Chef’s Evening is a chance for attendees to break from their normal southern meals and have a chance to try new cuisines made by professional chefs (above). It also gives them a chance to learn how to make such dishes in the comfort of their own home.

Courtesy of Phillip Colwart 

Hammond Regional Arts Center brings new and unique cuisines to Hammond with their Culinary Arts Series.

The fourth dinner will take place Monday, August 10 at Alack Culinary Equipment Superstore. Doors open at 6 p.m. with the event starting at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are 65 dollars for members and 75 dollars for nonmembers. They can be purchased through the Hammond Regional Arts Center website.

“This is one of our major fundraising events,” said operations manager of Hammond Regional Arts Center Daphne Hebert. “We try to have five dinners every year, getting a chef for each dinner. They present three courses. They will prepare each course, one at a time and give out the recipe while they’re talking and explain different techniques that people might not know. When they are done showing you how to make the course, they will serve it out to the audience. We usually have some sort of salad or appetizer, a main course and dessert for every dinner. There’s wines to go with it as well.”

Attendees will also have the opportunity to talk to the chefs about their careers and life to see how they came to be professional chefs. 

“Depending on the chef, some of them will walk around while people are eating their meal while some will stay in the back and get the next course ready,” said Herbert. “It’s all up to the individual at that point. But, usually you get the chance to meet and talk to them some time during the evening.”

The featured chef for the August dinner is Chef Tony Bosco of Bosco’s Cafe.

In addition to the attendees enjoying new dishes, this series gives chefs the chance to delve into cuisines they do not normally cook. 

“Everything they brought us is good,” said Herbert. “Every chef we’ve had is fantastic. I’ve never had a bad meal. It’s always different. Bosco’s cafe is based on Italian cuisine, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be Italian. This gives chefs a chance to break away from what they do everyday. So, he may decide to get crazy on us and do French cuisine because he doesn’t get to do that often enough.”

This series also lets Hammond Regional Arts Center explore other forms of arts.

“It is also an opportunity to delve into the other areas of art because there are a lot of different styles of sculpting and paint, and you can come and see that over and over again,” said Herbert. “It’s nice to offer something different outside of that. We really try to promote as much different arts as possible, and this is a way for us to branch out and do that.”

According to Herbert, the dinner is like being a part of the audience for a cooking show, where you get to learn new techniques and tips from the professionals.

For more information about the Culinary Art Series, visit the Hammond Regional Arts Center website at www.hammondarts.org.

Chef Coy Mollega from Coy’s Contemporary Cuisine is preparing and demonstrating one of his recipes at the series dinner.  

Courtesy of Phillip Colwart