But just in case that Rayna does move to the big Opry in the sky or that ABC decides to shoot the series entirely on green screen in the studio lot where they staged the moon landings, you might not want to miss out on an upcoming opportunity to visit the mansion that serves as her home on the show. The Nashville Wine Auction has put together a fun new event which they are calling The Grand Cru Evening. The cocktail party will recognize the Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Underwriting Committee of this years 34th Annual l’Eté du Vin, which will be themed, "Pour de France."

Patrons will gather at the tony home of Sylvia Roberts, which was featured as the Casa de Rayna, even though producers did apparently build some replica sets to accommodate their crazy filming schedule. The event will offer the first opportunity to preview the Nashville Wine Auction Catalog while tasting some outrageous wines. I've heard rumors of some special entertainment too, but that remains unconfirmed. Trust me, it'll be great!

The Grand Cru Evening will be held on Thursday, June 20, starting at 6 p.m., and the dress code is glitz and boots. For more info and to buy tickets, contact the Nashville Wine Auction at 615-329-1760 or visit the event's registration website.

If you cannot attend but still would like to contribute to the Nashville Wine Auction to assist in its efforts to help fund the fight against cancer, you can do so directly here.

I'm the kind of home cook who uses a gram scale to measure out the flour when I bake (thanks in large part to Thomas Keller), and who levels off tablespoons with a knife before adding baking powder to a bowl. Some would call me anal, but I like to think AB would say I'm precise. Or maybe persnickety.

So I'm excited and you should be too that Brown is bringing his traveling road show to Nashville at Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall on Thursday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. The official release promises:

Brown’s tour promises to be an eventful evening of stand-up comedy, talks show antics, multimedia lecture, live music and food experimentation. Be prepared. Ponchos will be involved. The show will offer an interactive component in which audience members will have the opportunity to serve as Brown’s trusted assistants on stage. For those hoping to sip at the pure source of Brownian wit and wisdom, this is a must-see extravaganza for the whole family.

"I've been cultivating material for this show for about a decade, so it'll feel pretty darned good to finally get it out of my head and onto a stage,” Brown said. “I feel we've come up with some pretty amazing food demos, and the multimedia segments are solid … but I do have to say I'm a bit nervous about the singing parts."

Tickets for “The Edible Inevitable Tour” go on sale this Friday, June 7, at 10 a.m. at tpac.org, by phone at 615-782-4040 and at the TPAC Box Office, 505 Deaderick St. If you'd like to get the jump on the general public, you can purchase advance tickets at this website between Wed., June 5, at 10 a.m. and Friday, June 7, at 10 a.m. If you go to TPAC via a different link, just enter the promo code FOODIE during the ticket buying process.

Button up that bow tie and make your plans, fellow food geeks!

As always, crankers convene on the grounds of First Presbyterian Church, and you get to sample all of their delicious flavors. Crankers are competing to win the top prize, Best of Show, which will become an official Purity flavor and made available for purchase everywhere Purity ice creams are sold. There are also winners in the categories of “chocolate-based,” “vanilla-based” and “other.” Also, Pied Piper Creamery will be on-site with their version of the winners of the Martha O'Bryan staff crankin' contest. This event is the biggest event of the ice cream-lover's year!

As a reminder, here are the tips I shared last year, with a couple of updates:

1. Take a small insulated lunchbox with a at least one frozen bottle of water and one unfrozen bottle. It’s going to be hot again this year, and after a while, you get your fill of ice cream and only water will do. Cold water. Carry it in a backpack or in some other hands-free manner. You’ll need both hands free for tasting. Extra napkins are a good idea, too.

2. There will be more than 500 gallons of ice cream to sample, plus treats from Purity. Scout out your favorite flavors before you commit. Don’t stand in line for a less-exciting flavor and waste valuable real estate in your stomach that you’ll want back when you see that Mexicali Caramel Pecan or Candied Lemon (I’m really hoping these guys show up again). The really good ones go fast. Enlist the help of others to give you intel on the best, too.

3. Have a notepad (or smartphone) to record your favorites, and talk to the crankers if you can. I've gotten some really good ice cream-making tips and was able to create my own triple ginger ice cream and red wine and pear sorbet. Though I wasn’t able to figure out how to make Monkey Bread Mayhem …

4. Take a blanket to spread out on the lawn for when you need to give yourself a little breather. Plenty of trees provide a good amount of shade.

5. If you’re taking a little one in a stroller, take the all-terrain stroller; there are tree roots and rocks to traverse. And the smaller, the better, because it’s pretty difficult to navigate any stroller through the crowds. The past two years, my husband and I had to tag-team; one of us tasted while the other stood on the sidelines with the stroller (and child).

