The Pen to Plate Dinner Series, which Morris Book Shop, Lexington, Ky., connects customers directly with classic cookbooks, the foods they inspire and the chefs that love them: beginning in July and extending into October, the idea is for a chef to create a four-course meal directly from his or her favorite cookbook and serve 16 diners in the bookstore--and interact with guests between every course.
The series was conceived with the help of local culinary evangelist and MasterChef alumnus Dan Wu, who cooked the first dinner, riffing on Smoke and Pickles by Edward Lee. So far, the store has held two dinners; two more are on the menu.
The chefs prepare most of their meals offsite, Morris Book Shop's community engagement coordinator Natalie Cunningham said, although Wu brought a rice cooker for Israeli couscous, and Brigitte Nguyen, who focused on Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart, brought a propane heater to cook the shrimp for her shrimp and grits.
Cunningham said that reaction has been "wonderful. People have been super excited at the idea of dinner at Morris, getting to know chefs, and hearing about the chefs' memories with the various cookbooks." She added that she's been surprised by how "diners have interacted with one another. It seems everyone has come to the store ready to meet their tablemates. People have really adored the chef interaction throughout the dinner."
The idea for the series was born when staff member Gretchen Collins started copying recipes out of The Moosewood Cookbook. This prompted conversations with her colleagues, each of whom had different memories tied to Moosewood: how it taught them to not be fearful when cooking vegetarian food, and introduced them to spices and recipes that have since become staples for them. Collins confessed she had used her own copy so much that the pages of a particular recipe were no longer legible. 
Morris Book Shop also collaborated with local retailers Mulberry and Lime, Thoroughbred Antique Gallery, House by JSD Design and Street Scene "to create purely decadent table-scapes." The bookstore describes its dinners as "intimate affairs that will never be recreated. All four of our star chefs are movers and shakers in the Bluegrass Region's food scene, but none of them cook for traditional brick and mortar restaurants. We want people to connect with food and cookbooks in a completely new way."