Generous Helpings returns this year on Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 5:30 p.m. at the Nashville Farmers’ Market. It’s an annual event featuring tastings of appetizers, entrees, and desserts from local restaurants, as well as fine wines and beer selections from local distributors. The best part about Generous Helpings is that all proceeds benefit Middle Tennessee’s Table, Second Harvest Food Bank’s grocery rescue program. The program rescues and redistributes nearly 5 million pounds of food from more than 200 grocery stores annually including produce, dairy, protein, and non-perishable food items. That is a huge amount of food rescued!

Tickets for Generous Helpings are on sale now, $40 in advance and $50 at the door. You can also buy a $150 Patron Ticket which includes an invite to a separate Patron’s Party being held on Monday, May 6th at Flyte World Dining and Wine, a ticket to Generous Helpings, an event t-shirt, and a gift. Check out the restaurants participating so far:

Amerigo Italian Restaurant
Bella Nashville
Caffe Nonna
Chappy’s Seafood Restaurant
fido
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
Kickin’ Coffee and Tea
Kohana Japanese Restaurant
Kroger Chef Shoppes
Legato Gelato
Marche Artisan Foods
Margot Cafe & Bar
Mason’s
Midtown Cafe
Miel Restaurant
Mirko Pasta
Nashville State Community College
Nothing Bundt Cakes
perl Catering
Pied Piper Creamery
Porta Via Italian Kitchen
Porter Road Butcher
{PUB}licity
Red Pony
Riff’s Fine Street Food
Riviera Provencial Grill
Second Harvest Food Bank Culinary Arts Center
Sol
Something Special
Soy Bistro
Sunset Grill
Soy Bistro
The Bloomy Rind
The Mad Platter
The Turnip Truck
Urban Grub
Yellow Porch

Ready to eat?! It’s a great opportunity to sample food from your favorite restaurants or restaurants you’ve never tried, and you’re helping a great local charity!

For one lucky reader, I’ve got two tickets to this year’s Generous Helpings!

Mandatory Entry: Do one of the following and leave a comment on this post telling me which you did.

1. Join Second Harvest’s email list at secondharvestmidtn.org
2. Like Second Harvest on Facebook.
3. Follow Second Harvest on Twitter.

Optional entry: For one additional entry, tweet the following: “Win tickets to Generous Helpings benefitting @2HarvestMidTN from @SoHowsItTaste! http://bit.ly/ZUFFhE” and leave a separate comment that you tweeted.

Contest ends on Friday, May 10th at 5 p.m. central. Please make sure you enter a valid email address as an alternate winner will be chosen if I don’t hear from you within 48 hours. Good luck!

Congratulations to Sue who left comment #14!
You’ve won two tickets to this year’s Generous Helpings!
Winner chosen using random.org

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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On Sunday is the Challenge to the Chefs. Local chefs will compete by creating unique dishes that must feature at least one of these Tennessee products: Bentonâ€s Bacon, Goo Goo Clusters, and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey whiskey. Attendees get to taste the creations by all competing chefs and there also will be a Bloody Mary bar. Sign me up! What really got me looking forward to this event was watching Chef Deb Paquette make Goo Goo Quesadillas on News Channel 5 the other day. She used all three ingredients in one dish! If that’s the kind of food I have to look forward to that Sunday, I’ll be the first person there!

Competing chefs include Jeremy Barlow of Tayst and SloCo, Thomas Cook of Prime 108, Brandon Frohne of Rutland Place Catering and Nashville Urban Gardeners, Giovanni Giosa of Porta Via Italian Kitchen, Matthew Lackey of Flyte World Dining, Deb Paquette of Etch, Kevin Ramquist of F. Scottâ€s Restaurant and Jazz Bar, Jarvan Springer of West End Café, Robert Spinelli of perl Catering, Keith West of Puckettâ€s Grocery and Restaurant, Toby Willis of Nashville City Club, and Robbie Wilson of Kayne Prime, Tavern, Whiskey Kitchen, and Virago.

Individual tickets are $150 for the Celebrity Chef Dinner and $35 for Challenge to the Chefs. An all-access pass is available for $175 person. Tables of 10 for the Celebrity Chef Dinner are available for $1,250, providing a savings of $250. For tickets and more information, visit www.nashvillelifestyles.com.

