The Mercer County Community College Culinary/Pastry programs will once again host a tasting event featuring Central New Jersey’s finest restaurants, with proceeds to benefit student scholarships in the name of two former culinary faculty members.
This sixth annual event will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the MCCC Cafeteria, 1200 Old Trenton Road, West Windsor.
In addition to food prepared by area restaurants, MCCC Culinary Arts students — both current students and alumni — will be staffing tables and giving participants the opportunity to see them in action.
The event is set to include tasting tables by the Blue Bottle Café, Hopewell; Ravello by Toscano, Robbinsville; Palace of Asia, Lawrenceville; Blend/Brother’s Pizza, Hamilton; Terra Momo Bread Company, Nassau Inn, Small World Coffee, Trattoria Procaccini, all of Princeton, Wegmans, of West Windsor; and the Academy of Culinary arts of the Mercer County Technical School, among others.
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The evening will also feature a silent auction, with many holiday gift items available. Tickets are $35 for MCCC alumni, students, faculty, and staff; general admission is $50. The college says that all proceeds from the event will benefit the Chef Anne Lumberger and Chef Shari Widmayer Pastry Arts Memorial Scholarship Fund. Lumberger and Widmayer were MCCC faculty members.
“This event gets bigger and better every year,” said Chef Frank Benowitz, instructor for the MCCC Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management program. “Nowhere else in the entire region can you sample such a wide variety of the best cuisine in Central Jersey, under one roof, while contributing to a worthy cause.”
Tickets can be purchased at MCCC’s Kelsey Theatre box office, or purchased online through a link on the HRIM program website, www.mccc.edu/hrim.
Pastry Arts Student Omer Kilickaya serves his scholarship winning pumpkin cheesecake with MCCC culinary instructor Chef Frank Benowitz.,
