounge, 2586 Poplar (324-5081)

Memphis isn’t the most fertile ground for vegetarian and vegan dining. So many attempts — La Montagne, Midtown Food Co-op, One Love Soulful Vegetarian Café and Juice Bar, Square Foods — have failed or morphed into something else.

Bastet Ankh Re is holding down the fort with her small culinary enterprise Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine. Re, founder of the currently dormant Vegan Sisters of Memphis, used to serve Lion’s Bread’s 100-percent vegan food out of a storefront on Airways. Recently, she’s set up shop at Precious Cargo.

“After Raminyah, my partner with the Vegan Sisters, moved to Chicago, the Sisters went into hibernation, and I started doing Healthy Meals on Wheels,” Re says. “I’m planning on continuing with that in the fall, but at the same time I was looking for a home base where people could enjoy my food in a coffee shop or restaurant.”

Re’s Lion’s Bread menu is in addition to Precious Cargo’s regular fare of meat and vegetable dishes and sandwiches. Re doesn’t try to convert Precious Cargo’s meatloaf-and-gravy eaters into vegans, but every now and then she does gets one of the regulars to try her barbecue tofu with sweet potatoes and kale or her vegan lasagna.

Precious Cargo is open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. until?

Lion’s Bread Vegetarian Cuisine @ Precious Cargo, 381 N. Main (406-0598)

If you were sad to see Square Foods in Overton Square go out of business earlier this month, cheer up. Although Square Foods as you knew it is gone, Jeanice Blancett, the store’s owner, has been working feverishly to secure the lease for a new location and to hammer out the details for the store’s somewhat different concept.

Square Foods will move to Cooper-Young into the former site of Pie in the Sky on Cooper adjacent to Blue Fish. For the new store, Blancett and her crew will focus less on the market side of the business and more on Square Foods’ popular in-house dining, including sandwiches, smoothies, and vegetarian entrées, and its grab-and-go section. The store will also carry bulk foods, cheeses, and essential grocery items such as milk and bread. Blancett hopes for a May 18th opening, which was the day that Square Foods first opened its doors on Madison Avenue four years ago.

Square Foods will be open Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Square Foods, 937 S. Cooper (728-4371)

According to legend, Sid Fanarof was dating a French girl when he opened the first zpizza restaurant in Laguna Beach California, in 1987. The way it is with those Europeans, they have trouble pronouncing the English th, making it sound like ze. And there you have it: zpizza was born as a single pizza parlor in an artsy, free-spirited community in California, where a few dedicated pizza lovers and a French girlfriend wanted to reinvent the pie.

Quality ingredients were very important in the endeavor, and that’s why zpizza is now a national franchise offering hand-tossed pizzas with gourmet ingredients such as organic tomato sauce, Wisconsin skim Mozzarella, Cremini and Shitake mushrooms, and crusts made from premium Montana winter wheat (whole wheat or regular) that are fire-baked to just the right crispness. Additional menu items include as the ZBQ Salad, the Yuppie Veggie Sandwich, calzones, and Apple Pie Pizza for dessert.

In June, zpizza will open its first area store on Germantown Parkway in Cordova. Won’t guarantee that you’ll find a French girl there, though.

zpizza, 1250 N. Germantown Parkway

South Philly, the downtown Philly cheese steak shop is now serving its fully loaded sandwiches at the Poplar Lounge. Although South Philly owners Corey Miller and Mike Dinwiddie had plans to expand their business, the Poplar Lounge opportunity came by chance. “They’ve always had a kitchen at the Poplar Lounge with one guy doing all the food,” Miller says. “He passed away, and we got offered the spot.”

The menu at South Philly “east” is the same as at its downtown location. Right now, Miller and Dinwiddie are focusing on dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, but they want to open for lunch soon.

For the cheese-steak lover on the go, the new location comes with a take-out window, and home-delivery is in the works too.

South Philly in the Poplar Lounge, 2586 Poplar (324-5081)

The wine lovers among you might want to mark your calendar for two downtown events. On April 30th, it’s time again for the annual Beale Street Wine Race, a day of debauchery-filled fun for local restaurant employees who compete in a number of contests. For more information, call 529-0999.

