http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2011/08/fifth_annual_harvest_benefit_d.html

Published: Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 10:00 PM

KALAMAZOO — How would you make a tomato parfait?

Food Dance Executive Chef Robb Hammond’s approach was to start with a layer of basil pudding in a martini glass then add a layer of sliced heirloom tomatoes, a layer of brandy wine pana cotta, a layer of heirloom tomatoes with basil chutney then a layer of heirloom tomato mousse. That yields lots of texture contrasts, lots of complexity, lots of flavor.

To make tomato mousse involves stepping into chef territory (unless you know how to correctly render tomato water with cheesecloth and reduce that to a syrup to incorporate the flavor into a mousse).

Don’t try this at home.

Do try a taste at the fifth annual Harvest Benefit Dinner at 6 p.m. Sunday at Food Dance, 401 E. Michigan Ave., the unofficial start of fall for the Kalamazoo dining scene.

Hammond naturally created a dish for the dinner that used tomatoes because, “the tomatoes are brilliant this year,” he said. “The hot weather has made them sweet, intensified their sugars. It was the best year for tomatoes you’ll ever get.”

At the dinner, Hammond will be joined by chefs John Korycki of Zazios, Matt Millar of The Reserve in Grand Rapids and Nate Lee of Webster’s Prime.

Additionally, 15 Food Dance employees will put together small appetizers for a large appetizer buffet.

“It has been a way to get them interested and involved,” Hammond said of the employees. “No one in our kitchen is just working their way through college.

“They all want to be chefs some day, and they need to work on their own voice with food.”

The $60 admission price will also offer a five-course meal that includes a whole goat prepared in a Sicilian way, a pig roasted on a stick, eight food and beer pairings from New Holland Brewing and live music.

Proceeds will go to Fair Food Matters. The benefit has raised about $18,000 in the past four years, Hammond said.

“Fair Food Matters does so many charitable things with children and food — just like us — from teaching youths how to grow food to teaching them how to cook it,” Hammond said.