Cultura Asheville Brings Back Cultivated Community Dinner Series With Big-Name Chefs in 2022 | Eater Carolinas

"After earning a 2020 James Beard Foundation semi-finalist nod for Best New Restaurant, the team pivoted during the pandemic — partnering with a local nonprofit to deliver hundreds of free meals weekly, launching a breakfast-sandwich pop-up, and having the chef take a sabbatical to work with a church serving people experiencing homelessness. To better use an underutilized dining room they created a monthly pop-up dinner series that seats about 50, donates a portion of proceeds to each guest chef’s chosen nonprofit, and spotlights local talent through multi-course collaborations; the pilot sold out. Memorable dishes from the series ranged from a blue-corn tlayuda with ant mole, whipped lardo and pickled beets to a chicken-liver mousse with tepache gelée, huitlacoche tuiles and cilantro (which even reused an earlier mole), plus shredded smoked chicken folded into Filipino flavors with house-made rice noodles and a lotus-leaf–wrapped lap cheong lo mai gai. The series continued monthly through 2022, tickets ran around $100 and included alcoholic and nonalcoholic pairings, and the program doubled as a platform for chefs to showcase craft and support community causes." - Kay West