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'Top Chef' Alum and Queens Artist to Host Fashion-Inspired Fundraiser Meal

 Former "Top Chef" Dave Martin and Queens artist Mark Salinas will host the dinner to benefit scholarships for Queens Council on the Arts' "High School to Art School" program.
Former "Top Chef" Dave Martin and Queens artist Mark Salinas will host the dinner to benefit scholarships for Queens Council on the Arts' "High School to Art School" program.
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Queens Council on the Arts

HUNTERS POINT — It's culinary couture.

A former "Top Chef" star and a Queens artist are pairing up to host a fashion-inspired dinner event to raise scholarship funds to help send students to art school.

The "Hemlines & Waistlines" dinner will feature celebrity chef Dave Martin, a finalist in the first season of the hit Bravo show, and Mark Salinas, a visual artist and designer from Sunnyside.

The event is one in a series planned by the Queens Council on the Arts to support scholarships for participants in its High School to Art School program, which helps New York City high school students develop their art portfolios to get into top-notch art colleges.

Salinas, who studied fashion design at Parsons, will curate the event, which will take place Feb. 3 at  Manducatis Rustica Restaurant in Long Island City, right before Fashion Week.

The dinner will feature a number of yet-to-be-named New York City-based designers and fashion personalities, special guests who will share presentations on their favorite fashion items with the crowd — their favorite notable trend, or a specific garment.

"It's up to their own creativity," Salinas said. "I really want it to be sort of a show-and-tell."

Each presentation will serve as the inspiration for a course on the night's menu, to be cooked by Martin, to make for a fashion-inspired meal. If one of the fashion special guests talks about a love of Elizabethan ruffled collars, for example, it might inspire a fluffy white pastry, Salinas explained.

"It's going to be a nice combination of fashion, food and fine art," he said.

The Hemlines & Waistlines dinner will take place Feb. 3 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Manducatis Rustica Restaurant, 46-33 Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City. Limited tickets cost $150; guests can RSVP here.