Photo: not a hipster/Flickr
Susan McCrory
She Made Crackers
“I love the D.I.Y. challenge of deconstructing the everyday processed food; it feels like Martha Stewart is having lunch with Patti Smith, or something. I’m just drawn to the contradictions…” And so it went for Lindsey Frances of Made By Frances who made, you guessed it, crackers.
CityFeast: Dining out to Conquer Diabetes
PRK recently spoke with Carla Gomes, owner of North End restaurants Antico Forno and Terramia, to hear from her personally about the 5th annual CityFeast: Dining Out to Conquer Diabetes, a benefit for the Joslin Diabetes Center’s High Hopes Fund, slated for Sunday, January 31, in Boston’s North End. Carla’s son, David, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes on his first birthday. Eighteen years and literally tens of thousands of shots and finger pricks later for her son, Carla is organizing CityFeast for the fifth straight year to help raise awareness of diabetes and support the Joslin Center’s mission of conquering the disease through critical care, research and education. Seven North End restaurants – Lucca, Prezza, Taranta, Tresca, Caffe Grafitti, and of course Antico Forno and Terramia – will participate in CityFeast by offering guests a special five-course dinner with wine pairings. Tickets run $150 each, $100 of which goes directly to the Joslin and is tax-deductible. Approximately 250 people attend the event each year and, to date, CityFeast has raised $95,000.
When we spoke with Carla, it became clear how integral a part of her son’s health the Joslin has become over the years, and how clear her goal is of growing CityFeast to a North End-wide, city-wide, even a nation-wide, event dedicated to fighting diabetes: one evening, one disease, lots of support. Visit the Joslin Diabetes Center homepage for information on buying tickets.
Who Won at Le Cordon Bleu?
The team fielding one of their own students, plus Jeff Dudley of Saffron Bistro and Ilene Bezahler of Edible Boston, left for home with the blue ribbon from last Thursday’s cooking competition hosted by the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge (read last week’s post on the contest.) According to lead chef Jeff Mushin, about 70 people attended and chose their fav for being “well presented, with good flavors.” Voting was done by ballot, but guests had the chance to vocalize what they liked about the three dishes of poulet sauté they sampled for dinner, and why. Said ribbon-bedecked winner Ilene, “we did a pan seared chicken breast with porcini mushroom, madeira and cream sauce, [with] carmelized blue potatoes, and then a butternut squash puree which was savory not sweet. The key again, simple and well prepared!”