Essalicious features all of the fixings needed for a fine night out and it only costs $20 a ticket.
The annual fundraiser for the Essa Public Library returns to the Angus branch on Nov. 21 and it promises to be a quality evening of treats, music and, of course, words.
A partnership between the library and Nottawasaga Pine Secondary School’s (NPSS) hospitality classes, Essalicious has endeared itself to locals over the past five years and has become a hot ticket for supporters of food and books.
“It’s our second biggest fundraiser of the year,” Glenda Newbatt, manager of library services for the Essa Public Library, said during a recent interview. “It’s become a very popular event.
“We start getting asked about it in August, because people want to make sure they can get tickets,” she added.
The evening begins at 5:30 p.m. and runs for a couple of hours.
While food is the main attraction, event organizers have added some extras to make sure folks have a memorable evening.
Jess Bowman, a former student at NPSS, will provide musical entertainment and Lorraine Johnson, the author of numerous books on native plants, will be on hand to talk with guests.
Additionally, there will be a silent auction featuring a variety of goods and services, including Toronto Raptors basketball tickets and gift certificates to local businesses.
On the noshing side, guests will enjoy a variety of finger foods, soups and desserts, all made by NPSS students who are enrolled in culinary courses at the Angus high school, where they learn about food prep and economics in equal measure.
“It’s all about the local harvest, the seasonal harvest,” said Peter Ford, lead culinary teacher at NPSS.
“When I started teaching here about 10 years ago, we fell into a program that focused on local produce that was plentiful," he added. “So, when potatoes were cheap, I’d buy 10 bags instead of one and we’d do a variety of potato dishes, from potato leek soup and mashed potatoes to garlic mashed and rosti (Swiss potato cake).”
He’s done the same thing with pumpkins — “muffins, tarts, squares, pies, roasted seeds, puree, soup” — and other produce.
Ford’s philosophy is pretty straightforward: Teach young people how to create tasty, nutritious meals using fairly cheap and plentiful raw ingredients.
“We teach the students the basics — how to use a knife, how to use a food processor, an oven,” he said. “We teach them to make as much stuff as possible from scratch. We want to teach them how to cook the food they like."
Once they’ve got that concept down, he helps them develop the confidence they need to not only make their own meals but, if they’re so inclined, to enter the world of food prep in a professional capacity.
He teaches in a fully outfitted industrial kitchen, on par with almost anything a professional restaurant would have.
Ford says the skills the students learn in the cooking lab will not only ensure they can feed themselves in the future, but they can also find work, if needed.
“This isn’t the home (economics) class some people might remember,” Ford said. “With the government’s push toward skilled trades, this is an important option. A professional chef is certainly a skilled trade.”
Ford’s confident the students’ skills will shine through when the food is rolled out for Essalicious.
“We got a bit of a late start,” he said, "but we’re good now. Everybody’s going to have a chance to try everything. The students worked hard and it shows."
For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.
