The Carriage House Educational Services began as the Louisville School for Autistic Children in 1969.  It was one of the first schools in the United States providing services to individuals with autism.  In 2003, Carriage House collaborated with Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT) of Louisville to extend the traditional preschool program.  “Exceptional Chefs Celebrating Exceptional Education” was a night of fundraising and fun.  There was a silent auction, a live auction, beer, bourbon and wine.  There were also stations set up by different food vendors of Louisville, offering tempting tidbits of food in a strolling dinner set up.

This was a natural night of enjoyment for us.  One of the first tables of food that I had to stop at was Vincenzo’s, a favorite restaurant of ours, as well as our family in Louisville.  They were serving Veal Meatballs in a Rustic Tomato Sauce, and to be truthful, while I normally shy away from meatballs, I had to go back there several times, just to enjoy the flavor of this dish.  I also had to make a couple of trips over at another station that was representing Selena’s “seafood, pasta, steaks, Creole and home cooking.”  I was talking to the principal and the chef and they explained how they had decided on a special gumbo for the evening, which would exclude seafood, in case of people’s allergies.  The chicken and Andouille sausage gumbo that they served over rice was a delightful taste, and I made notes that I must try this restaurant on one of our future trips back to Louisville.  Ditto’s Grill was offering their version of chicken wings and they were good enough to go back for seconds.  The Anchorage Café was a very busy station as they were serving Marksbury Farm Burger Sliders on Klaus’ Pretzel Buns, as well as Gary Farm Turkey and Swiss with Onion Jam on a Baguette, Café Pimento Spread and Benton’s Bacon Jam on Crostinis.   I just listed some of the entrée dishes that were being featured at the affair, and my next article I will discuss some of the other items that were offered as well.

There was a choice of three different wines that evening that were being poured at the bar station.  The first wine was Bogle Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc 2012, a very light crisp wine that I felt, just got the taste buds ready for the evening.  The second wine also from the same vineyard was a Bogle Chardonnay 2012 that had more body and some creaminess that I thought worked better with some of the opening dishes of food.  The final wine that was being offered was Chateau de Campuget Costieres de Nimes 2011; which is a Rhone wine.  The Costieres de Nimes was originally called Costieres du Gard and is a delta region where the Cotes du Rhone and the Languedoc meet.  The wines are more similar to a Rhone wine; hence they may be called a Rhone wine on the label.  The red wines are a combination of Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsaut varietal grapes and there are legal maximums of each grape that can be used in the blending.  I found this wine to be a lighter Rhone wine, and after some further research, I can understand why I found this to be true.