Menu announced for BBCC 'Cellarbration'

MOSES LAKE - The dinner menu and wine pairings have been announced for Cellarbration for Education, the annual fundraising dinner and auction for Big Bend Community College.

Cellarbration is scheduled for May 17 at the ATEC center on the BBCC campus. It's the foundation's biggest scholarship fundraiser, Doug Sly, the college's public information director, said.

There's a silent auction before dinner, and a live auction after dinner. Tickets are $100 per plate, and table sponsorships are available. Information on reservations, auction items and sponsorships is available at the BBCC Foundation office, 509-793-2006.

The money raised is used to fund scholarships to BBCC, Sly said. The college offers scholarships to returning students, recent high school graduates and participants in the college's professional-technical programs, he said.

"Cellarbration is the only event I work with that has a wine and food pairing in advance," Vino Wine Shop owner John Allen, of Spokane, said. Timothy Grayson, executive chef for Whitworth University, prepares the menu, Sly said, and a committee selects the wines that go with each course.

John Allen is a regular on the committee; so are Allen and Butch Milbrandt, owners of Milbrandt Brothers Vineyards, Sly said. The Milbrandt brothers have been involved since the event's inception in 2001, he said. Dale and Patti Paris, of Moses Lake, purchased seats for the 2014 selection committee at the 2013 auction, Sly said. (A chance to be on the next selection committee traditionally is part of the auction, he said.)

The selections are a "blind" test, Sly said, with the labels hidden by paper bags. The wines are chosen on the basis of overall quality and how they match with Grayson's menu. A wine is selected to go with each of the four dinner courses.

The evening starts with an extensive appetizer menu, including local fruit with apricot brie en croute and crackers, mini Puget Sound Dungeness crab cakes with remoulade, mini blue cheese beef Wellingtons, herbed cream cheese pecan pops on bagels, and strawberry pretzel crostini.

The salad course will feature a "wild Washington field greens" salad with dried cranberries, toasted hazelnuts, heirloom tomatoes and Gorgonzola cheese with a hazelnut vinaigrette dressing. The wine will be a 2012 viognier (a white varietal) from Milbrandt Vineyards.

The second course will be a cheese manicotti with ragout of duck, with a palma rosa Parmesan cream sauce. It's paired with a 2010 grenache (a red varietal) from Milbrandt Vineyards.

The main course will be wild Pacific salmon paired with roasted filet mignon topped with a sauce of foraged Cascade mushrooms, Italian truffles and cabernet. That comes with a vegetable medley, fire-roasted saffron potatoes and rolls and butter. The wine is the "Rock Island Red" from Ryan Patrick Vineyards, near Quincy.

Dessert is a Black Forest torte with a cherry jubilee sauce. The wine is a syrah (a red varietal) port from Barnard Griffin Winery, near Richland.