The easy way to describe Taste & Tango Argentina is to say it was simply delicious. Well, guess what? The easy way is also the most accurate way, because it certainly was.
Boulderite Hosea Rosenberg, winner of Bravo TV’s “Top Chef” Season 5, did the cooking for this benefit put on by Mi Casa Resource Center, designing a menu around wines from Argentina’s Alamos Winery.
It began with a tuna ceviche amuse and ended, four courses later, with a Calvados-infused apple spice cake with dulce de leche ice cream. And when master of ceremonies Luis Canela introduced Rosenberg and his sous-chef, Nate Singer, to the 200-some guests, he launched a huge round of applause by saying: “Chef, you made my tastebuds dance.”
The event at the Warwick Hotel raised about $50,000 for Mi Casa’s programs that advance the economic standing of low-income youths, adults and families in the Denver area.
The dinner came to be after Denver’s “Gabby Gourmet,” Pat Miller, met Jimena Turner, Alamos’ director of wine education, when Turner visited here in 2011. Miller subsequently traveled to Argentina and returned to Denver thinking of ways she could help raise money for a good cause by building a benefit around its excellent food and wine.
She met with Mi Casa’s executive director, Christine Marquez-Hudson, and in very short order all the pieces fell into place. “Alamo Wines, Hosea, the Warwick Hotel, Shamrock Foods … everyone said ‘yes,’ ” Miller said. John Tobey Event Design handled the logistics; the Warwick’s executive chef, Jean-Claude Cavalera, and food and beverage director Elmir Lukac, stepped in to provide additional support; the Amelie Trio played during cocktail hour; Tango Colorado offered tango demonstrations and Rick Rolph conducted the live auction and special appeal.
Western Union is one of Mi Casa’s community partners, and was represented at the gala by such executives as corporate communications director Anna Alejo; Tony Tapia, senior program director for the Western Union Foundation; and human resources talent manager Jorge Chalit. Alejo’s husband, Shepard Nevel, vice president for policy and operations at the Colorado Health Foundation, also was there.
Others supporting the cause were Eric Duran, a vice president at D.A. Davidson & Co., and his wife, Susana Cordova; restaurant consultant John Imbergamo; Romero & Wilson Creative Solutions principal Ed Romero; Laura Lukac, general manager of the Marketplace Cafe at Nordstrom Park Meadows; Lauren Piscopo of ; and Pat Miller’s son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Carol Miller.
Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also, and
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