We’re at the Alki Masonic Hall in The Junction (with sponsors including Sustainable West Seattle) with more than 250 people for the sold-out Eat Local Now! celebration.

Exhibitors (including us) line the walls, beautiful herb plants decorate the tables, and attendees are milling about enjoying appetizers and beverages. We’ve checked in on the kitchen, where some of West Seattle’s best-known chefs are working, and we have the menu too, which we’ll be adding to this report so that if you’re not here, you’ll see some of the local food that’s being celebrated – more to come! 6:22 PM: Added video of chefs in the kitchen dishing up Roasted Winter Squash and Carrot Soup, a recipe by Chef Bill Taylor of Talaris Conference Center. Green salad and warm salad by Chef Brad Glaberson of Cucina Fresca are coming out too.

The Jeff Fairhall Local Food Hero Award (for which nominations were sought here last month) will go to Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, during the “spoken presentation” part of the program in about an hour. 7:03 PM UPDATE: Among the speakers, Mashiko proprietor Hajime Sato, who made headlines recently for vowing to serve only “sustainable sushi” – he talked about the reality of farmed fish:

Being aware of where your food comes from – how it’s raised, how it’s grown – is a central theme of this event. The Eat Local Now! menu lists lots of information about each item – here’s part of the main course, Miso-Glazed Salmon from the Wild Salmon Fish Market with Granny Smith apples from New Roots Farm (whose Jason Salvo is among the speakers, talking about the hard but rewarding work of being a farmer) and celery-root salad from Boistfort Farm, prepared by Chef Dalis Chea of Fresh Bistro, and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes.

Among the forthcoming desserts: Chocolate Bread Pudding with Mint Creme (chocolate from Theo’s) by Chef Toby Matasar from Eats Market Cafe in Westwood Village.

8:32 PM: Added the dessert photo. Speeches are over, and it’s on to music/dancing. As one speaker put it, you can’t just accept what you get, you have to demand more – more locally grown food, more knowledge about where your food comes from, more support for local growers. The kitchen staff here got a big round of supportive applause, by the way:

We’ve got more info/visuals to add when we get back to HQ, including video of Council President Conlin, as he accepted his award, talking about local-food efforts on Delridge. (10:50 pm – here it is)

This is a citywide event, held in West Seattle for the first time, presented by – in addition to SWS – CoolMom, BALLE Seattle, and Sustainable Cascadia.