For immediate release
Dine, Drink and Discover with Minnesota Les Dames First Online Culinary Silent Auction
MINNEAPOLIS--The Minnesota chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier’s’ (LDEI) popular culinary silent auction which promises unique dining and drink experiences you won’t find anywhere but here, is going online May 1-13. Funds raised by the auction support local women in the culinary fields through academic scholarships and professional grants, as well as high school youth through Urban Roots, based in St. Paul.
Past Dame It! events have included an inperson sampling of gourmet food and drinks, along with a silent auction, but as the dine-out world has shifted, Dame It! has adapted to provide this robust online experience everyone can participate in.
What’s compelling about this auction is that the majority of items focus on personal experiences provided by Les Dames members as opposed to items you can find elsewhere in stores or the Internet. Among the items to bid on are:
- Dine out with a member of the Star Tribune’s Taste staff at one of its review features;
- A private cooking class for 12 by award-winning cookbook author Amalia Moreno-Damgaard based on her recent travels to Oaxaca, Mexico, and the Guatemalan Mayan highlands;
- Chowgirls Catering founders Heidi Andermack and Amy Brown will guide guests in the Art of the Board, including both the ingredients and the architecture of an artisan grazing board;
- A 4-hour baking class for two by Kim Ode, a baking instructor who led the Star Tribune’s Baking Central feature for many years,at Kim’s home in Edina;
- A private, customizable wine tasting for 6 led by wine expert Allison Sheardy at Quincy Street Kitchens in Northeast Minneapolis.
In addition, there are numerous wine experiences with sommeliers, meals prepared in your home by professional chefs, a takeaway lifestyle box from Paris Dining Club, as well as picnic ingredients and cooking accouterments -- all in time for Mother’s Day gifts or the start of summer entertaining.
The auction will go live at 8 a.m.on May 1 and can be accessed at https://us.givergy.com/lesdamesmn/ The last bid will be taken prior to 6 p.m. on May 13, and winners will be notified how to receive their items.
About the Les Dames organization
Minnesota Les Dames d’ Escoffier reflects the wide range of women food professionals in our area including restaurant chefs and owners, food writers, cookbook authors, caterers, food and nutrition consultants, editors, corporate food professionals, wine specialists, food stylists, and marketers. Auction items celebrate the expertise of chapter members and the connections they share within the Twin Cities community.
The chapter, formed in 1996, is an affiliate chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, composed of more than 2,400 members in 44 chapters in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Mexico and Italy. The group is named after the French chef Auguste Escoffier, one of the most innovative chefs in history.
The website for the local organization is www.lesdamesmn.org.
For more information:
Contact:
Nancy Weingartner Monroe
612-840-6659
nancywmonroe@gmail.com
