The School of Essential Ingredients: A Celebration of Food & Community with Author Erica Bauermeister
Field Hall Presents: The School of Essential Ingredients: A Celebration of Food & Community with Author Erica Bauermeister
Tuesday, June 23rd @ 6PM | Sunset Bar & Lounge
*Tickets $115 (Member Price) $140 (General Admission) | GET TICKETS HERE
*Our ticketing platform Ludus charges a 5% service fee for all card transactions. To avoid this fee, visit our Box Office at 201 W. Front Street and pay via cash or check. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10AM-2PM.
Join Field Arts & Events Hall for an inspired evening combining literature and fine dining. NYT bestselling author Erica Bauermeister will offer live readings from her novel The School of Essential Ingredients, with each reading paired to a themed course and Marrowstone Vineyards wine.
Guests will transition from the reading space to the dining space between each reading and course, offering attendees the opportunity to mix and mingle with fellow readers. We invite you to celebrate literature, food, wine, and community in this innovative dining experience.
4-COURSE MENU
Inspired by The School of Essential Ingredients and paired with Marrowstone Vineyards wine
Chapter One: Pea Shoot Salad with Pine Nuts & Manchego
Locally sourced Pea Shoots, Red Beets, and Sweet Onions tossed in a house made vinaigrette and topped with imported Manchego cheese and toasted Pine Nuts. Paired with Marrowstone Vineyards 2025 Grenache Blanc
Chapter Two: Garden Risotto meets Claire’s Roasted Crab
Arborio rice, Dungeness Crab stock, Asparagus, Butter, Olive oil, white wine, Parmigiano Reggiano topped with roasted Dungeness Crab meat. Paired with Marrowstone Vineyards 2023 Sangiovese
Chapter Three: Tom’s Pasta Sauce
House made Pappardelle tossed with Tom’s Pasta Sauce. Tomato, olive oil, fresh garlic, red wine, Italian sausage, Parmigiano Reggiano, and a touch of cream. Paired with Marrowstone Vineyards 2025 Albarino
Chapter Four: Carl’s White Cake with Strawberry Mousse filling. Paired with Marrowstone Vineyards 2024 Mourvedre Rose’
THE SCHOOL OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS
The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian’s Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen.
Students include Claire, a young mother struggling with the demands of her family; Antonia, an Italian kitchen designer learning to adapt to life in America; and Tom, a widower mourning the loss of his wife to breast cancer. Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students’ lives.
One by one the students are transformed by the aromas, flavors, and textures of Lillian’s food, including a white-on-white cake that prompts wistful reflections on the sweet fragility of love and a peppery heirloom tomato sauce that seems to spark one romance but end another. Brought together by the power of food and companionship, the lives of the characters mingle and intertwine, united by the revealing nature of what can be created in the kitchen.
ABOUT ERICA BAUERMEISTER
Erica Bauermeister is the NYT bestselling author of five novels, including The School of Essential Ingredients, The Scent Keeper, and No Two Persons. She has also written a memoir, House Lessons: Renovating a Life. She has a PhD in literature from the U.W. and has taught there and Antioch, while her love of food and cooking was inspired by two years of living in northern Italy.
ABOUT MARROWSTONE VINEYARDS
Family owned and locally loved, Marrowstone Vineyards is a treasured boutique winery overlooking rolling grapevines, tall evergreens, and a glimpse of the Puget Sound.
Our ticketing platform Ludus charges a 5% service fee for all card transactions. To avoid this fee, visit our Box Office at 201 W. Front Street and pay via cash or check. Hours: Monday-Saturday 10AM-2PM. Is cost a barrier? Click here to apply for financial assistance through our #fieldhallforall program.
