Ashley Bivens Boyd, left, is the next guest chef at The Queen & Glass, where she’ll serve a coursed meal paired with drinks by Bob Peters (right). Photo by Peter Taylor

Fans of 300 East will get a chance to see the direction Ashley Bivens Boyd will take the restaurant’s menu at the next Queen & Glass guest chef event on Monday, May 13. Boyd will cook a five-course menu to be paired with cocktails from mixologist Bob Peters. The event marks a special occasion: it’s the first dinner event where Boyd will be cooking as a savory chef, not solely a pastry chef.

Boyd, who has long been known as the city’s top pastry chef, oversaw the pastry program at 300 East, her family’s restaurant in Dilworth. She recently took creative control over the entire menu, working with chef Kristine Schmidt to make the menu more local and sustainable. (Read more about that in an earlier article here).

On the menu are dishes such as soft shell crab over baby lettuces, peas, radishes, and cornbread crumble with a pea shoot buttermilk and pork belly with a rhubarb barbecue sauce.

“It really is intended to give the guests at that dinner an idea of where we’re headed,” Boyd says. “So some of the things that are on that menu are headed to the menu at 300 East, or are already on the menu in some form. It’s going to be an accurate look at the direction we’re headed.”

That direction is seasonal, which Boyd says gives her burgeoning cooking style a sense of Southern — though she is hesitant to label her style as she hasn’t spent long as a savory chef.

“Since I’ve always been so motivated by the prospect of using the ingredients we have here in our region that are in season, when I look at the menu that I’ve written, the savory stuff has a southern foods emphasis to me,” she says. “That’s not necessarily intentional, but I think in the season we’re in with spring, and we have all of these ingredients coming to us that are sort of traditional spring food in our part of the world.”

The crab, in particular, embodies what she’s trying to achieve: a menu that’s “nourishing and vibrant and healthy,” she says. The crab cake is pan-fried, but sits on a bed of raw vegetables and is a pretty vegetable-focused dish.

We’re eagerly anticipating Boyd’s career as a savory chef. With the flavor profiles she was able to put in her desserts, this dinner will certainly be a fun one. Tickets cost $100; purchase them here. —Kristen Wile