Scones with Devonshire cream and jam, petite sandwiches and dainty desserts will be the fare at a Valentine’s Day benefit tea planned for Feb. 14 by the Lincoln Park Preservation Alliance.
The tea is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Ikaros Hall, 1677 Fort St., between Arlington and O’Connor, adja-cent to the Park Restaurant.
Susan Marie Selasky, food writer and Test Kitchen director for the Free Press, will speak on how she tests and develops recipes and tests new food products and kitchen equipment.
After attending the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College, the speaker studied food styling and nutrition at the Culi-nary Institute in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Selasky grows her own herbs, shops at farm markets and advocates eating locally. She and her husband, Doug, live on Grosse Ile.
The cost of the tea is $20 per person. For reser-vations, call 313-598-3137 by Feb. 9.
According to alliance spokeswoman Leslie Lynch-Wilson, the nonprofit Preservation Alliance is dedicated to the preservation and protection of Lin-coln Park’s historic resources and is working to pro-tect the city’s historic sites through education, advo-cacy, research, tours, workshops and lectures.
The organization applied for and received Na-tional Register of Historic Places designation for the former Lincoln Park Post Office and The Mellus Newspapers Building. The former post office is now the Lincoln Park Historical Museum.
In addition, Lynch-Wilson said, the alliance wrote the Arcadia Publishing book “Lincoln Park.”
New cooking series to start
Chefs at the Ritz-Carlton, Dearborn, are inviting cooking enthusiasts into the hotel kitchen for a new series of “Cooking with Style” classes to kick off at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 15 with “La Dolce Vita: A Tuscan Ban-quet.”
The schedule will continue on March 15 with “The Breakfast Club: Brunch at Its Best”; April 12, “Journey to India: Southern Regional Fare”; May 17, “Ole! Ole! Ole! Mexican Fiesta Time”; and June 14, “Bar-B-Q Camp: Backyard Grilling.”
Other classes are Sept. 20, “At Home in Paris: The Simple Pleasures of French Cuisine”; Oct. 18, “Cozy Fall Suppers: Soups, Stews and Sauces”; Nov. 15, “All-American Thanksgiving: A Sumptuous Feast”; and Dec. 7, “Glitz! Glamour! Party!” The Ultimate Holiday Gathering.”
The first class will include demonstrations and recipes for antipasti, a salad, pasta dish, stuffed veal and a dessert.
The cost of each class is $120, with dinner, com-plementary wines and table-setting ideas by Leslie Jacobs of Leslie Jacobs Associates to follow. Guests of students can join the group for dinner for $75.
For reservations or additional information, call Jacobs at (248) 646-4517 or e-mail [email protected], or call Colin Berens at (313) 253-4357 or e-mail [email protected]
Tony Award play to open
The Tony Award-winning play “August: Osage County” will be staged Feb. 19 through 21 at the Fisher Theatre with Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons starring as Violet, the pill-popping matriarch of the Weston family of Pawhuska, Okla.
The play revolves around the Westons, a large extended clan that comes together after the family pa-triarch disappears.
Tickets are $59.50. For more information, go to www.augustonbroadway.com.
Save the date . . .
March 5 — Trenton Rotary Club’s annual “Winter Beach Blast” benefit; 6 p.m. at Crystal Gardens, Southgate; beach menu and games, live music, tropi-cal dancers, prize drawings, silent and live auctions; tickets, $35 in advance; guests are encouraged to wear Hawaiian or beach attire; for more information, call Kyle Stack at (734) 493-3817.
March 5 — Downriver Council for the Arts’ “Roar-ing ’20s Bootleggers’ Bash,” 6 p.m. at the Wyandotte Masonic Temple, 81 Chestnut; food, beverages, en-tertainment; tickets, $30 per person or $50 per cou-ple; for tickets or more information, call (734) 720-0671.