Help a rescue dog find its home before the holidays. Support the preservation of the threatened Sallier Oak. Enjoy a five-course meal from the Lake Area’s state-culinary queen Amanda Cusey, the music of Jarius Daigle and the talent of local artists Ashley Royer and Kat Godsey as they demonstrate their passion to create on canvas.

The Imperial Calcasieu Museum is teaming up with Chef Amanda Cusey and Do Good Dog Rescue to host “Canines & Cocktails: A Night of Fine Dining” in downtown Lake Charles’ Paramount Room on Friday, Dec. 16, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Chef Cusey shared the menu with the American Press.  It includes spiced carrot soup, sauteed shrimp and tomato salad, braised beef cheeks with garlic mash and confit carrots, seared pork tenderloin with butternut squash puree, sauteed kale and bacon, pistachio cream sauce and pecan and bourbon bread pudding with spiced caramel pears and creme anglaise. A wine will be paired with each course and Cusey is still planning the special cocktail for the occasion.

“This is the prelude to our major fundraising campaign for the coming year,” explained Ashley Royer, Imperial Calcasieu Museum creative coordinator. “I want to take this opportunity to give your readers and our patrons an update on the Sallier Oak. Our arborist has told us that all her main branches will have to be cut or supported for her survival.Support for each branch is $4,000 to $6,000 and we need four supports. This is one of the major focuses of our fundraising and the event will feature a silent auction that includes “A Taste of Lake Charles.”

Tickets are $250 per person or $1,750 for a table of eight. Wine will be served before the dinner and each course will be paired with a different wine.

Daigle is the son of the late Chester “Choppe” Daigle II, a legacy that he has fine-tuned as his own. James-Fox Smith quoted Daigle in Country Roads, a magazine about Louisiana’s culture.

“Classical music is very disciplined. Learning it teaches you everything you need to know about reading and rhythm and all the technical exercises that go along with that. But with jazz you take that muscle memory you learned in classical and you infuse it with freedom of speech.”

The Paramount Room is an Empire of the Seed property, a responsibly restored historic indoor/outdoor space, a tribute to the Paramount Theater styled in a way that dates back to prohibition and underground jazz.

This summer Chef Amanda Cusey was crowned Queen of Louisiana Seafood, besting 11 other chefs to win the 15th Annual Louisiana Seafood Cook Off presented by the Louisiana Seafood and Marketing Board.

Royer, an animal lover and advocate of adopting rescues instead of a purebred which tends to be more expensive to purchase and in terms of veterinary care, said an earlier museum event helped place six canines.