ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Cooking is more than just a recipe to Chef Michelle Michelotti-Martinez. It is a community experience.

That mentality is something native New Mexican Michelotti-Martinez incorporates into her culinary socials and gatherings offered by her fine food service company, Eatentions. The culinary gatherings and socials are done at Sarabande Bed and Breakfast in the North Valley but also can be arranged to be held at someone’s home.

The events are more than a cooking class, but rather an introduction into the culinary world. Participants learn how to prepare an exquisite meal made from scratch using organic ingredients including produce from local farmers. The atmosphere is akin to a dinner party setting in a beautiful kitchen where guests learn to prepare such things as homemade pasta and later enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Each of the culinary socials vary in theme. The next culinary social, “The Big Night ‘Timpano!’ ” will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, March 8. Classic baked timpano will be prepared. It will be paired with Sicilian olive salad, roasted asparagus with roasted peppers, and Sicilian olive oil cake. Wine from Corrales’ Milagro Vineyards will be provided to guests ages 21 and older.

The theme of the social is inspired by the movie, “The Big Night,” which features the main characters making timpano for guests. The domed pasta dish is filled with a variety of ingredients including tubed pasta, various cheeses, hard-boiled eggs, meat, fish, vegetables, a luscious rich tomato sauce, and then baked, according to the event page.

The social “A Northern Italian Feast” will be held on April 19.

This one is near and dear to Michelotti-Martinez’s heart being that her family is from that region of Italy.

The menu will consist of homemade cannelloni with ricotta, prosciutto, and mozzarella; wine roasted chicken with savoy cabbage and herbs; roasted asparagus bundles with speck and smoked mozzarella; classic risotto Milanese and decadent chocolate tartlets with toasted pinenuts. Recipe booklets are given to attendees.

The culinary gatherings feature a themed five-to-six course dinner prepared by Michelotti-Martinez. The feasts are paired with wines from Milagro Vineyards. “Springtime Harvest in Italy” will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on May 24. “It’s a long table intimate setting,” Michelotti-Martinez explained. “I work a lot with local farmers with what is in season then I orchestrate the menu out of that. Springtime Harvest (features) asparagus, strawberries, lamb, peas. I orchestrate the seasons, too, and highlight our farmers. Everything is made from scratch – condiments, butter, pastas.”

Michelotti-Martinez is also a personal chef and puts on boutique catering for small events of 50 people or less.

“It is very hands-on, very catered and kind of designed around a lot of time spent with the client and a lot of time getting to know them,” Michelotti-Martinez. “I don’t send someone out there to do prep and shop. Everything is me and I am at every event. That is kind of what I like to let people know they are getting me and not me and staff. I think it is something that Albuquerque is ready for.”

Michelotti-Martinez’s love of cooking is what inspired her to take a leap of faith and leave the corporate world. She now has more than 20 years of experience in the culinary scene – teaching, catering, opening an Italian bread operation and a restaurant in Santa Fe, which has since closed.

She also studied and participated in excursions in Italy, New York City, and Los Angeles. Michelotti-Martinez is an advocate of the slow food movement. She eagerly continues to stay abreast of the ever-changing culinary world.

“I’m never too humble to learn,” she said. “I pour over cooking books constantly to reinvent and not get stale.”