Congrats to the local James Beard Nominees:
Katie Button of Cúrate has been nominated by the James Beard Foundation for the Rising Star Chef Award, awarded to chefs under 30 who show great promise in their field. Button has also been nominated by Food & Wine Magazine for The People’s Best New Chef of the Southeast. Vote for here here: http://avl.mx/av.
John Fleer of Canyon Kitchen in Sapphire, N.C., received a nomination for Best Chef of the Southeast. Fleer is eyeing Asheville for his first restaurant ownership venture.
Plates for poverty:
On Saturday, March 10 at 7 p.m., Greenlife Grocery is hosting a vegetarian Ethiopian dinner in its café to raise money for the Whole Planet Foundation. Seats are $25 and include an appetizer, entrée (with injera), dessert, mead, coffee and iced tea. Beer and additional honey wine will be available for suggested donations. Reserve a table for six for the price of the average microloan: $133. All proceeds go directly to funding microloans throughout the world. Buy a ticket by calling 254-5440 or by stopping by the Greenlife customer-service desk. Greenlife is located at 70 Merrimon Ave. For more information about the Whole Planet Foundation, visit http://www.wholeplanetfoundation.org.
From The Market Place:
On Wednesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m., two award-winning chefs join forces at The Market Place restaurant at 20 Wall St. in downtown Asheville to prepare a five-course dinner of West African-inspired cuisine. Chefs William Dissen and Nick Figel (of Cyprus Restaurant) will prepare yam fufu, jollof rice and chicken yassa. A performance of West African drumming and dancing will enhance the cultural evening. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Asheville-based, 33rd generation Ivorian djembe player and musician Adama Dembele in an effort to help secure his permanent green card for U.S. citizenship.
Tickets are $65 (alcohol, tax and gratuity are additional). To reserve a seat, call The Market Place in advance at 252-4162. A credit card is required to hold the reservation. Visit http://www.marketplace-restaurant.com for more.
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.