Can there ever be too many cooks in the kitchen? Diners at the Root Cellar in Chapel Hill will find out when four cookbook authors join five chefs for Dames in the Kitchen, a collaborative dinner set there on April 6, 2017. Produced by the North Carolina Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, the collaborative dinner will benefit the Interfaith Food Shuttle, a statewide hunger-relief organization.
Cookbook authors participating in the collaborative dinner include Sandra Gutierrez, food personality and author of The New Southern-Latino Table; Susi Gott, food writer, certified wine specialist and author of 11 cookbooks; Nancie McDermott, food writer and author of 14 cookbooks, and Stephanie Tyson, author of Well, Shut My Mouth!
Not to be out-shined by their published peers, these esteemed restaurateurs and chefs will work alongside one another in the kitchen: Sera Cuni of The Root Cellar in Chapel Hill, Jill Santa Lucia from Catering Works in Raleigh, Rhonda Jones from Chez Moi Bakery in Durham, Stephanie Tyson of Sweet Potatoes in Winston-Salem, and Spring Council of Mama Dips in Chapel Hill.
Making music during the evening festivities will be Susi Gott and the Kitchen Dudes, an ensemble comprised of the author and four other musicians. “Food and music in Appalachia have always been intertwined,” says Gott, whose most recent cookbook is Appalachian Appetite.
Host of Dames in the Kitchen, The Root Cellar, is a Chapel Hill restaurant and catering company opened in 1998 by chef and cookbook author Sara Foster as Foster’s Market. The restaurant was rebranded to The Root Cellar by Susan White and Sera Cuni in 2014. Tickets for Dames in the Kitchen are $75 per person and may be purchased at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2887188.
Les Dames d’Escoffier, named for Auguste Escoffier (1846 –1935), is a philanthropic organization of professional female leaders in the food, beverage and hospitality industries committed to the advancement of education and philanthropy for the good of the global community.