On May 9th at 6:30 p.m., Miss Cordelia’s will host a “picnic on the river” wine tasting, during which featured wines from France and Australia will be pared with picnic food.

Miss Cordelia’s, 737 Harbor Bend (526-4772), misscordelias.com

For something different, stop by the White Gardenia antique and gift store, where tea parties are held Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 2 to 4 p.m.

You can come alone or with your friends or your little girl for an afternoon (re)treat. Some of the loose-leaf teas offered are organic peach nectar white tea, English breakfast tea, and chamomile lavender tea. Guests are served their own teapot and enjoy little treats — scones with Devonshire cream, cheese and crackers, mixed nuts, seasonal fruit, and dessert — on mismatched but theme-specific china. (Spring flowers tops the list pattern themes.)

Reservations are required two days in advance. Cost per person, including tax, is $14.95.

White Gardenia, 820 S. Cooper

(722-9199)

Bratwurst is to Germans what barbecue is to Memphians. You can get a taste of that traditionally German sausage during the bratwurst cooking contest being held at the Grand Krewe of Luxor’s Second Annual Oktoberfest, which is not in October at all but this Saturday, April 22nd, from noon to 6 p.m. at the Agricenter.

The word “Bratwurst” is derived from the type of meat used to make it — Brät (and not from the way it is commonly prepared, which is braten, to roast or to grill). Wurst means “sausage.” Bratwurst can be made out of different types of minced meat, but the original German bratwurst is made out of minced pork and a marjoram spice mix.

The very popular Nurnberger Rrostbratwurst is relatively small — just over half an inch in diameter. Legend has it that the sausages were made small because the only chance prison inmates had at a bite of the meaty delicacy was to get it smuggled through a keyhole. Another story is that innkeepers preferred the bratwurst to be small so they could pass it through the keyhole to hungry peddlers who traveled through town after curfew.

You probably won’t have to worry about fitting the bratwurst through a keyhole at the Oktoberfest cooking contest, and if you don’t feel like cooking you can watch the celebrity bratwurst-eating contest or compete for best German costume and best German booth.

Na dann mal ran an die Wurst!, as they say in Germany.

Proceeds from the event will benefit Shelby Residential and Vocational Services (SRVS). For more information, call 751-1505 or visit www.luxor4kids.org.

If you’re in the mood for Italian there’s the Festa Italian Wine Dinner, this month’s Tuesdays on the Terrace wine tasting and dinner at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The event will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and is $65 for members and $75 for nonmembers. Space is limited. For reservations, call 685-1566 ext. 130.

Memphis Botanic Garden,

750 Cherry Road (685-1566)

Have a sweet tooth? Try Mrs. Mamie‘s Bakery. It’s not an actual bakery/pastry shop, however. Mamie Beck has been baking sweet things for school events, bake sales, and family and friends from her home kitchen for more than 25 years. Last November, her daughter, Danita, joined her, and now the two are baking up a storm and offering the results by special order.

The menu features items such as cheesecakes made from secret family recipes. “Legend” is the original recipe — a chilled, creamy delight covered with sprinkles of graham cracker crumbs and sugar. According to the Becks, some cheesecake connoisseurs prefer to freeze the cake and eat it slightly thawed. Cheesecake flavors also include available as key lime, honey almond, chocolate, and a savory variation.

Mamie’s offers much more, including German chocolate, coconut, and caramel cakes. Desserts cost between $20 and $35. For a copy of Mamie’s menu, e-mail mamiesbakery@yahoo.com or call 725-7187.

If you’d like to be more DIY, Williams-Sonoma in Germantown is offering cooking classes. A class on side dishes will be held on April 25th and 27th. In three hours, you’ll learn how to prepare braised mushrooms and cream, ginger-glazed vegetables, au gratin dishes, and more. The cost for the class is $25. Call to register.

Williams-Sonoma, 7615 Farmington (737-9990)

Easter time is here. Why not spend it at the Children’s Museum of Memphis’ Breakfast with Benny the Bunny on Saturday, April 15th, from 10 a.m. to noon? Children, ages 2 to 8, will be able to pet live rabbits, decorate Easter hats and bags, and make “surprise eggs.” Admission is $7 for members and $12 for nonmembers. Space is limited. To make reservations, call 458-2678.

