Five-Course Wine Pairing Dinner: The Silk Road

This dinner will follow a path not defined by borders, but by movement.

The Silk Road is not a single modern country or a fixed place. It is a historical network of cultures, stretching across regions that have always been in motion. What connected them was not just trade but the exchange of ingredients, techniques, ideas, and hospitality.

For centuries, spices, grains, and traditions traveled from East to West, shaping the way people cooked and shared meals. What began as trade became tradition. What was once unfamiliar became essential.

You will taste that movement throughout the evening.

There will be warm spices, bright herbs, slow-cooked meats, and dishes built in layers, each one balancing richness with freshness, heat with restraint. The wines will not compete, but will meet the food where it is, lifting it, softening it, and at times, surprising you.

I chose the Silk Road for this wine dinner to step away from the rhythm of strictly European menus and explore something broader, more layered.

The Silk Road isn’t a single cuisine; it’s movement and exchange. Ingredients, techniques, and ideas traveled across regions, adapting along the way. I want to capture that—a menu that progresses not just by course, but by culture.

Each dish stands on its own but connects to the next. Flavors build—warm spices to bright herbs, slow richness to something lifted and unexpected. The goal is continuity, where the evening unfolds in more than one direction at once.

I’ve been reading Silk Roads by Anna Ansari and The Travels by Marco Polo. What strikes me is how “tradition” was once new—carried, traded, tasted, and transformed. I’ve been experimenting at home to prepare. Marco Polo describes the abundance of unfamiliar spices and foods—both foreign and compelling. I keep returning to that sense of discovery at the table, the willingness to try something new.

This dinner is about that spirit: sharing ideas and cultures in a way that feels natural, thoughtful, and just a little outside the norm.

Tickets are $184.50 per person, including the five-course dinner, gratuity, and tax. In the past, non-refundable deposits didn’t prevent last-minute cancellations. These evenings require significant planning and expense, and last-minute losses are disheartening.

After three and a half hours of shared experience, stopping to settle checks breaks the rhythm and shifts the energy in a way I don’t love.

This approach takes care of everything in advance, allowing the evening to unfold as it should.

Transparency matters. So there you have it.

*As with all my wine pairing dinners, I do not publish a menu ahead of time. *The menu will be served in its entirety as designed, without substitutions or modifications. Guests with food allergies or dietary restrictions may want to consider this before making a reservation.