Wine & Dine Experience at Coquette Cafe in Milwaukee
A festive Wine & Dine event in Milwaukee was held on Wednesday April 28th, 2010 at the Coquette Cafe at 5:30PM. This was the first event in a monthly series organized by Becky Steimle and David Wise of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Admission to the event was only by reservation, and attendance was limited to 50 guests. It turned out to be a sold-out event, with the proceeds going to the Feeding America program. Other Milwaukee restaurants will be hosting future events.
This first event was hosted by Chefs Chris Hatleli and Nick Burki of Coquette Cafe along with me. As a culinary consultant and an Indian cookbook author, I already had the pleasure of working with Chris and Nick when they were the chefs at the Milwaukee Art Museum’s Calatrava cafe. Our collaboration has always been a rewarding experience for me, and I believe it was a rewarding experience for them as well.
Coquette Cafe Chefs Chris and Nick had planned the event with Becky and David. Coquette Cafe staff were eager to invite the guests and to make sure all the foods were presented in an elegant manner. The back room at the cafe was reserved for the event. Chris and I had cooked some appetizers to be served at the evening event. Chris was hopping from place to place to make sure everything was in order. Nick was also involved in menu planning and created name plates for all the dishes that were served. The wine expert William Gardner from L’eft Bank Wine Company had his wines and glasses ready to serve.
The guests started arriving at 5PM. An array of wonderful foods featuring a sampling of Coquette Cafe’s famous pates, terrine and roulettes, an assortment of French cheeses, an assortment of flat bread pizzas, a selection of delicious Indian appetizers ( tuna masala served on a cocktail rye bread, vegetable vadai made with vegetables blended with seasoned split peas, onions and ginger transformed into a high fiber vegetable fritter, potato masala on baked phyllo shells with coriander chutney and eggplant chutney) were the featured foods served with fine samples of wine from the L’eft Bank wine company. This wonderful combination of French, American and Indian appetizers was extremely well-received by all the guests.
The Milwaukeeans gathered there were happy to meet each other and it was obvious they were having a terrific time. We greeted the guests warmly and were so happy to see everyone eagerly going to the food table to see the food display. It didn’t feel like we were all meeting the guests for the first time. It felt like we all knew each other very well. I was pleasantly surprised that some of the guests had known me and had taken cooking classes with me and were using my cookbook (Healthy South Indian Cooking) Many guests were also delighted to learn about my upcoming TV cooking program series on MPTV (Healthful Indian Flavors with Alamelu) beginning May 15 and were looking forward to watching the series.
Chris, Nick, and I were overwhelmed by the appreciation of our efforts by everyone who attended the event. It was a memorable event. I have seen Wine & Dine events held in many cities. Now, in Milwaukee we will have our own event too. Becky Steimle and David Wise are the visionaries to begin such a series of fun events in Milwaukee. These monthly Wine & Dine experience will be held in different restaurants leading up to the “great tasting event” hosted by Milwaukee Home & Fine Living magazine, to take place in October 2nd, and 3rd, 2010 at Midwest Express Center. As you may know the 2009 Wine & Dine Wisconsin was well attended event with many popular Milwaukee chefs participating in cooking demonstrations, tastings and wine experts talking about the food and wine pairings. Mark your calendar for the monthly and upcoming great tasting event in October, 2010. Let us get together and celebrate Milwaukee. Shall we?
