Penobscot School to host an evening of Russian Cuisine and Culture

Penobscot School in Rockland is pleased to bring Melody Wolfertz owner and chef of In Good Company, to the school to prepare an authentic Russian dinner Friday, October 24th. She will be followed by speaker Jane Costlow, PhD of Bates who will present Mother Russia and Utopia’s Engineers: Traditional Russia, Nature and the State, a talk that will consider Russian traditional culture and its connection to the natural world; its fate under the Soviets, and the surprising resilience and continuing challenges for nature in Russia.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Wolfertz served at various prestigious locations throughout the United States before returning to Maine. Her wide array of menu items is evident in her daily preparations using locally-produced ingredients and in her Food Tour offered each year at In Good Company.

Professor Costlow holds a PhD from Yale in Slavic Studies and is the Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies at Bates College, where she teaches courses in environmental literature and film. Her most recent book, published in 2013 by Cornell University Press, is Heart-Pine Russia: Walking and Writing the Nineteenth Century Forest, which examines the relationship between writers, artists and forest science as Russians grappled with the meanings of their forest for national identity, and its increasing destruction over the course of the century. Professor Costlow lives in Auburn and travels frequently to Russia on research trips and with Bates students.

Reservations for the dinner to be served at 6:00 pm are $25 per person. Professor Costlow’s one-hour talk will be at 7:30 pm at a suggested donation of $10 per person. Registrants may attend dinner, the talk, or both. For questions regarding these events and dinner reservations made at least 48 hours in advance, call the school at 594-1084.

The Camden Conference is pleased to partner with Penobscot School to offer this special event in in anticipation of the 28th Annual Camden Conference: Russia Resurgent, February 20-22, 2015.