Mollie Katzen to visit UNH for dinner

Next week, award-winning cookbook author and chef Mollie Katzen is coming to UNH.

Katzen will be joining the cooking and managing talents of the UNH Hospitality students during this year's Simply Southern Gourmet Dinner Nov. 20 and 21 at Stillings Dining Hall.

The dinner uses ingredients from local farmer's markets, creating a fine dining experience. The menu will reflect Katzen's views on buying local foods and using sustainable ingredients as seen in her famed Moosewood Cookbook.

Saturday's dinner is sold out, but tickets for Friday's gathering are still available for $50 dollars, and can be purchased online at www.wsbe.unh.edu/gourmetdinner.

                  Katzen will have a signing of her new book, Get Cooking, during a cocktail hour before the dinner. Her new book focuses on healthy, fast ways to cook for yourself. She will give a speech at the end of the dinner.

                  In preparation for the two dinners, the six executive leaders and 14 mid-level management hospitality students, who have been working nonstop to create the menu for the dinner, as well as press releases, and to also show the other student workers how to cook in an industrial-sized kitchen.

                  "There is only so much to learn from a book," said Marketing Executive Emily Spencer. "We are taking action by putting on these dinners."

Spencer said that over the past 25 years, the students have come up with different themes and menus for the dinners.

                  Although this is the first year the dinner will be held in Stillings Dining Hall, the students have embraced the challenge of creating a gourmet setting.