Carnevale in April helps Delaware high schoolers fulfill their dreams

Have you bought your tickets for the third annual Carnevale? At 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 10, the Rehoboth Touch of Italy becomes an Italian Street Fair with unlimited food, wine, masks, valet parking, auctions - you name it. And it's all to raise money for the Touch of Italy/RehobothFoodie.com Culinary Scholarship Fund. 

So why a scholarship fund? The point is sometimes brought home in stark reality when one of our Cape Region restaurants closes. Often, it has nothing to do with income, but many of our Cape Region eateries are finding it more and more difficult to locate and retain skilled help. One of the most recent closings involved a three-location restaurant group - all doing well - that needed more good people in their kitchens and dining rooms. They integrated the staff of one of their locations into the other busy eateries. Better to have two well-staffed restaurants than three understaffed restaurants. And nowhere is this national trend more obvious than in seasonal resort communities. 

The Delaware Restaurant Association has stepped up to the plate with the well-regarded ProStart program, a two-year, industry-written curriculum of culinary and management skills for high school students. A number of these students continue into nationally accredited culinary schools, and many return to Sussex County to become part of the business of eating here at the beach. But tuition at the best schools can be more than $30,000! To that end, Touch of Italy restaurants and RehobothFoodie.com teamed up four years ago to form the nonprofit Culinary Scholarship Fund, providing tuition assistance to Delaware high school graduates who excel in the ProStart program. This year, Cape Gazette, SoDel Concepts, Delmarva Broadcasting Company, Freedom Boat Club, Signarama, Atlantic Transportation, Dogfish Head, Big Fish Restaurant Group, LaVida Hospitality, a number of generous wine and spirits distributors, and other kind benefactors have generously donated their time and resources to make Carnevale 2018 a reality. 

This third annual event is modeled after Italy's Carnevale celebration, and will overflow with authentic Italian cuisine and wines for a fun - and filling - experience. Live auction items will include an insider's back-door tour of Arthur Avenue in the Bronx - the REAL Little Italy, and the inspiration for the Touch of Italy concept. This private day-trip for four features lunch, dinner and luxury limo to and from New York. Yet another experience is a five-course dinner and wine for 10, prepared and served in your home by Touch of Italy owner Bob Ciprietti, Rehoboth cheesemonger Bill Wilson and the Rehoboth Foodie (with his famous fried chicken). 

As if that were not enough, SoDel Concepts has generously stepped up to the plate to auction off an all-inclusive four-restaurant progressive dinner with limo (courtesy of Atlantic Transportation) for the entire evening. If you love boats, you can bid on a 2.5-month free membership in Lewes' brand-new Freedom Boat Club - including training with a U.S. Coast Guard captain. Week-long beachfront rentals and amazing sports experiences in New York and Boston round out the auction list. 

The all-you-can-eat menu highlights local delicacies from Aosta Valley, Calabria, Emilia-Romagna, Marche and Sicily. Researched and assembled by Bill Wilson and the Touch of Italy team, dishes will include torcetti (breadsticks with butter and sugar), brutti ma buoni (toasted, ground Piedmontese hazelnuts), sfincia of San Giuseppe (mushrooms sautéed in butter with garlic, rosemary and pignoli nuts), authentic Roman pizza, cotechinata (pork rind rolled around a filling of salted pork, garlic and peppers) and the ultra-savory ciaudedda (braised artichokes stuffed with potatoes, onions and fava beans) - just to name a few. I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I'm leaving the rest for your taste buds to discover. And of course the wines - Italian and otherwise - will flow freely. 

Eat, drink, bid and enjoy yourself starting at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 10, and help Delaware's fledgling chefs, restaurant owners and managers become the professionals we need here in the Cape Region. Attendance at Carnevale is limited to 100 hungry partiers, and as of this writing there are fewer than 20 tickets remaining! Get yours at any Touch of Italy restaurant or online at TouchofItaly.com/Carnevale. I'll see you there. (I'll be the one with the microphone. Like that's any surprise....) I guarantee you will not leave hungry!