Dec 5, 2019 Culinary Last August, Paula Jo Chitty Henry, co-founder of Crepes Paulette in Bentonville, was the featured guest at DISH. Following the tradition, she hand-washed guests with rosewater, and as people took their seats, Dighero interviewed her about her life, her family, her career in food, and her former life as an actress, making for an amusing moment as the group watched an old reel of commercials and shorts she starred in from the ‘80s and ‘90s. For this particular evening, the menu was an exquisite array of vegetarian dishes that would make anyone’s mouth water. As guests looked for their seats at the long, family-style tables, they were greeted with plates of gourmet cheese, grapes, and bottles of wine. The main course was a mushroom stroganoff consisting of five different kinds of mushrooms cooked together, served on a bed of stroganoff sauce with sides of creamy mashed potatoes and fresh greens. Dessert was a chocolate mousse with a buckwheat cinnamon star wafer. Each course signified a special tie to Henry. Other guests of honor have included Hannah Withers (restauranteur behind Leverett Lounge and Maxine’s Tap Room), Denise Garner (Arkansas House Representative), Kassie Misiewicz (founder of Trike Theatre), and Allison Glenn (Crystal Bridges associate curator of contemporary art), among others. “I hope guests walk away from DISH with a sense of emotion, experience, and connectedness,” said Dighero. “Some of the stories that are told are deeply personal…it’s certainly not unheard of a DISH guest to actually break down, cry on stage when they’re recounting an important moment in their life…myself included. Those are the moments I adore, because that moment of truth connects us all, and then we can all eat together.” DISH is sponsored by Arvest Bank, Cindy Flynt Walters and Betty Flynt, Gelmart International, inVeritas, Wade and Kelly Jones, and Onyx Coffee Lab.
