Get your Montana beard on! Chef Andy Blanton and Cafe Kandahar invite you to join him on May 24, 2012 at the renowned James Beard House for a rare culinary experience.

For this Beard House dinner, chef Blanton will pair his thoughtfully constructed, Montana-inspired cuisine with exquisite wines from the Doubleback, FIGGINS, Abeja and Leonetti Cellar, all from Washington's Walla Walla Valley.

This is a lifelong dream of chef Blanton's, who has been nominated in 2010 and 2011 among 20 semi-finalists in the Northwest in the “Best Chef” category for the James Beard Foundation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious recognition program.

Cafe Kandahar has also been honored to have garnered the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence and the Wine Enthusiast Award of Unique Distinction for several years.

Beyond chef Blanton's accolades, the featured wines are particularly noteworthy. Leonetti Cellar and FIGGINS from the esteemed Figgins Family are regarded as some of the most rare and exceptional wines in the world. Doubleback is part-time Whitefish resident Drew Bledsoe's project that he launched after retiring from the NFL. His consulting winemaker is Chris Figgins, President and Director of Winemaking for Figgins Family Wine Estates. Abeja, produced by one of Walla Walla’s top winemakers, John Abbot, will also be featured.

The prospect of a small-town Montana Chef teaming up with world-renowned wines and serving a dinner at the James Beard House is not your average culinary story.

Media interested in attending this exclusive dinner should contact Lisa Jones at (406) 862-7977 or email her at lisa@whitefishnewsroom.com .

(And there is a Morel to this story...don't delay...seats are limited!)

Research links:

* Cafe Kandahar web site
* Figgins and Leonetti wines
* Doubleback wines
* James Beard House menu
* Chef Andy Blanton bio
* Missoulian feature: "Whitefish chef taking Montana taste to New York's Beard House"
* NBC Montana feature: "Whitefish Chef Honored To Cook In NYC"