Flathead Valley Community College is offering community members a preview of its sixth annual Festival of Flavors by featuring a Napa Valley winery chef on Tuesday.

Dominic Orsini, head chef at California’s Silver Oak Cellars, will lead the meal and wine pairing with help from FVCC’s culinary arts students.

Trained in New York and California, Orsini sees food as more than just a meal.

“A meal should be a snapshot in time… reflecting the weather, time of day, what’s fresh in the garden and the mood of the guests,” he said in a press release.

This precursor event is just a taste of FVCC’s largest Festival of Flavors yet. The festival will be held Sept. 19-28 and is the largest fundraiser the college has for scholarships.

“We doubled the amount of scholarships we could give last year,” said Colleen Unterreiner, FVCC executive director for institutional advancement. “Beyond expenses, every dollar raised goes to scholarships.”

Unterreiner is personally a big fan of the college’s 10-day festival because it not only raises money for students and showcases delicious food and drink, but also is a way for the community to invest in its own future.

The festival will kick off with a showing of local flavor on Sept. 19. Local food trucks, wineries, breweries and other food businesses will be available that first day for a ticket price of $30.

Different events around the valley, the majority of which are small dinners at various restaurants, happen the next week before the festival culminates with the Grand Wine Tasting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell.

Last year 400 people came for the 200 wines at the event, which hosts several auctions. Unterreiner said she hopes to double the number of guests this year.

The fundraising from this event and others like it helps the school give out the majority of its foundation scholarships. The other two big ways students can get scholarships at FVCC are local donor-sponsored awards or universal community-sponsored scholarships.

Thanks to events like the Festival of Flavors, FVCC was able to give out 29 summer scholarships ranging from $500 to $1,000 and a massive $10,000 “transformation scholarship.”

To purchase tickets or get more information, go to www.fvcc.edu/festival.html or call 756-3632.

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.