In addition to the treats, there will be activities and entertainment for the whole family. Advance tickets, (available online until midnight June 7), are $10 for adults ($13 at gate) and $8 for children ($10 at gate); children under 2 attend free. All proceeds benefit the Martha O’Bryan Center, which provides a number of services to support children and families living in poverty in the Nashville area.

Parking is free at the churches across the street (look for the signs), with shuttle service to First Presbyterian. For more information, call 254-1791 or check the website.

Miss Martha’s Ice Cream Crankin’ & Southern Social
First Presbyterian Church
4815 Franklin Pike
Sunday, June 9
3-5 p.m. (rain or shine!)

Cleverly timed to coincide with the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Springfield invites tourists and Tennesseans alike to come by the historic Courthouse Square on Saturday, June 8, for Taste of Country USA, with a chance to experience real country food, fun and music. In addition to a Corvette rally, a classic car show and a motorcycle ride around the county, the organizers plan plenty of fun family-related activities revolving around food and farming.

From the official announcement:

You’ll be able to hunt for treasures in the Historic District Yard Sale and see our local green thumbs at the Garden Tour. Plus, if you like Traditional Country music, this is the place to see our amazing local talent for free. There’ll be exciting, live Country and Bluegrass music throughout the day on our big Court House Stage.

Of course, what would a Taste of Country USA be without lots of good old-fashioned country cooking. So, we’re pulling out the stops to showcase Robertson County’s great eating places and wonderful home cooks. They’ll all be serving up their mouth-watering specialties and tasty treats with plenty of small town Southern charm.

Many farmers in Robertson County supply the fresh ingredients that help make Nashville restaurants good. Among the farmers represented are Gourmet Pasture Beef, Don Henry’s orchard in Cross Plains and G&G Family Dairy, which provide product to companies like Gabby’s Burgers, Marché, Tin Angel, Fido, Bongo Java, The Turnip Truck and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.

If you'd like to meet the people who are the direct source of some of Nashville's best produce and products, here's your chance!

In addition to food and beer, entertainment will be provided by the country duo American Young.

Discounted tickets are available online until noon this Friday, May 31. After that, you’ll have to take your chance that there will still be tickets at the door.

Yazoo Brew & Our Kids Too
Tuesday, June 4
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Yazoo Brewing Company Taproom
901 Division St.
Advance tickets: $25 per person, $45 per couple ($30/$50 at the door, if available)
Group of eight tickets: $150 in advance; $180 at the door

This year's edition will be held at 6:30 p.m., May 31, at the zoo, and the food and drink lineup is pretty darned impressive. Tennessee breweries represented include: Blackstone, Calfkiller, Chattanooga, Fat Bottom, Jackalope, Mayday, Turtle Anarchy, Hap & Harry's and Yazoo. Regional and national breweries on the roster include: Abita, Bluegrass (BBC), Blue Pants, Bridgeport, Brooklyn, Erie, Finch's, Flat 12, Good People, Green Flash, Highland, Kentucky Ale, Lagunitas, Left Hand, Lazy Magnolia, New Belgium, North Coast, Oskar Blues, Red Brick, Rivertown, Samuel Adams, Schlafly, Shiner, Sierra Nevada, Southern Tier, Starr Hill, Straight to Ale, Sweetwater, Tenth and Blake, Terrapin and Crispin Cider.

A long list of food trucks will be on hand for attendees to fill their bellies. The Grilled Cheeserie, Hoss' Loaded Burgers, Riffs Fine Street Food, Wrapper's Delight, Biscuit Love, Smoke Et Al, Smokin Thighs, The Waffle Brothers, Yayo's O.M.G., Jenis, Gigi's Cupcakes and DoughWorks Craft Doughnuts will be parked and ready to feed the masses.

There are several different ticketing options including a $50 general admission that includes a souvenir tasting glass, and a $99 VIP level that offers access to a special VIP area that will feature six breweries with two special beers that are just for the VIP area. Each beer will be paired with small plates prepared by Whole Foods Market. Food in the VIP area is served during the entire duration of the event and is prepared and cooked fresh on site. Seating provided in the area. VIP guests also receive free rides on the carousel. Limited to 200 guests. Designated driver admissions are available for $20 if you want to join in the fun without partaking of the beverages.

