• Courtesy of Alice & the Magician
• Alice & the Magician

This Sunday, January 24, ArtsRiot will team up with chef Jean-Luc Matecat and Alice & the Magician cofounders Sam and Aaron Wisniewski to host a four-course "scented dinner" with optional cocktail pairings.

The meal will mark Matecat's first appearance since leaving Montpelier's La Puerta Negra last fall. True to form, he's putting Vermont meats and produce to work on his menu — and embellishing each item with A&M's nose-tickling scents. Organizers were still finalizing the menu at press time, but courses could include such dishes as pan-roasted local rabbit spritzed with the scent of forest and field, or ginger-perfumed game birds. They'll be paired with complimentary cocktails that carry wafting scents of herbs and citrus or bourbon-barrel char.

Most Vermonters know that this small state produces some of the finest food in the nation. Still, it's fun when the national food community notices, too. Local companies took home a disproportionate number of awards at the 2016 Good Food Awards, held last week in San Francisco.

Reading's Farms for City Kids and Newport's Eden Ice Cider took two awards each. Shacksbury Ciders' Lost and Found cider and Mad River Distillers' Malvados also received nods, as did condiments and jams from Fat Toad Farm and Green Jam Man.