Spring Dinner Series to feature top chefs in Indy and around the state

The Culinary Crossroads Spring Dinner Series returns for its fourth year and kicks off April 8 at Highland Golf & Country Club in Indianapolis.

Launched in 2021, the dinner series has become our centerpiece event as we raise funds for the Greg Hardesty Scholarship Fund at Ivy Tech Community College. The dinner series runs for four Mondays, April 8-29, and each week features three chefs – plus a featured pastry chef – who collaborate on a fabulous four-course menu, complete with wine pairings.

This year our theme is Onward and Upward, and in addition to spotlighting top Indianapolis chefs, we’ll also be featuring chefs from around the state. The dinners include a complimentary cocktail hour with delightful appetizers from each chef as well as a sparkling wine, a signature cocktail and a local beer.

Here’s the 2024 Spring Dinner Series chef lineup, with desserts each week provided by pastry chef and Ivy Tech instructor Hattie Shoemaker:

  • April 8 — Featuring chef Chris Eley of Smoking Goose, chef Toby Moreno of Highland Golf & Country Club and chef Marcus Daniel of Bridgeport in Fort Wayne.
  • April 15 — Featuring chef Tracey Couillard of Public Greens, chef Eli Laidlaw of The Alexander and chef Charisa Perkins of Copper House in Evansville.
  • April 22 — Featuring chef Alan Sternberg of Bluebeard, chef Tyler Shortt of Tinker Street and chef Ming Pu of Brooklyn & the Butcher, The Exchange and Outcast in New Albany.
  • April 29 — Featuring chef Ryan Nelson of Late Harvest Kitchen, chef Patrick Russ of Newfields and chef Jeff Ford of J. Ford’s Black Angus in Terre Haute.

Tickets are $350 for two; tables seat six and are $1,000. Tickets are available at Eventbrite; to purchase for the whole series, or to arrange for seating with other ticketholders, please email info@culinarycrossroads.org.

About Culinary Crossroads

Culinary Crossroads is an organization that shines a spotlight on the people, products, places and services that define Indiana’s culinary landscape and help make Indiana the place where people want to live, work and play. Our mission is to create content and initiatives that promote education and awareness about our culinary community and to amplify the voices that support this underlying goal.

While you’ve probably heard of “Hoosier Hospitality” – our state’s reputation for friendliness is certainly well deserved – you may not have thought of Indiana as a place with great food, rock star chefs, award-winning specialty products and outstanding culinary destinations. But here at Culinary Crossroads, we help people see Indiana in a way that maybe even longtime residents haven’t seen it before. After all, we’re at the Culinary Crossroads of America. We’ve got something special here in Indiana, and we can’t wait to fill you in.

Through our web content, social media and initiatives that promote community and collaboration, Culinary Crossroads is helping to grow a more robust statewide culinary culture by showcasing the restaurants, chefs, competitive cooks, farmers, producers and purveyors that define Indiana food.

And for businesses and corporate recruiters, we hope CulinaryCrossroads.org can provide one more way to show what Indiana has to offer!

Photos courtesy of Culinary Crossroads.