Dine, Drink and Discover with Minnesota Les Dames d'Escoffier's First Online Culinary Silent Auction
Monday, April 24, 2023 at 1:46AMMinnesota Les Dames d'Escoffier's 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, a Mill City Farmers Market vendor.
Past Dame It! events have included an in-person 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.
The auction will go live at 8am on May 1 and can be accessed here. The last bid will be taken prior to 6pm on May 13, and winners will be notified how to receive their items.
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.
