Loosen your belts, cowboys. It’s time to eat.

This year’s Big Taste events are nothing short of impressive.  RSVP a table at these often sold out ‘Signature Events’, where chefs will indulge you beyond their regular offerings.  My tips below on the best of what’s not sold out.

Signature Events

E.A.T. (March 11/6.00pm/$55pp) Downtown in the office tower of Eighth Avenue Place on the second floor sits E.A.T. Trattoria. For this indulgent cheese and wine special event, join Dairy Farmers of Canada to enjoy hot gooey sandwiches served along with a variety of artisan breads and dips. It’s all matched with BC wines. E.A.T. serves up gourmet takeaway meals for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking or can cater your office meeting with savouries or sweet treats.

Whitehall (March 9/11.30am/$50pp) British born Chef Neil McCue has returned to Calgary to open Whitehall, and the city couldn’t be happier. Modern British tastes is the theme for this lunch-time Signature Event where he honours what’s locally sourced with European techniques and traditions.  RSVP before it’s sold out, I’ve eaten here and it’s beyond extraordinary (my review). Chef McCue is hero status, having achieved his own Michelin star at Curlew Restaurant in East Sussex and The West House in Kent.  Insider tip, order yourself and the Chef a Masculine cocktail and you might just get a table-side visit from the Chef himself.

Raw Bar at Hotel Arts (March 9/6.00pm/$110pp) When you step into Hotel Arts, you’re transported out of the grey city into a world of exotic coolness where everyone is freshly tanned and sipping a cocktail.  If you have the winter blahs, book your spot at The Raw Bar’s Signature Event, a cocktail dinner.  Be transported to China Beach where you will indulge in a Vietmodern four course menu by Jinhee Lee matched with BC VQA wine and cocktails. Make this a girls’ weekend and book a suite at Hotel Arts with spa treatments the next day.

Editor’s Note: this has been a guest blog post about The Big Taste dining festival by freelance writer and blogger Elizabeth Middleton.

Elizabeth Middleton is a Calgary based blogger for thiscalgarylife.com  and writer on luxury living with a degree in Political Science from Rutgers University. Adopted from Vietnam, she grew up near Baltimore and has lived in Italy, West Africa, Manhattan, Australia, and now Canada.  She lives in Mount Royal with her Australian husband, 8 year-old daughter, and British Bulldog named Princess.

Tagged as: raw bar, River Café, The Big Taste, Whitehall