Children’s Museum of Memphis,

2525 Central Avenue

Looking for something more grown-up? How about Easter Sunday brunch? The Inn at Hunt Phelan is now open for Sunday brunch, and its patio will make a nice spot for that Easter-morning mimosa, followed by lobster crepe with mushrooms, poached eggs with paneed veal and Creole sauce, and strawberries and cream.

The Inn at Hunt Phelan, 533 Beale (525-8225)

Easter also kicks off Sunday brunch as a permanent feature at Wally Joe restaurant. The Easter brunch will feature a three-course menu for $29. A regular Joe-style menu — duck confit hash, Gulf shrimp and grits, the “wj” burger, vanilla crepes — will be offered every Sunday thereafter. The trade-off? Starting the week after Easter, the restaurant will no longer serve lunch.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin (818-0821)

For a traditional Greek Easter meal, Jim’s Place is your place. The restaurant will be open for lunch on Easter, serving roast leg of lamb and souflima (a savory pork entrée) as well as your favorite Southern dishes, such as pecan-crusted catfish.

Jim’s Place, 5560 Shelby Oaks (388-7200)

If you’re craving Asian, check out some of the new Asian restaurants that have opened around town. Lobster King (Nha Hang) offers Cantonese-style food, with an emphasis on seafood and dim sum. The menu includes sesame jellyfish, fried intestines, Peking duck, lobster, and conch in a variety of preparations. You can also get dim sum with afternoon tea or for dinner seven days a week. Taro almond roll, steamed barbecue pork buns, chicken feet, and turnip cakes are just a few of the dim sum choices.

If you are in a hurry, you can get your fix at the Lobster King Buffet, which is housed in the adjacent Viet Hoa Food Market. You can also get carryout items such as Vietnamese sandwiches for $2, a cup of fried rice for 99 cents, and a box of three buffet items for $3.99.

Lobster King, 32 N. Cleveland

(725-5990); Viet Hoa Food Market,

40 N. Cleveland (726-9388)

A little farther north from Lobster King is another hidden treasure: My-Thanh Oriental Food Market & Restaurant. The Tran family has owned and operated the business since 1992. Just recently, they expanded the restaurant to add a lunch buffet, which is open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and costs $5.95.

Or, if you’re really hungry, you can get the whole thing: Van and My Tran are ready to retire and are looking for someone to take over the business.

My-Thanh, 306 N. Cleveland (725-5079)

On Union, Pei Wei Asian Diner is scheduled to open in May. Pei Wei, a chain restaurant based in Scottsdale, Arizona, offers a mix of influences from Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and China. That translates into Pei Wei spicy chicken salad, Dan Dan noodle bowl, and signature dishes such as Asian coconut curry and Mandarin Kung Pao.

Pei Wei Asian Diner, 1680 Union (725-5142)

What does it take to start a farmer’s market in downtown Memphis? A group of neighbors with lots of determination.

“We started with this idea six months ago, and right now we’re in final negotiations with MATA to make Central Station’s Pavilion the home of the Memphis Farmer’s Market,” says Sharon Leicham, vice chair of the Memphis Farmer’s Market (MFM).

The market is scheduled to open on May 13th and will be open every Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. until October 28th. The MFM is a nonprofit organization with an aim of helping regional farmers promote and sell their products while offering locally grown foods to the Memphis community.

“The local aspect is very important to us,” Leicham says, “and we definitely like to see vendors who offer organic produce.”

Local means products native to the Mid-South. The market will be able to accommodate approximately 40 vendors with room to expand. To uphold its mission, the market will give first priority to local farmers with 100 percent, certified organic produce then local farmers with conventional produce. In addition, vendors who sell homemade craft items, such as soap and jewelry, or homemade foods, such as jams, jellies, honey, baked goods, and freshly roasted coffee, will be offered space so long as the food items have been prepared, stored, and displayed in accordance with Shelby County health department regulations. Vendors can rent a space at the market for $20 per week, $60 per month, or $250 per year.

