Food Notes

Urie will add to the Charlottesville Experience

The International Food and Wine Experience will bring in chef Karen Urie as a speaker and presented for the inaugural event from Jan. 23 to 25 in downtown Charlottesville.

Urie graduated from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I., and served a post-graduate apprenticeship in Chicago, where she worked for two years under James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Gale Gand. She was head pastry chef at Charlie Trotter’s for two of her five years at the restaurant. In January, she joined John B. Shields as executive chef at Town House in Chilhowie.

Urie will participate in a seminar from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Jan. 24 at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. She will present a variety of desserts at the Charlottesville Sugar Shack Seminar presented by Kluge Estate. Joining her will be Dave Fafara, owner of Shenandoah Joe’s, and they will pair coffees with desserts. Champagne and dessert wines will be presented in a Cru Royale presented by Kluge Estate.

Learn more at http://www.ifweoc.com.

Locals help out with Harrisonburg project

Local and regional performers are heading to Harrisonburg to help raise funds for Our Community Place and the Free for All Soup Kitchen.

The CD release party for the Our Community Place holiday album, “Our Christmas Present,” will be 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday at 17 E. Johnson St. in Harrisonburg, across from the Little Grill Collective.

Featured performers from the CD include Greg Ward, Paul Curreri, Trent Wagler and Steel Wheels, Chris Howdyshell, Terry Turtle, Jesse Trainum, the New Johnsons, Jonathan Reuel, Alex Albrecht and Scott Murray. Other contributors to the project include Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show and Austin, Texas, songwriter and former Charlottesville resident Danny Schmidt.

Tunes will range from traditional to originals and from old-time to reggae.

Donations will be accepted to benefit OCP and the Free for All Soup Kitchen. The kitchen has been serving hot family-style noon meals to everyone since October 1992 at the Little Grill Restaurant in Harrisonburg. People from different walks of life sit together to enjoy a meal.

Visit http://www.ourcommunityplace.org or call (540) 442-7727.

Cheeseburger raised funds for VH1 program

Cheeseburger in Paradise raised $17,250 for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation by selling exclusive “VH1 Save the Music” T-shirts over a six-week period.

Thirty-eight Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants in 18 states participated, with each restaurant teaming up with its community to raise awareness of the importance of music education. All funds will be used to buy musical instruments for a public school in New Jersey, and the school will be announced early in the new year.

Starr Hill brews up another award winner

Starr Hill Brewing Co.’s Starr Hill Pale Ale took home an award as best bitter/ESB-style beer of the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast at the United States Beer Tasting Championship.

In the competition, Starr Hill was up against some of the nation’s most esteemed craft breweries.

Starr Hill Pale Ale is a medium-bodied, year-round favorite brewed in the English pale-ale tradition. Master brewer Mark Thompson uses liberal hopping and Munich malt to create a crisp, aromatic blend, and the beer has a higher alcohol content to balance its body and bitterness.

The Pale Ale also won two gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Learn more at http://www.starrhill.com.

Former White House chef visits Williamsburg

A former White House chef will share holiday favorites at Colonial Williamsburg in the Williamsburg Inn’s Regency Room.

Chef Roland Mesnier, who spent 25 years in the kitchen at the White House, will return to Colonial Williamsburg and team up with executive chef Hans Schadler and the Williamsburg Inn culinary staff to present meals at 7:30 p.m. today and Thursday.

Holiday selections from five presidential administrations are on the menu, including President Carter’s chicken and truffle ballotine, President Reagan’s herb-crusted Angus beef tenderloin and President Clinton’s seared sea bass. Each course includes a sampling of fine wines and will be narrated with nostalgic stories.

Mesnier, a pastry chef, will follow the meal with a special dessert.

The price is $115 and includes tax and gratuity. For reservations, call (800) 404-3389.

You can pick up tickets for fest’s gala dinner

Tickets are on sale for the Jan. 24 Gala Dinner, which will be a special part of the inaugural International Food and Wine Experience of Charlottesville.

The Gala Evening at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel will feature food, a performance by the Unexpected Boys from New York City, a silent auction and other special events.

Tickets are on sale on an individual basis or as part of three-day packages at http://www.ifweoc.com. To sponsor a table or get more information, call 296-0001.

Fellini’s adds lunch menu on the weekdays

Fellini’s No. 9 is now open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The lunch cook is Mose Pettrorossi from a city outside Milano in northern Italy.

For $7.95, guests get a salad, bread and a choice of pasta dishes — spaghetti, spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna, cannelloni or linguine with shrimp. Diners can sit by the fire to eat.

Reservations are welcome. For information or reservations, call 979-4279.

Gray Ghost rides high in California wine class

Gray Ghost Vineyards’ 2007 Adieu was featured at a wine class in Los Angeles presented by the Los Angeles International Wine and Spirits Competition in conjunction with the L.A. County Fair.

The 2008 Wine Education Program featured the Adieu in its “Gold-Medal Wines from East Coast to West Coast” class with Ann Miller and Jim Trezise. More than 2,000 participants attended.

Gray Ghost owners and winemakers Al and Cheryl Kellert recently returned from presenting a “Virginia: From Vine to Wine” seminar and showcasing six wines at the American Wine Society National Conference in Sacramento, Calif. Gray Ghost’s wines won two silver and three bronze medals at the competition held in conjunction with the conference.

For more information, call (540) 937-4869.

From staff reports