This week, I was invited to attend a very cool food and beverage event; the Short's Beer Dinner at the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center in East Lansing.

The Short's Dinner was a 4 course meal with several special pairings presented to us by the Short's Brewery's Beer Liberator, Jon Wojtowicz. The dinner was the first in what will eventually become a series of beer and dining events at the Kellogg Center. Wojtowicz, along with State Room General Manager, Jon Trasky, paired Short's beer offerings perfectly with the culinary creations prepared by Chef Matt Wilson. Below is a glimpse of the fabulous menu they prepared for the event.


Starters
Charcuterie
Artisanal Cheeses with Stone Circle Bakery Hearth Breads
Beers – The Golden Rule & The Curl
Second Course
Wasabi Encrusted Red Snapper
Quinoa Risotto, Meyer Lemon Confit
Beer – Hangin’ Frank IPA
Entree
Grilled Duroc Pork Loin
White Bean & Sweet Corn Succotash, Balsamic Cream, Ancho Chili Oil
Beer – Good Samaritan
Dessert
Kahlua Chocolate Torte
With Michigan Strawberry Mousse
Beer – Woodmaster

"The Liberator" even brought a special surprise which really made the event - Short's Key Lime Pie beer. In high demand and currently only in underground supply, this brew isn't even available until July! I know many of you might be thinking, "Key Lime Pie BEER???!!!" Sound crazy? Impossible? Unimaginable? It's not as crazy as you think!

Craft brew enthusiasts know that the sky really is the limit when creating new and interesting batches. Skeptics might doubt the probability of this beer actually tasting like a slice of Key Lime goodness, and definitely might doubt that it lives up to how Short's describes it - "Made with fresh limes, milk sugar, graham cracker, and marshmallow fluff, we were able to recreate this popular dessert into a heavenly drinkable version. The prominent flavors are immensely sweet, yet tart, with subtle hints of graham cracker coming through in the nose and remain on the back of the palate". After we tasted it, there wasn't a cynic in the house; everyone who enjoyed a glass was convinced, this was INCREDIBLE.

Based on the quality of the food, as well as the generous libations, I can only guess that this is the next big thing for State Room at Kellogg. Currently, The State Room hosts monthly chef dinners, featuring chefs from around the country. This week, the featured chef is Brian Goodman of the Greenhouse Tavern in Cleveland.

As a chef, it is always really exciting to learn more about food, but it is even more exciting to learn how other industries are celebrating and embracing the principles of flavor profiles from a culinary point of view, and using real ingredients (nothing artificial) to create such flavorful gastronomic brilliance. Discovering these gems is a treasure of its own, but then also experiencing them in a pairing is a chef or foodie's dream-come-true.

As The Liberator explained, some people are referring to the development of these craft beers as a revolution, when it is in fact, a renaissance. As so often happens in the culinary world, many things we have come to love have been done before, but experiencing it with a fresh approach is when renaissance become revelation.