Food advocate Mark Winne will be at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on Monday, July 21st, at 6 p.m. to read from and sign his first book, Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty.
Winne is the former executive director of the Hartford Food System (HFS), a Connecticut-based nonprofit organization focused on fighting hunger and improving nutrition. While at HFS, Winne implemented community self-help food projects for the city’s lower-income and elderly residents. He also worked on the development of commercial food businesses, an area farmers market, a community-supported farm and neighborhood grocery store, a food bank, and the Connecticut’s Farmers’ Market nutrition program.
The book covers the “story of how we get our food,” examining in particular the disparity between the rich and the poor when it comes to nutrition. Winne’s vision for closing the “food gap” is a partnership between family farms and impoverished communities.
Also upcoming at Davis-Kidd is its Corks & Courses dinner on Thursday, July 17th, at 7 p.m. in Brontë Bistro. This month’s four-course dinner and wine tasting features recipes from Tennessee Hometown Cookbook. Dishes include tomato gazpacho, edamame mixed salad, baked citrus pork tenderloin, and country sugar cream pie. Cost for the dinner is $40 per person plus tax and gratuity.
Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 387 Perkins Extended (683-9801)
It’s all about vodka on Wednesday, July 23rd, at 7 p.m., during the Grove Grill’s Hangar One Dinner. Hangar One is distilled at the old Alameda Naval Air Station on San Francisco Bay and is a blend of grain neutral spirit and a vodka that’s made from viognier wine. Viognier is an old varietal grape used for white wine and relatively new to California.
Jeff Dunham, chef/owner of the Grove Grill, will showcase all of Hangar One’s vodkas during this five-course dinner. The menu will start off with hors d’oeuvres and a Cosmopolitan made with Hangar One’s Mandarin Blossom vodka and will be followed by Soljanka, a traditional Russian soup, to be paired with a shot of Hangar’s straight vodka. Wasabi-crusted halibut will be accompanied by the lemony Buddah’s Hand Citron, and the roast medallion of veal tenderloin with coconut shrimp will be matched with Hangar’s Kaffir lime vodka. Finally, for dessert, Fraser River Raspberry vodka will be served with raspberry icebox pie.
Josh Hammond of Buster’s Liquor and Oscar Vergos of Star Distributors will be at the dinner to answer questions and provide more information about Hangar One. Cost for the dinner is $65 plus tax and gratuity.
Grove Grill, 4550 Poplar (818-9951)
Boscos’ Brew Master’s Beer Dinner on Tuesday, July 22nd, offers a special treat for beer lovers. Every dish of the five-course menu will be paired with one of Boscos’ handcrafted beers. Cost for the dinner, which starts at 6:45 p.m., is $50 per person plus tax and gratuity. Reservations are required.
Boscos Squared, 2120 Madison
(432-2222)
If you can’t wait that long for a cold brew, the University of Memphis is offering a “Great Brews” class through its professional and continuing education program on Thursday, July 17th, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Umai.
Steve Barzizza of Southwestern Distributing will lead the two-hour class. Participants will sample beers from around the globe and learn about American craft-brewing history and its effect on the brewing scene. Cost for the session, which includes beers and finger food, is $59 per person. To register, visit http://umce.memphis.edu/.
Umai, 2015 Madison (405-4241)