Community and consumer education is another aspect the market’s organizers want to emphasize. The MFM team plans to use this opportunity to host weekly events that center around good nutrition and healthy food choices.

May 13th kicks off with a National Safe Kids Week event, then it’s a different topic every week until the market closes for the winter. One Saturday in July will be devoted to diabetes awareness and a Saturday in September to cholesterol education. There will also be a pumpkin playground and fall festival in October.

“At some point, we’d like to have a year-round market, and we’d also like to be open more than one day a week,” Leicham says. “But right now, we just want to get started.”

memphisfarmersmarket.org

The space formerly occupied by the Russian restaurant Café Samovar has found a new tenant. Tsunami owner Ben Smith — along with partners Demitri Phillips, sous chef at Tsunami, and Thomas Boggs of Huey’s — is expanding his culinary territory to this downtown location, with a new restaurant to be called Meditrina.

“Thomas has been trying to talk me into opening another restaurant for a while. Demitri had talked to me about doing his own thing. And then this location became available,” Smith explains.

Now it’s down to the nitty-gritty of opening a new restaurant. The menu, which will feature Mediterranean fare, has to be planned, plus the interior has to be remodeled. Smith & Co. don’t want customers feeling like “this is Café Samovar with a different menu,” says Smith. They want the space to be a social gathering spot, where people share food, wine, and stories.

Phillips will be heading the kitchen as executive chef. He’ll be taking Tsunami’s popular small-plates menu a little further but also offering a regular menu.

“We are definitely not claiming authenticity,” Smith says. “We’re just taking influences from the foods of Spain, Greece, Italy, and the like and incorporating those into our menu.”

The restaurant is scheduled to open for lunch only in April. Dinner service will follow a couple weeks later.

Ballet Memphis’ “Connections: Food” will feature a five-course dinner prepared by Memphis chefs Karen Blockman Carrier, Erling Jensen, and Felicia Willett. New choreography by Ballet Memphis dancers will accompany each course. The event, under the direction of Dorothy Gunther Pugh, will take place on March 25th at 7 p.m. at the Bridges Center downtown.

For further info and tickets, call 737-7322, ext. 302. The price is $135 per person, $250 per couple, and $1,000 for a table of eight.

Mark your calendar for a star-studded benefit dinner at Wally Joe restaurant on Sunday, March 26th. The dinner benefits Share Our Strength’s program to fight childhood hunger.

Chef/owner Wally Joe has invited five nationally acclaimed chefs who will each be in charge of one course, leaving two courses to Joe and his pastry chef Jorge Noriega. The lineup for that night includes Johnny Iuzzini, pastry chef at Jean Georges in New York City. Iuzzini was voted one of America’s top-10 pastry chefs by Pastry Art & Design magazine in 2003 and 2004 and is known for surprising diners with desserts that are outstanding and different. Chocolate goat cheese, anybody?

Shawn McClain owns three highly renowned restaurants in Chicago. He serves up high-end Asian-infused Continental food at his restaurant Spring; inventive, mostly vegetarian, small plates at Green Zebra; and modern American cuisine with an emphasis on artisan meats at Custom House.

Kevin Rathbun of Rathbun’s and Krog Bar in Atlanta has worked in upscale kitchens around the South since he was 14 years old. His preparations are modern American, and his menu offers items such as sea scallop Benedict and Hamachi crudo.

Bob Waggoner, executive chef at Charleston Grill in Charleston, South Carolina, fuses low-country cooking with his own French-influenced technique to create contemporary “Southern haute cuisine,” such as Maine lobster tempura over lemon grits and roasted venison tenderloin over sawmill gravy.

Last but not least: Don Yamauchi, executive chef at Tribute restaurant in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where he prepares dishes that are contemporary French with global accents. On his menu, this translates into soy-marinated cod and herb-crusted Kumamoto oysters.

Seats will go fast for this seven-course food-and-wine extravaganza. The cost of the dinner (complete with wine pairings) is $175 per person, including tax and gratuity. All proceeds will go to Share Our Strength. A champagne reception begins at 6 p.m. at L Ross Gallery; dinner at Wally Joe begins at 6:45 p.m.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin. For more information and reservations, call 818-0821.

