New chef; wine dinners

• Carpe Diem, which has a new chef and sous chef, offers a Bennett Lane wine dinner Sept. 30. First the chef news: Paul Ketterhagen, formerly sous chef and on staff at the restaurant for four years, has now taken over. He attended Johnson & Wales in Charleston and cooked with Maverick Southern Kitchens, FIG and 39 rue de Jean there, before coming to Charlotte. New as sous (and catering chef) is Buzz Frazier, who's cooked at Nolen Kitchen and ilios noche among other Charlotte spots. Now the dinner: It's $80 for four courses, which include goat cheese panna cotta with sliced proscuitto, walnut pepper brittle and a salad of arugula, figs, apples, and a red wine reduction, with 2006 Red Maximus; and slow-roasted pork shoulder with salsa verde and 2006 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. 1535 Elizabeth Ave.; 704-377-7976.
  

• Kalu Asian Kitchen hosts a seven-course, six-wine dinner Sept. 29 with French wines from Grapevine Distributors. Among the seven: artisanal black edamame; Japanese-style chicken wings and foie-gras-stuffed Kobe meatballs with Delas Croze-Hermitage, Rhone; sushi of tuna with seven-spiced honey and Wasabi Three Ways Roll, with Joseph Drouhin Moulin-a-Vent, Beaujolais; and more. $69; 505 E. 6th St.; 704-910-4877.
  

• The Wine Shop at Foxcroft does a Kermit Lynch wine dinner Oct. 11 with guest chef Graham Giacobbe (of Clean Catch fish market and formerly with Customshop) and a Lynch representative on hand. Included in the courses: she crab soup with 2008 Château d'Epiré Savennières; cornmeal-dusted triggerfish with Lowcountry hash and '09 Joncier Lirac Rose; braised beef cheeks with '09 Maxime-François Laurent "Il Fait Soif" Rouge; and more. $65; 7824 Fairview Road; 704-365-6550.