Event: Feast Of The Five Senses 2014

If you haven’t already, be sure to pencil September 21st in your dining diary. That’s the date for this years Feast Of The Five Senses – the annual gathering of some serious Utah kitchen talent in support of Slow Food Utah.

The 2014 edition represents a decade of the event – with proceeds going towards Slow Food Utah’s Micro-grant Fund, filling gaps in traditional funding sources for food-related projects; especially for small-scale food growers and producers, community innovators and educators. In past years, Slow Food Utah has funded schoolyard and community gardens, Utahns Against Hunger’s Real Food Rising program and has helped small farmers build greenhouses and barns, purchase a tractor, and expand their livestock operations.

The fundraiser features some of Utah’s most talented chefs (see below) who transform a bounty of Utah product into an evening of top notch dining. The 10th Annual Feast of Five Senses takes place on Sunday, September 21, 2014 at the Memorial House in Memory Grove in Salt Lake. The evening begins with passed appetizers, mingling and a silent auction at 5 p.m., before following with a plated dinner and chef presentations.

“This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Slow Food, a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. This is also the 10th anniversary of Slow Food Utah’s Feast of Five Senses,” said Gwen Crist, President of Slow Food Utah. “This event was created to raise funds for our micro-grant program, helping to support local farmers and food artisans who are working hard to preserve and sustain our community’s food resources. The theme for this year is ‘Heirloom: Celebrating our Food Heritage,’ and will highlight ingredients and dishes that are part of our collective food heritage, our heirlooms from the past and for the future.”

Chefs participating in the 2014 event include:

Nathan Powers of Bambara
Jen Gilroy of Meditrina
Frederick Perez of Del Mar al Lago
Kali Matson of Caffe Niche
Wendy Robinson of Liberty Heights Fresh
Amber Billingsley Angelilli of Vinto
Emily Glassman of Em’s
Adam Kreisel of Chaia Cucina
Cheese professionals of Caputo’s Market and Deli
Courtney McDowell of Finca

Additionally, Francis Fecteau of Libation LLC will provide an optional wine pairing for the evening and Uinta Brewing will pour a beer pairing too.

Tickets are available now via www.slowfoodutah.org or by mail to Slow Food Utah, PO Box 581213, SLC, UT 84158-1213. Cost for Slow Food members is $100 per person with a $25 optional wine pairing. For non members, the cost is $125 per person and $25 for the optional wine pairing.

Need more convincing? Wonder how delicious these events are? Not sure what to expect? Check out these shots from the Feast Of The Five Senses 2013 edition that was held at the Salt Lake Culinary Center:

Dining room at Feast Of The Five Senses 2013

Phelix Gardner prepares passed appetizer at Feast Of The Five Senses 2013

Viet Pham preps first course at Feast Of The Five Senses 2013

Viet Pham: Mussels cooked over embers, speckled trout lettuce, roselle leaf escabeche, sunchoke chips

Adam Kreisel: Chilled new roots Cushaw squash and Sandhill Farms inchelium red garlic bisque with Capital Reef apple relish

Amber Billingsley: Capital reef apple sorbetto, clifford farm honey and rosemary gelato, pecan cheese crisp

Ethan Lappe: Roasted new roots, early blood turnip-rooted beet with Rosehill Dairy cream horseradish sauce

Tom Grant: Christiansen farms Mulefoot pork dolmades with Frog Bench vegetable salad and Drake yogurt cucumber raita

Peter Korth: Utah corn and basil ice cream, goat cheese-sweet corn fritter, strawberry and pickled cherokee tomato relish

Hungry yet?

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC.  I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have written in myopic detail about the Salt Lake City  dining scene for the better part of seventeen years.

I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV.   Pause those credits, yep, that’s me! I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.    I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   What they’re saying about me: “Not inaccurate”, “I thought he was older”, “I don’t share his feelings”.

Want to know more? This is why I am the way I am.