If the benefit at Wally Joe is too rich for your taste buds and your budget, Miss Cordelia’s Lazy Sunday Jazz Brunch on March 12th might be more your style. Among the menu items are artichoke, prosciutto, and goat-cheese strata, hash-brown casserole, New Orleans French toast, and cheese-grits cakes. Live jazz will be provided by local musicians. Brunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is $16 per person.

Also new at Miss Cordelia’s: executive chef Nancy Kistler’s weekly Healthy Options Menu, featuring three meals that are less than 550 calories, low in fat, sodium, and all the other bad things that we usually load onto our plates. Kistler makes them high in fiber and essential nutrients. Why not give it a try? Among this week’s dishes are Chicken Limone with olive whipped potatoes, pasta with pomodoro sauce, and fish Armandine over spinach.

Cordelia’s Table, 737 Harbor Bend Rd. (526-4772)

Ever wondered how Southern Jews manage to keep a kosher diet, when the sweet, the greasy, and the barbecued lurk at every corner? Marcie Cohen Ferris explores those foodways in Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South. The book includes numerous photographs, anecdotes, oral histories, and more than 30 recipes from friends, family, fellow Southerners, and fellow Jews.

Cohen will sign copies of the book on Thursday, March 9th, at 6 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.

Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 387 Perkins Ext. (683-9801) Home chefs, keep an eye peeled! The Viking Culinary Arts Center is moving its cooking school to Park Place Mall at Park and Ridgeway in late spring. The retail store will remain downtown. While the setup for the cooking school will stay the same, more classes might be offered at the new location, which will also feature a small retail store. For more information, call 578-5822.

Vikingrange.com

I grew up with Aldi, a Germany-based discount grocery chain that has its origins in my hometown of Essen, and I never thought I’d find Aldi in any other part of the world. Aldi stores are part of Germany’s landscape like McDonald’s are part of America’s. And just as the McDonald’s experience is the same everywhere in the world, so too is the Aldi experience.

While all Aldi stores are alike, they are different from most other grocery stores. For one thing, they’re much smaller, taking up around 15,000 square feet compared to the 60,000 square feet of an average Kroger. In addition, Aldi sells hardly any name brands. Instead, it carries products such as Tandil liquid laundry detergent (200 oz. for $6.99), Shep dog food (20 lbs. for $4.49), Millville instant oatmeal (10 ct. for $1.49), and Bon Italia macaroni and cheese sauce with beef (15 oz. for 69 cents). It also runs specials on a small number of non-grocery items like digital cameras, computers, and portable CD players for a limited time — usually until they are sold out, which might take only a few hours.

When Karl and Theo Albrecht took over their mom’s sundry store in 1946, they founded Aldi, which is short for Albrecht Discount. The first Aldi, as we know it, opened in 1961. Karl and Theo, however, split up and consequently split the German market into Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. Internationally, the brothers seem to have an agreement as well, since you don’t find both brothers expanding into the same foreign market. Aldi Nord, for example, operates stores in France and Spain, whereas Aldi Süd is in Australia and America.

Aldi might be rather mysterious to Memphians. While its flier comes in The Commercial Appeal every Sunday, there is no mention of store locations, and if you’re waiting for other ads, don’t bother. Aldi doesn’t advertise beyond that flier. When the Aldi brothers started the business, they sold highly in-demand items, such as butter, under the purchasing price. They made up for the loss by pricing other items a little more expensively. Karl Albrecht once said that Aldi’s low prices were all the advertisement it needed. The news about new store openings or special deals spread through word-of-mouth and that seems to be good enough for the company, which currently operates 7,000 stores worldwide.

The first thing you notice when you go to Aldi is the sign above the grocery carts, which reads, “How a quarter saves you dollars.” It costs a quarter to rent a cart. Once the cart is returned, you get your quarter back. This system adds up to one or two people Aldi doesn’t have to hire because there aren’t any shopping carts to gather from the parking lot.

Inside, you won’t find 10 brands of frozen pizza, potato chips, flour, orange juice, or cookies. There is one choice per item, maybe two. Aldi carries around 700 items per store compared to an average of 25,000 items in other chain grocery stores.