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I love this time of year in Nashville. It seems like there’s a continuous stream of food events and most of them benefit a local charity. Generous Helpings is an annual event featuring tastings of appetizers, entrees, and desserts from local restaurants, as well as fine wines and specialty beers from local distributors. This year, it’s on Thursday, May 17th at 5:30 p.m. at the Nashville Farmers’ Market. The best part about Generous Helpings is that all proceeds benefit Middle Tennessee’s Table, Second Harvest Food Bank‘s grocery rescue program. This program rescues and redistributes nearly 5 million pounds of food from more than 200 grocery stores annually. That’s an impressive amount of food saved each year!

Tickets for Generous Helpings are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. Quite a bargain when you see the list of restaurants that are participating:

55 South
AM@FM
Amerigo Italian Restaurant
Cafe Nonna
Chappyâ€s on Church
fido
Fish & Co.
F. Scottâ€s Restaurant and Jazz Bar
Jeniâ€s Splendid Ice Creams
Kickin†Coffee and Tea
Kohana Japanese Restaurant
Kroger Chef Shoppes
Local Catering
Marche Artisan Foods
Margot Café & Bar
McConnell House
Miel Restaurant
Nashville State Community College Culinary Arts
Noshville Delicatessen
perl Catering
Porta Via Italian Kitchen
Porter Road Butcher
Provence Breads and Café
Red Pony
Riffâ€s Fine Street Food
Second Harvest Food Bank Culinary Arts Center
Sol on Main
Solario
Sweet 16th Bakery
Table 3
tayst
The Bloomy Rind
The Local Taco
The Mad Platter
The Turnip Truck
The Wild Hare
Watermark

Are you drooling yet? It’s a great opportunity to sample food from your favorite restaurants or restaurants you’ve never tried, and you’re helping a fantastic local charity!

For one lucky reader, I’ve got two tickets to this year’s Generous Helpings!

1. Mandatory Entry: Join Second Harvest’s email list at secondharvestmidtn.org and leave a comment on this post saying you did so.

Optional entries: For up to three additional entries, do any of the following and leave a separate comment for each optional entry you do.

2. Like Second Harvest on Facebook.

3. Follow Second Harvest on Twitter.

4. Follow So, How’s It Taste on Twitter and tweet the following: “Win tickets to Generous Helpings benefitting @2HarvestMidTN from @SoHowsItTaste! http://bit.ly/helpings”

Contest ends on Friday, May 11th at 5 p.m. central. Please make sure you enter a valid email address as an alternate winner will be chosen if I donâ€t hear from you within 48 hours. Good luck!

Congratulations to comment #6 from Heather!
I know you’re going to enjoy the event!
Winner chosen using Random.org

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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We had a few of our insanely fabulous, packed to the max swag bags leftover, so I’m giving one away to a lucky reader! Trust me, this is one bag of goodies you want to win. The few items shown in the picture barely touch the surface of what’s inside.

To enter: Due to shipping weight & perishable items, this giveaway is only open to U.S. residents. All you need to do is comment on this post and tell me why you’d like to have this goodie bag. Simple!

Optional entries: For up to two additional entries, do one or both of the following and leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

1. Follow @sohowsittaste on Twitter and tweet the following: I entered to win a jam packed swag bag full of goodies from @foodblogforum & @sohowsittaste! You can too! http://bit.ly/npygie

2. Like So, Howâ€s It Taste? on Facebook (or if you already do, say so).

Iâ€ll randomly select the winner on Friday, October 21st at noon Central. Please make sure you enter a valid email address as an alternate winner will be chosen if I donâ€t hear from you within 48 hours. Good luck!

Really really want this swag bag? Head over to Love & Olive Oil before Friday, Oct. 14th and stay tuned to Eat. Drink. Smile. for more chances to win!

Congratulations to comment #19 from Ashlee!
Thanks to everyone who entered!
Winner chosen using Random.org.

If you didn’t win, head over to Eat. Drink. Smile. where Beth is giving away another bag. You’ve got until Sunday to enter there.

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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Forgive me for the lack of pictures and the quality as I forgot about my camera for most of the weekend (strange coming from a food blogger!). I was having too much fun!

