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Today is one of those days when I need to clean out the “refrigerator” and offer a bunch of leftovers for consumption. But like a lot of actual leftovers, some of this food news is pretty darn good.

New addition: Oktoberfest beer tasting at Wine Gourmet
Wine Gourmet, located at 3524 Electric Road, Roanoke (Promenade Park), is hosting a special beer tasting this Friday, Sept. 30, from 5 to 8 p.m.
Aaron Layman, the beer buyer for Wine Gourmet, said local distributors will be on site sampling out more than 10 German beers and craft beers. Brats and beer bread will also be available, and it’s all FREE!
If you have any questions, you can contact the shop at 400-8466.

Local boy does well
A Roanoke native, Daniel Mowles, works as executive chef at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York, NY. According to his uncle, Roanoke resident Jeff Fletcher, “Daniel was born and reared in Roanoke and is now in NYC by way of the Cordon Bleu in London with stops in Roanoke at Metro! and in Miami Beach along the way.”
Fletcher sent me an email with a link to a recent New York Times article about a special dinner prepared by Mowles and featuring Civil War-era foods. Check out the article here.

Chocolate contest winners to go to state fair
Three locals who won the Everybody Loves Chocolate contest at the Salem Fair will now advance to the Virginia State Fair level of competition. The Everybody Loves Chocolate contest is sponsored by the Virginia Egg Council. The state competition is Oct. 1. The local winners and their concoctions are:
* Kerrington Dowdy, Salem — Chocolate Lover’s Favorite Cake
* Catherine Wortman, Bedford — Chocolate Sour Cream Pound Cake
* Kaileigh Dowdy, Salem — Really Rocky Road Brownies
Kerrington and Kaileigh Dowdy appear to be related. I will update you on how they do at the state fair and work on getting those recipes. Good luck, folks!

Local Roots reopens for lunch
Starting Oct. 5, Local Roots Restaurant in Grandin Village in Roanoke will be open for lunch again. They’ll serve it Tuesday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Check out their website for more information.

Local food dinner at W&L
Washington & Lee will celebrate local food with a fall harvest dinner tomorrow night (Sept. 29) featuring foods from within an 80-mile radius of the school. The dinner will be held in The Marketplace dining facility from 5 to 8 p.m. and will include ingredients from Buffalo Creek Beef, Sunrise Farm, Mountain View Farm, Barb’s Bakery and more.
The dinner is open to the general public and costs $16.35 per person. Reservations are not required. To see the menu, click here. To learn more about W&L’s commitment to local food, click here.

Crock Pot Girls
A reader named Maria emailed me recently with a tip about a great website. She first discovered the Crock Pot Girls on Facebook (Facebook.com/crockpotgirls), but it appears as if the women who started the page have also created a website where they share all of their recipes. It is still pretty bare bones, but they’re working on it.
The girls themselves are not from around here, I don’t think. I didn’t see any info about where they live, but they have been promoting an idea they call “Crock Pot Mondays” where they do a Crock Pot dish every Monday. The point is basically to share great Crock Pot recipes, so if you love your slow cooker, check this out.

“Modernist Cuisine” at Virginia Tech
The Carol M. Newman Library at Virginia Tech has acquired the five-volume “Modernist Cuisine” by Nathan Mhyrvold. I have never seen this collection, but I trust local food writer and historian Cynthia Bertelsen when she says it is a sight to behold. According to Cynthia, “This book — called the most revolutionary cookbook published since Escoffier (and we know how many cookbooks are out there) — will simply stun you with its incredible photography and scientific interpretations of the art of cookery.”
Why not just buy your own set? Because it costs something like $600. For more information, check out an article about the new acquisition written by Bertelsen here.