Travel and Dish

A series of dinners featuring custom-created menus by acclaimed MidAtlantic chefs

Root to Table/Taste of the Blue Ridge allows guests to get up close and personal with Virginia and West Virginia makers, farmers, and chefs who pair food courses and wines for festive feasts. When you arrive, guests can watch the chefs creating their dishes and ask questions.

Most chefs and their teams offer a tiny bite in addition to cooking and plating their dishes. Some demonstrate how to work with specific ingredients. Then, guests are called to the long tables where, between each course, the chef describes their dish and explains where they sourced the ingredients. Some suggest what wine pairs well with their dishes. 

It’s like watching a cooking show, except you get to eat. It was some of the best food experiences I’ve had, and I do a lot of eating. There’s a break between dinner and dessert for the local growers to be introduced. Farmers and purveyors are acknowledged and invited to say a word or two.

When possible the dinners are held outdoors to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the vineyard or inn that’s hosting. At my meal at Bluemont Vineyard in Loudoun County, Virginia, Vincent Badiee of The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm served grilled gazpacho shooters and duck confit cigars with fennel salad. Chef Terrace Gregoire served smoked fried chicken risotto Caribbean style; and chef Reid Badger served street corn succotash and heirloom tomato salad. Everything was exceptional.

Often the Taste of the Blue Ridge organizers invite “Rising Stars” to cook a dish, which offers these young chefs a platform to shine. Makayla Montgomery of The Conche in Leesburg served her grilled peaches and cocoa nob oat crumble and David Propst, who’s cooked for Presidents Trump and Obama, attended the event. 

The organization also raises money for Future Farmers of America and Blue Ridge Community College Academy of Hospitality and Culinary Arts. For a list of upcoming dinners, check the Taste of the Blue Ridge website.