To kick off the weekend, we had a Taste of Tennessee party at the Farmers’ Market. Local vendors gave attendees samples of their delicious products and we even had Chef Arnold Myint from Season 7 of Top Chef! We tasted goodies from Perl Catering, Bathtub Gin, The Bloomy Rind, Corsair Artisan Distillery, Loveless Cafe, Goo Goo Clusters, Grinder’s Switch Winery, O.liv Body Bar, Olive & Sinclair, Yazoo Brewing Company, and Mista Dale’s. To say I left with a full belly is an understatement. A huge thanks to these sponsors for showing our attendees just how good the local taste is from Tennessee!

As if all that wasn’t enough, each attendee received an awesome bag full of swag. We spent about three hours filling each bag to capacity Thursday night. A big shout out to Annakate from La Aguacate and Tabitha from Life a la Mode for helping us pack all those bags! This is a picture I took as we were hauling all the swag bags to the Farmers’ Market. This doesn’t even begin to tell the story of how many of these we had. I’m proud to say that two SUVs, one sedan, and one coupe hauled all those goodies in one trip. A huge thanks to Beth’s sister, Mechelle for her organizing and packing skills. We couldn’t have handled all the craziness without Mechelle! Planning and organizing obviously runs in the family.

We really did an incredible job of making sure our bloggers went home happy. Not only did they get a sweet bag full of goodies, but check out the door prizes. Every single person went home with a door prize. We had some amazing sponsors who were incredibly generous. I can’t begin to thank them enough.

While the goodies are nice, it’s also about the education and the networking. From food styling and photography, to blogging as a business, to recipe development, to blogging etiquette, to working with brands, we had something for everyone. It’s always great to meet fellow bloggers in person that you’ve made friends with via your blog and Twitter, too!

We couldn’t have done it without Jaden and Scott of Steamy Kitchen and Todd and Diane of White on Rice Couple. Their enthusiasm and passion for food bloggers and blogging is contagious. I always leave with a ton of inspiration and a mile-long to do list.

Here’s Todd in our roundtable sessions talking more about food photography and styling.

And the lovely Diane also speaking about food photography and styling in her roundtable.

Our bloggers also enjoyed having Kelly Senyei from Just a Taste speaking on recipe development.

It’s our very own Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil talking about blog design. She really knows her stuff as I have her to thank for this pretty blog!

We treated the bloggers to a food truck court for lunch. Many, many thanks to Riffs, Yayo’s OMG, and Happy Eating for serving up one heck of a lunch and showing just how delicious the food truck scene is in Nashville.

We closed the weekend with an after party courtesy of The Patterson House. They served up yummy bites to eat and a killer menu of cocktails. As if I didn’t already love this place, they really went all out for our folks and made it the perfect ending to a fabulous weekend.

Thank you to everyone that came to Food Blog Forum! It was wonderful to finally meet so many friends in person and make new ones. I always come away with so much joy knowing that there are so many people out there who love blogging about food as much as I do. It really is quite an awesome community. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Finally, a GIGANTIC thanks to our sponsors. Our event wouldn’t have been as successful without your generosity. We enjoyed working with you and showing off your products and I’m sure our attendees are very grateful for the awesome gifts!

Not able to make it to Food Blog Forum Nashville? Stay tuned! I’ll be giving away one of the awesome swag bags! Can’t wait? Check out Love & Olive Oil and enter to win one there as well!

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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On Monday, May 17th several Nashville restaurants will be donating 50% of their proceeds to the Tennessee Emergency Response Fund of the Community Fund of Middle Tennessee. Eat Out for Nashville, created by Doug Hogrefe, owner of Amerigo, has an ever-growing list of participating restaurants. For more details and the latest list of restaurants, follow Eat Out for Nashville on Twitter @EatOutForNash, visit http://www.eatoutfornashville.org/ (link no longer active), or read the Nashville Scene’s Bites blog.

Happy eating!

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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Here are a few pics of some of the goodies we sampled. Between eating, drinking, and snapping shots, I didn’t catch most of the item names or restaurants, so forgive me. I’ll be better prepared next year!

sweet treats from Izzy & Bell

bruschetta from Urban Flats

The Cupcake Collection ladies

and their delicious mini cupcakes

Madame K’s peanut butter sandwich and chocolate with caramel sauce cookies

Copyright © 2009-2020 Leah Claire - Leah Claire

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