The first class in the series focuses on Kurdish cooking, which is quite appropriate considering Nashville has the largest Kurdish community in the entire country. The class will be taught by Najat Al Zahawi and Jennifer Justus. Students will learn to prepare biryani served with salad, flatbread, tea and arak, a Middle Eastern liqueur made with fermented dates. Najat will also share historical context and personal stories behind these dishes and why she chose them. The class will be held in a private home in East Nashville on Wednesday, June 5, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. and costs $45.

Future Culture Kitchen classes promise to focus on the cuisine of Mexico, to learn about mole and tamales, as well as Bhutan, Honduras or Somalia. If you're interested in any of these classes, you can find out more and register at The Skillery's website.

The purpose of the garden was “to provide students and the surrounding community with hands-on experiences that would promote healthy lifestyle choices and an appreciation of where our food comes from.” Students, Hands on Nashville volunteers and community members grow produce, make their own compost and even raise chickens. Not only do they consume what they grow, in the past school year alone, more than 200 pounds of produce from the garden was donated to the Bellevue Food Bank.

The BELL Garden relies on community support to keep going, so they’re hosting a very special event on Friday, June 7. The event starts off with a wine tasting by Red Spirits and Wine at their store at 7066 Highway 70 S. in Bellevue and is followed by a dinner specially prepared by chef Martha Stamps — a very active advocate of healthy meals herself — that includes food from the garden. The dinner will take place in the heart of the garden —which includes an orchard as well as daylily and butterfly gardens — on the grounds of Bellevue Middle School at 655 Colice Jeanne Road. There will also be live entertainment, a silent auction and student-led tours of the farm. Guests get to see and experience exactly what their $100 per-person tickets support. See pictures here of last year’s inaugural event.

To learn more about the BELL Garden, check out their Facebook page. Not only can you follow the progress of the garden and see what’s currently growing and how you can participate, there’s also a lot of helpful information you can use for your own garden.

BELL Garden Dinner BELL
Friday, June 7, 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Red Spirits and Wine: 7066 Highway 70 S.
Bellevue Edible Learning Lab at Bellevue Middle School : 655 Colice Jeanne Road
Tickets, $100 per person: bellgarden2 [at]gmail[dot]com

Organizers promised more local talent would be added, and they've already followed through by expanding the roster to include Philip Krajeck from Rolf & Daughters, Margot McCormack of Marché and Margot Café & Bar and Nick Pellegrino of Mangia Nashville. Even more additions are promised, but the mind already boggles at the thought of Nick Pellegrino mamboing with Chef Margot at the Flavors of Nashville event.

Before we feature our own chefs at Music City Eats, some of Nashville's finest will make their way south as guests at the third annual Atlanta Food and Wine Festival which runs from May 30-June 2. The schedule is jam-packed with seminars, chef dinners and a fabulous tasting tent, all of which feature at least a few Nashville chefs.

The Capitol Grille's Tyler Brown will be leading a seminar on Saturday, June 1, from 1 to 2 p.m. titled "CSA Box CPR" where he will teach attendees maximize the bounty of their box with some simple healthy recipes. At the same time (unfortunate scheduling dilemma), City House's Tandy Wilson will join Charleston's Matt and Ted Lee, Katie Button from Curate in North Carolina and Brandon Glamery from Florida as they discuss "What I Learned: Spain and Italy." Any one who has dined in any of these talented chefs' restaurants has benefited from the culinary souvenirs they brought back from their international travels.

On Sunday, June 2, Chris Carter and James Peisker of Porter Road Butcher will hold forth from 10 to 11 a.m. on the topic of the "Butcher Renaissance." They'll discuss "the growing renaissance of chefs becoming butchers and a rebirth of the local butcher shops that began disappearing after the development of mass refrigeration, as well as their commitment to locally sourced, pasture-raised animals and whole animal butchery."

This year's Nourish dinner will be held at the Nashville Farmers' Market on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 6 p.m. Out-of-town chefs Hugh Acheson from Five and Ten in Athens, Ga., and Empire State South in Atlanta (and Top Chef judging fame) and Rob Newton of Seersucker in Brooklyn will be joined by a host of Nashville favorites. The home team includes Phil Krajeck (Rolf and Daughters), Matt Bolus (some new venture that we haven't been able to pry out of him yet despite liberal application of pressure and whiskey), Megan Williams (Etch), Hal Holden-Bache (Lockeland Table) and Karl Worley (Biscuit Love Truck). Together they will plan and execute a fantastic evening of food and wine that should be a whole lot of fun. One of the highlights from last year came when several of the visiting chefs chowed down on Nashville hot chicken after the dinner service, much to chagrin of several of them.

If you're interested in attending, more information (including a special patrons' event at the Bluebird Cafe) and tickets are available here. Don't dawdle because this will sell out!