FREEPORT

Tickets on sale for fundraiser Taste of the Nation Maine

Tickets are now on sale for this year’s Taste of the Nation Maine fundraiser, which will be held at Wolfe’s Neck Farm.

The annual dinner raises money to fight childhood hunger in the state. It will be held on June 23 on the farm’s wedding field overlooking the water.

General admission tickets are $125 and are good from 4 to 8 p.m. VIP tickets are $200. VIPs may arrive at 3 p.m. and stay until 8:30 p.m.

To purchase tickets, go to ce.strength.org/portlandme.

KENNEBUNKPORT

Get up close, personal with ‘Top Chef’ celebs

Fan of “Top Chef”? Several of the celebrity chefs who have appeared on the popular Bravo TV series are coming to Maine this spring to cook with Grand Relais & Chateaux chef Jonathan Cartwright at The White Barn Inn in Kennebunk.

And you get to join them in the kitchen.

The appearances are part of the inn’s seventh annual Guest Chef Series. The inn has a special package (details below) for guests who want to stay overnight while enjoying the experience of rubbing elbows with “Top Chef” contestants. But locals who don’t need accommodations can participate as well. The inn is offering a two-hour slice of the package for $65 that includes Champagne, a hands-on cooking demo with Cartwright and the guest chef, and tastes of all the dishes they prepare.

Here are the chefs who will be participating:

April 12-14: Dale Talde, executive chef of Talde in Park Slope, Brooklyn, N.Y., who appeared on “Top Chef” season four and on “Top Chef All-Stars.”

April 26-28: Manuel Trevino, executive chef at Marble Lane, Dream Hotel, New York City, who appeared on “Top Chef” season four.

May 3-5: Kevin Sbraga, chef at Sbraga in Philadelphia, winner of “Top Chef” season seven.

If you want to splurge and stay overnight, the inn is offering a special two-night deluxe package for $1,282. The Guest Chef Series Package includes:

• Two nights deluxe accommodation.

• Daily extended continental breakfast.

• Sumptuous afternoon teas with finger sandwiches, pastries and scones.

• Welcome cocktail reception with Cartwright and guest chef.

• Cooking demonstration on Saturday morning at Keys to the Kitchen’s private beach house.

• Optional hands-on class on Saturday afternoon.

• Nine-course tasting menu for two at The White Barn Inn Restaurant on Saturday evening.

• A signed cookbook.

• Special White Barn Inn apron.

PORTLAND

Whip up an edible book for library’s annual festival

The Portland Public Library is seeking submissions for its annual “Edible Book Festival,” an event in which people are invited to create a piece of edible art based on a book or poem.

The art will be on display from 5 to 7 p.m. during the First Friday Art Walk on April 5, and the public can vote on their favorites. Peoples Choice Awards will be presented at 7 p.m., then the public will be invited to eat the art.

The submissions can look like a book or poem, be a pun on the title of a book or poem, or resemble a character or scene. Winners in recent years include “Three Cakes of Tea,” constructed out of cakes shaped like the letter “T,” and “Beer and Loathing in Las Haggis,” created from cans of Budweiser and cooked haggis.

Register for the festival by emailing weyand@portland.lib.me.us, or call Rachael at 871-1700, Ext. 723. Registration is free.

 

Dinner series continues March 22 at Portland Harbor Hotel

Eve’s at the Garden at the Portland Harbor Hotel, 468 Fore St., will hold the fourth in its International Dinner Series at 6:30 p.m. March 22.

The focus will be on South America, with dishes from Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Erica Archer from Wine Wise will pour wines for the dinner. There will also be live entertainment for a portion of the evening.

Tickets are available online through brownpapertickets.com and are $70 per person, including the dinner, wine pairings, valet parking, tax and gratuity. Advance purchase is required.

Call 775-9090.

 

Gantier will be Bar Lola’s guest at March wine dinner

Bar Lola, 100 Congress St., will hold its monthly wine dinner at 6:30 p.m. March 26.

The guest will be Herve Gantier, owner of Domaine St. Eugenie in Corbieres, France. The winery is located in the Languedoc-Roussillon region between the foothills of the Pyrenees and the Mediterannean. The 112-acre estate grows Carignan, Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes on vines that are 30 to 70 years old.

Gantier’s wines are produced in small quantities, sometimes fewer than 5,000 cases.

The dinner costs $75 per person, which includes a five-course meal, wine pairings, tax and gratuity. Call 775-5652 to reserve a spot, or reserve online at barlola.net.

 

Chef to go the eggs-tra mile in LeRoux Kitchen’s demo

LeRoux Kitchen’s regular Saturday afternoon cooking demonstration will focus on eggs on March 23, in preparation for the Easter holiday.

The free demonstration begins at 1 p.m. on the second floor of the store.

Chef Matt Burnham will show customers how to cook the perfect egg using easy poaching techniques, how to make a fluffy omelet and how to make the perfect sunny-side-up fried egg.

LeRoux Kitchen is located at 161 Commercial St.

 

Teen potters selling bowls in benefit at Whole Foods

Whole Foods Market, 2 Somerset St., will host a benefit for Wayside Food Programs from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Three high school pottery classes from Cape Elizabeth, Portland and Waynflete will be selling their handcrafted pottery. Purchase a bowl for $10, and the money will be donated to Wayside. Customers who buy the bowls will receive a fresh baked demi-baguette and their choice of a 16-ounce container of hot soup from the store’s chowder bar, or a 24-ounce tub of soup from the prepared-foods department.

• On March 20, Elizabeth Fraser of Girl Gone Raw will be in the store to teach a raw foods class focusing on noodles.

The class costs $15 and will run from 6 to 8 p.m. Fraser will demonstrate a noodle soup, three noodle entrees and a sweet “raw” violi dish. Registration and payment are required in advance. Stop by the store or call 774-7711.

UNITY

Hankering for a bite of boar? The food’s wild at this dinner

The Seventh Annual Sportsmen’s Conference and Wild Game dinner will be held April 12 at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts, 42 Depot St.

Appetizers will begin at 4:15 p.m., and dinner will follow at 5 p.m. Appetizers will include beaver, moose, deer, wild boar and elk. The main dinner includes five courses, salad and bread. The chef will be Charlie Krause, the Unity College catering chef and a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

Most individuals who attend the dinner are non-hunters who want to try fresh wild game. The event sells out every year.

Tickets are $30 for regular seating and $40 for the VIP treatment. VIP tickets include more intimate seating and two bottles of wine per table.

To purchase tickets, call Joe Saltalamachia at 948-9205, or email him at jsalty@unity.edu.