It’s a collaboration of passions that bring Chef Bill Patterson, farmer Rhonda Barbieri and the Orcas Island Writers Festival together.

Passion for food, passion for growing and passion for writing unite the three for “Coming to Our Senses: a Cooking Class and Dinner,” on May 9 to raise money for the Orcas Island Writers Festival to be held this September.

Barbieri will lead a discussion on buying fresh local produce from the farmer, and the benefits it brings to community and her vision for farming on Orcas. Class participants will be invited to tour her farm the following week.

“When cooks and farmers use fresh foods, the whole community prospers,” Barbieri said. I love working with Bill because he is so in the moment and in the season. He will ask me what I have for him and make a menu around it. For the dinner, I may have some overwintering greens, some early spring onions and some great roots for him. We’ll see.”

In the moment, is often true for writers who hope their writing shares the sense experiences they have had.

“The Orcas Island Writers Festival has embraced the idea of cooking with fresh food because good writing relies on employing the senses, and what better way to stir up our senses than the smell and taste of fresh food?” Festival Organizer Barbara Lewis said.

Patterson admits he does not know what he will be cooking for the dinner yet.

“There will definitely be local greens,” Patterson said. “Other than that we will have to wait and see what is available.”

What he does know, and is excited about is the class he will be teaching earlier in the day for those who choose to take part in the whole experience.

“The class is titled, ‘Carmalization – Color, Flavor – Texture,’ Patterson said. “I am going to demonstrate carmalization and the use of heat. Hot and fast heat, slower heat, and carmalization’s color, flavor, texture effects on vegetables and meat,”

He says teaching the class a recipe is pointless. By teaching, a technique, like carmelization and the use of heat, he is giving them something that they can use in a variety of ways.

“The one thing that home cooks don’t understand is the use of heat. And, that’s the difference between a home cooked meal and a restaurant meal,” he said.

Patterson and Barbieri can both understand the passion for writing too. Patterson has been writing about the food and wine at his dinner club, Sazio, on a weekly basis and is working with his daughter to turn his essays into a blog. Barbieri writes poetry about farming and nature.

Event Facts:

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Emmanuel Church Parish Hall

• Noon Tour of the Eastsound Farmers’ Market

• 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Cooking Class with Chef Bill Patterson

• 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Discussion: “From Farm To Table” with farmer Rhonda Barbieri

• 6:30 p.m. Dinner by Bill Patterson

$100 Donation to OIWF for all the day’s events or $50 for only the dinner

Reservations required by May 2

More information and to make reservations 317–4383 or festivalgurus@orcasislandwritersfestival.com