asp.net mvc 3 pre-select Html.DropDownListFor not working in nerd dinner

Learning about dropdown lists, Im trying to add a RSVP create page for nerddinner as in Scott Gu's blog with a Html.DropDownListFor listing available dinners.

I can get the dropdown list populated but I cannot get the dropdown to pre select the value ("Sample Dinner 2") I want. Im using an initilizer to seed a few dinner objects in the db. The database is sql ce 4 using a EF 'code first approach'. Sorry I know this is a v common problem and hate to ask, but honestly have spent quite some time on this but cant get it to work:

ViewModel

public class RSVPViewModel
{
    public SelectList DinnersList { get; set; }
    public RSVP Rsvp { get; set; }
    public string SelectedItem { get; set; }
}

Controller

    //
    //GET: /RSVP/Create

    public ActionResult Create()
    {
        RSVP rsvp = new RSVP();
        string selected = "Sample Dinner 2";
        var typeList = new SelectList(dbc.Dinners.ToList(), "DinnerID", "Title", selected);

        var viewModel = new RSVPViewModel { DinnersList = typeList, Rsvp = rsvp, SelectedItem = selected };

        return View("Create", viewModel);
    }

View

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Rsvp.DinnerID, Model.DinnersList)

HTML Result

<select data-val="true" data-val-number="The field DinnerID must be a number." data-val-required="The DinnerID field is required." id="Rsvp_DinnerID" name="Rsvp.DinnerID">
     <option value="1">Sample Dinner 1</option>
     <option value="2">Sample Dinner 2</option>
</select>

So is not preselecting the dropdownlist with the value "Sample Dinner 2" when the page loads. The list displays ok and sets the correct DinnerID when I m