The goods at Aldi are sold pretty much straight out of the shipping box, which means even fewer employees because nobody needs to unpack and stock products. Pallets are lined up neatly next to each other, though some items are stacked on shelves. Everything is easily accessible, and the shelves or stacks aren’t very tall. This arrangement is an important part of Aldi’s concept. There may be only two people working in the store — the manager and a cashier. They need to be able to oversee the whole store from wherever they stand.

If you try calling an Aldi, you won’t have any luck. Store phone numbers are unlisted because, with only two employees working, there is no time to run to answer the phone. At the register, there’s nobody to bag your groceries. You have to bring your own bags or purchase a large (and I mean large) plastic bag for a dime or a paper bag for a nickel. To speed up the checkout process, the cashier returns your groceries to the cart, which you can then empty yourself in the bagging area or outside directly into your car. And when you pay up, be sure you either have cash or a debit card, because Aldi does not take credit cards and frowns on checks.

For Aldi shopper David Sienkiwicz, it’s like getting gas at a self-service station. Sienkiwicz used to shop at Aldi when he lived in St. Louis, and he doesn’t mind reusing his bags or bagging his own groceries. “It’s a good way to save money for a family that lives on a tight budget or a family with a lot of kids,” he says.

John Bragg isn’t a newcomer to the Memphis restaurant scene. He has worked at Erling Jensen’s restaurants and with Gene Bjorklund at Aubergine, among others. In 2004, he reopened the vegetarian restaurant, La Montagne, keeping the name but changing pretty much everything else. Now, he’s taken the next step with River Oaks, his new restaurant located in the former Cockeyed Camel at Poplar Avenue and I-240, next to Park Place Hotel.

“We had been looking for our own place for a while,” Bragg says. “People would come to me and say, ‘John, we love your food, but this location isn’t going to work,'” referring to La Montagne’s site on Park Avenue near Highland.

River Oaks is all Bragg. Nothing remains of the former tenant. Inside, the restaurant offers warm earthy tones and lots of natural light. The tables are bare, showing off their honey-colored wood. Black napkins pick up the color scheme in the eye-catching artwork, an elegant contrast to the golden interior.

Bragg’s cuisine is modern American, and his menu features items such as wild mushroom and goat-cheese crepes, crawfish beignets, rack of lamb, baby pheasant, striped bass, grouper, and tilefish as well as a small à la carte steak selection and several side dishes.

Most dinner entrées at River Oaks are in the $22 to $26 range, with the exception of steak entrées, which are about $30. Chocolate soufflé, Meyer lemon tart, and pineapple baked Alaska are some of the sweet treats offered. The lunch menu features soups, salads, and sandwiches as well as a small selection of entrées.

River Oaks is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week, serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.

River Oaks, 5871 Poplar (683-9305)

Meanwhile, La Montagne won’t be vacant for much longer. Javier Corona is set to open La Bamba, a Mexican restaurant, bar, and discotheque this month. While Corona plans on being open for traffic from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, he wants to serve his wife’s Mexican food almost around the clock on weekends.

La Bamba, 3550 Park

Two new restaurants opened at the Avenue Carriage Crossing in Collierville. At STIX (as in chopsticks), you can enjoy Asian favorites and sushi or gather around the hibachi grill. The Collierville STIX is the third to open. The original is in Birmingham, Alabama. STIX serves lunch and dinner daily.

STIX, 4680 Merchants Park Circle (854-3399)

Diners will feel like they’re in New Orleans’ French Quarter when they sit down to sample the Crescent City‘s Creole-style comfort food. The menu includes all the New Orleans favorites — crawfish, catfish, po’boys, muffalettas, red beans and rice and, of course, freshly prepared beignets. Crescent City serves lunch and dinner daily.

Crescent City, 4610 Merchants Park Circle (850-8580)

Soup lovers, get your spoons ready: Youth Villages’ Soup Sunday is this Sunday, February 26th, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the FedExForum. More than 50 popular Memphis restaurants will serve up soup, specialty items, breads, and desserts to benefit Youth Villages.

Tickets at the door are $18 for adults and $5 for children 11 years and younger. Free parking is available at the Ford Garage. Call 252-7650 for tickets or go to www.youthvillages.org.