Garden fundraiser is cooking for fall
Posted on Sunday, August 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Northwest_Profiles/233230/
FAYETTEVILLE — The man with the golden spatula, Swiss chef Bruno Wehren, is coming to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in October for a fundraiser titled “Chefs in the Garden.” Liz Esch, event planner for the garden, landed the award-winning chef with a cold call to the Bentonville offi ce of pasta-maker Barilla America, which has signed on to be the presenting sponsor.
Barilla America, the domestic division of The Barilla Group — Italy’s largest food producer — is a sponsor of a longtime Chef Series at the Chicago Botanic Garden, near Barilla America’s corporate offi ces in Bannockburn, Ill. Chefs from Chicago’s best restaurants put on cooking demonstrations in the garden’s amphitheater on weekends May through October.
Wehren, of Las Vegas, has been executive chef for Barilla for well over a decade. He has cooked for at least two American presidents — Nixon and Carter — as well as the heads of state for several foreign countries and a long list of celebrities, such as the cast and crew of the James Bond movie, The Man With the Golden Gun. Past employers include dozens of five-star hotels, such as the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and the Warwick Hotel in Houston.
“I’m a big fan of the pasta company,” Esch says of Barilla, who worked as a personal chef out of college. A group of Barilla representatives came to town to meet with her about the event.
“This is the most involvement we’ve ever had from a sponsor, to help plan so much with it. I really think it can lead to something even bigger.”
Local chefs featured at the event include those from Ella’s restaurant at the Inn at Carnall Hall, Cafe Rue Orleans, Pinnacle Country Club, Soul Restaurant & Lounge (chef Steven Brooks has a portable outdoor kitchen ), A Fare to Remember, the Little Bread Co. and Shelby Lynne’s Cake Shoppe. The event will be set up so that guests can stroll around the garden and take in cooking demonstrations and sample at their leisure, Esch says. Tickets for the Oct. 9 event are limited to 400 and are set to go on sale to members of the Botanical Garden Society of the Ozarks on Sept. 8. It is questionable whether there will be any left when they go on sale to the public a week later. The cost is $ 35 in advance, $ 45 at the door, Esch says. “I think this is going to be an event we do every year. Nobody else does anything exactly like this, and our venue’s so different,” she says. The band Ultra Suede will provide dance music. The ticket price also entitles guests to an insulated bag containing a recipe book, a packet of herb seeds, several types of Barilla pasta and sauce and recipe cards from the chefs. BANK BUILDING OPENS WITH
TWIST Paul Flashnick has grand ideas for a garden-inspired event — the Green Bean Ball, the Oct. 3 kickoff to the weekend’s Twist of Green Festival. The festival is billed as the fi rst large-scale effort to showcase sustainable products, resources, practices and research in Northwest Arkansas. The ball will be the public’s reintroduction to the bottom fl oor of the former Bank of America building, which is being remodeled, says Flashnick, one of the festival’s main organizers. Alexander Merry-Ship & Alt Real Estate Group Inc. is planning a grand opening and dedication of the building’s commercial space in conjunction with the festival’s Oct. 4 opening, he says.
Booths will be set up in the building, around the Farmers Market on the Fayetteville Square and along Mountain Street leading to the Fayetteville Public Library. Flashnick envisions some 10, 000 to 60, 000 people strolling through the area during the weekend, the same in which the Arkansas Razorbacks play the University of Florida in Fayetteville. Guests to the ball are encouraged to wear “green” — anything from green T-shirts to sustainable costumes. Organic food will be provided by the Greenhouse Grille and Ozark Natural Foods, Flashnick says. The ball will also feature a design competition for a sustainable playhouse, doghouse, cat tower and dollhouse. The top four entries in each category will be auctioned, with proceeds going toward a sustainable science fair scholarship program that Flashnick is initiating on behalf of Sustainable Northwest Arkansas in early 2009. (The group is seeking nonprofi t status. )
Tickets are $ 22, $ 10 for Fayetteville residents and free for children accompanied by a paying adult. Kids are not only welcomed, but encouraged.
“I want them there. They are my main mission. I want the kids to annoy the mom and dad to do the change,” Flashnick says. The purpose of the festival is “to show mom and dad and the kids what they can do right now to phase sustainability into their lives,” he says.
It’s his 13-year-old son, Anders, who drives his passion for promoting sustainable practices.
“He made a statement to me one day — and it’s basically three words — ‘ Is there time ?’”
Sponsors so far include Dannon Yogurt and Stoneyfi eld Farms Yogurt, which have paid stipends of $ 20, 000 each, and pb 2 Architecture & Engineering, which donated $ 10, 000. Flashnick says about $ 100, 000 is needed to pull it off. Flashnick is also encouraging Green Bean Ball guests to bring canned food for the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, formerly the Ozark Food Bank. As for the name of the festival, Flashnick says with a laugh: “I was trying to come up with a name that people would remember and that people would have an extra kind of feeling toward. The words just came to me.” Entertainment will be by The Greasy Greens.
OUT OF THE HUDDLE AND DOWN THE AISLE For those who haven’t heard, Razorbacks quarterback Casey Dick is engaged to marry his girlfriend of two years, Felicia Davis of West Fork, on July 11, 2009. It’s no coincidence that the wedding date is the same as Dick’s jersey number. Dick likes the number and wanted to make it his wedding date, says the mother of the bride to be, Lisa Biggs. Davis is pursuing a degree in apparel studies at the UA and is set to graduate in May. She and Dick met when she was working in the office at Millennium Chiropractic in Fayetteville and Dick sought relief for back trouble there season before last. Biggs says they became engaged while on a trip with Biggs and her husband, Heath, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, on spring break. No word yet on the wedding venue, but the reception will be at Springdale Country Club, Biggs says. Davis is putting her career plans on hold until they see where Dick’s football talents take them after college. Biggs calls him “Case.” “ They’ll probably go to Dallas, ” Biggs says. “She wants to be a buyer in the clothing industry.” Please send buzz-worthy items to Cyd King at
cking@arkansasonline. com