The Edible Garden Outdoor Kitchen fosters plant-to-plate connections, provides learning opportunities in seasonal eating and sustainable cultivation, and highlights the important relationships between local chefs and growers. In keeping with this, we proudly present the Georgia Grown Dinner Series.
As a unique collaboration with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, each dinner in the series is presented by a Georgia Grown Chef and focuses on one of Georgia’s important crops or agricultural categories. As an added bonus, each dinner features a local farmer who can explain a little more about farming in Georgia and answer your questions. Interact with the chef-grower team as you enjoy four tasting courses with wine in the Edible Garden Outdoor Kitchen.
Schedule: Thursday, June 20, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Fee: $100 (Member $95)
Registration Deadline: June 13
Instructors: Chefs Ashley Keyes and Lauren Bolden
About Ashley Keyes
Ashley N. Keyes is a Georgia-grown chef with a passion for feeding families! In 2012, she completed her studies and graduated from the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2013, she was selected to participate in a 4-month hospitality and culinary internship at Disney Corporation in Florida. Shortly thereafter, Chef Keyes became the Operations Manager for The Atlanta Bread Company kiosk operated by CAMM Concessions at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Chef Keyes has also been assisting the Center Helping Obesity In Children End Successfully (C.H.O.I.C.E.S.). She has led their cooking classes for families and managed summer culinary programs for overweight children. As a result of the pandemic, Chef Ashley started the Mobile Food Pantry Program. In 2022, she managed the execution of 38 mobile food pantry days, where almost 50,000 people received healthy fresh food.
Chef Ashley has been awarded several honors and accommodations. Beginning with the National Black Chef Award in 2020, the American Culinary Federation Atlanta Chef Chapter 2020 Humanitarian Award, and the 2021 Chapter Chef of the Year. Chef Ashley was seen on Good Morning America receiving the 2021 Walt Disney World Disney Magic Maker Award, where she was 1 of 50 selected from a pool of 28,000 nominations. Most recently, she received the Presidential Medallion Award from the American Culinary Federation President Chef Kimberly Brock Brown in January 2023. In October 2023, Chef Ashley was recently a part of the American Heart Association’s EmPowered To Serve Business Accelerator and was voted Fan Favorite for her project. She serves as Sergeant at Arms on the ACF Atlanta Chefs Association Board of Directors.
About Lauren Bolden
Lauren Bolden started Pie Bar, a retail dessert bakery, with only four recipes and zero business experience in 2015. Since then, Pie Bar has grown to include two pie shops in vibrant Downtown Communities: Pie Bar Woodstock + Pie Bar Marietta in addition to Pie Bar’s Commissary Kitchen in Kennesaw, Georgia.
She currently oversees the daily operations at Pie Bar, writes recipes (for Pie Bar and others), tells stories, and generally finds ways to get people to eat more pie. Lauren and Pie Bar have been featured in Taste of the South Magazine, Draper James, Forbes, Food Network, Cooking Channel, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and as a recurring guest on Atlanta & Company. Lauren lives in Canton, Georgia, where she and her husband, Cody, are restoring a 1920’s Mill House. They have one dog, Hank, one daughter, Rose, and too many bird feeders.