FOODSERVICE MONTHLY'S Sauce on the Side

Live on Seventh St DC ... It's Foodie & the Beast at Carmine's

2012-01-15T15:32:14-05:00

OK, as promised Sunday morning at Carmine’s DC came and so did the Foodie & the Beast duo (David and Nycci Nellis), their guests and a vocal fan base bolstered by a rowdy (but polite) food press, bloggers and PR contingent. Jeffrey Bank, Carmine's CEO, welcomed the morning crew gathered for the 11 a.m. - 12 noon radio show on WFED-AM 1500. Mixologist Erin Ward, also the corporate beverage director soothed the thirsty throats with a healthy Carmine's sangria and the show was showing quite nicely its ability to deliver an entertaining "variety" live remote.

The heavy Tweeters had their devices clicking so I'm peppering this post with a few of my favorite tweetsmiths. Their witticisms and reporting is always appreciated by this follower.

Nycci Nellis, www.thelistareyouonit.com, is uber bright and she knows how to win over an audience when she opened the guest cavalcade with the ebullient Michel Richard . He didn't even have to cook and he had them eating out of his hand with his devilish sense of humor and irresistible twinkle. If radioland had listeners that maybe knew of his talent and his restaurants but had never listened to him before ... well, I believe he has a few more fans today.

If you need proof of a visual nature check out this YouTube link for taped episodes of Foodie & the Beast. I'll be watching for the YouTube version of today's show to hit the Web ... and I'll replace the link here. Stay tuned. As soon as the next Carmine's date it set, I will also post that information for those that will want to get in their show ticket requests. With a plan for one show at Carmine's a quarter, it looks like the earliest date could be April.

The fast paced show included an impressive guest list: Jeff Black (Black Restaurant Group), Scott Drewno (The Source), Brian MacNair (DC Central Kitchen), Joan Nathan (award winning author of 10 cookbooks), and Nicholas Stefanelli (Bibiana). I left before the Carmine's kitchen let loose with the food ... and I was always on the outer edge of the beverage deployment, but it sounds like all were greatly appreciated.

I left early so I'll let my PR friend Amber Pfau sum up the morning as I headed to Starbucks for a hot chocolate and a pastry on my way home and back to work.

Yes, we must do it again.

Carmine's Meets Foodie & the Beast ... off, off, way off Broadway

2012-01-12T23:14:56-05:00

Foodie & the Beast duo (aka David and Nycci Nellis) have jumped off the cyber/radio wave they’ve been riding with Nycci's www.thelistareyouonit.com to meet a New York transplant: Carmine’s family style Italian restaurant in Penn Quarter, Washington , DC. The meeting (ala a live remote radio broadcast of the weekly show on 1500 am) will take place in the front bar area on the 7th Street storefront side from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on this Sunday, January 15. Show up and you’ll be accompanied by perhaps a couple hundred friends, fans, foodies and a few beasts, no doubt.

Foodservice Monthly met with the show hosts and Jeffrey Bank, CEO of The Alicart Restaurant Group owner of Carmine’s at the DC location. Bank, who opened Carmine’s in August 2010 said he became aware of David and Nycci at the very beginning and has been a fan of the radio broadcast. Regarding his initial interest in hosting the show he said, “The show is fun but it’s also serious about food. Early on I wanted to find out how can we get more involved.”

David Nellis gave me his take on Foodie & the Beast, “It’s a variety show.” The show is an hour long cavalcade of guests, including on any given Sunday chefs, farmers, restaurateurs, food activists, authors, bartenders, sommeliers … if you’re engaging and connected to hospitality, you are a potential visitor and possessing a little juicy gossip might be a tipping point. It’s hard to imagine radio broadcasting such sensory experiences as food wine and cocktails but the enthusiasm, energy and talent of the hosts and guests make it a hospitality happening. If you need proof of a visual nature check out this YouTube link for taped episodes of Foodie & the Beast.

Nycci Nellis is the founder, publisher of www.thelistareyouonit.com … the leading event and in-the-know electronic newsletter and hospitality resource in the Metro region.

Carmine's has committed to hosting one remote broadcast with Foodie & the Beast each quarter during 2012. For the first show, Nycci and David haven’t taken any chances by bringing on board an all-star lineup starting with the event hosts Jeffrey Bank, Chef Terry and Mixologist Erin Ward. Then in alphabetical order to protect myself: Jeff Black (Black Restaurant Group), Scott Drewno (The Source), Brian MacNair (DC Central Kitchen), Joan Nathan (award winning author of 10 cookbooks), Michel Richard and Nicholas Stefanelli (Bibiana).

Carmine’s has tickets for the show for $35 that will include Carmine’s food fare as well as Bloody Marys and Mimosas throughout the broadcast. If you can’t make it, you can find it on the air at WFED-AM, 1500.

Memories … Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian

2012-01-07T23:50:53-05:00

It was August 2002 … and I was working on the eighth issue of Foodservice Monthly. Our wonderful marketing columnist, the late Karen Cathey, a national officer in the American Institute of Wine & Food (AIWF), was busy making arrangements for Julia Child’s visit to Washington D.C. for the opening of Bon Appetit! Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian. She also celebrated her 90th birthday at 1789 with the help of AIWF during her visit when Ris Lacoste gathered an A-team of Washington chefs to cook for everyone’s favorite woman of food.

The National Museum of American History Media Event

Karen made sure I was on the press list for the media opening the morning before the 1 p.m. public opening on August 19, 2002. I was there (with my camera, of course) … maybe one hour early so I wouldn’t miss my first live opportunity to meet Julia Child, the genesis of my culinary journey.

A Little History

I still have my yolk-stained Mastering the Art of French Cooking (with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, Knopf, 1961) that I used to learn how to make the joy known as Béarnaise sauce from page 84. Oh, I can’t forget the Coq au Vin (page 263) I made for the first French chef I worked for at the Atlanta Sheraton Biltmore. For some curious reason I thought this novice could cook for a chef. For a kid who grew up in Macon, Ga., I was in a non-drug induced (it was circa 1972) food nirvana whenever Julia was on television … teaching this young hotel food and beverage purchasing agent to be confident in the kitchen. The coq au vin was spot on (at least the chef said so).

The Press Forms a Line

Short interviews/photos with Julia were scheduled in advance and I was in third position that crazy morning … ahead of some national morning television crews who were upset they couldn’t bump the “unimportant” news outlets from the lineup. The important folks who showed up late were a little tense that morning with the word that Julia at 90 was recovering from back surgery and when she tired, the press session would end. I got in and maybe two or three others did before an obviously exhausted Julia asked to leave.

A No-Shoes Interview

You’ve seen the pictures taken from outside the kitchen looking in. On this day Julia sat at her table and for the interview, we were allowed to enter and join her … that is after we took our shoes off – socks only for entering the domain of JC. If you read the diary online of project manager Nanci Edwards you will learn what I did that day … the floor is not a floor, rather it’s a digitized copy of her home kitchen Armstrong linoleum flooring. We were walking on, in reality, a photo of her kitchen floor. There were asbestos fears in dismantling the Cambridge floor and the pattern had been discontinued. In comes the Smithsonian graphics department to take over and paste the image on top. I talked to Julia Child that morning sans shoes ... in her kitchen.

In the end, my interview (with a couple of pictures that I took) was simply an exchange of pleasantries. She asked me about Foodservice Monthly and we talked about when I saw her from afar at the Monterey Wine Festival in 1979 where she appeared on stage with an up and coming chef from France Jacques Pepin.Twenty years later they worked together in the award winning Julia Child & Jacques Pépin Cooking at Home. She smiled. I was thrilled and wished her a happy birthday.

Julia Child's Kitchen at the Smithsonian was originally scheduled to close in February 2004 ... but the crowds kept it open until January 8, 2012. But don't despair if you missed it, the Smithsonian will take the show apart, clean it and then rebuild it later this year for another larger show that will be announced soon.

An Italian Holiday Culinary Serenade: Masoodi and Amendola Dazzle at Da Mimmo's in Little Italy, Baltimore

2011-12-19T01:11:15-05:00

Christmas 2011 brings together two chefs … two worlds … and a common bond of food and hospitality in the Baltimore community of Little Italy at Da Mimmo. But there’s more to the story … it's about friends, family and the human connection that is more than just business as usual. The two chefs, Masood Masoodi and Pasquale Amendola, are top toques at Da Mimmo and Scirocco … Balitmore, USA and Positano, Italy respectively.

They arrived at their current friendship stage in their lifework journeys along rather diverse paths. After working at Da Mimmo for 14 years from 1989 to 2003, the passing of chef/proprietor Mimmo Cricchio meant that Masood Masoodi was next in line to become the executive chef of one of the leading destination dining locations in Baltimore. Before taking that monumental leap forward in his career, Masoodi asked Da Mimmo proprietor Mary Ann Cricchio if he could get a hands-on immersion into the world of Italian cooking. Cricchio arranged for Masoodi to take a working sabbatical to work at one of the Leading Hotels of the World, Le Sirenuse Hotel in Positano, Italy. There he met chef Pasquale Amendola.

As the two chefs worked together in Italy they would take their breaks and walk down to the Mediterranean Sea. Chef Amendola had to take those opportunities to relieve the pain in his ankle by soaking his foot in the cool sea ... so that he could manage to complete his 18-hour work day. His ankle had been seriously injured in a car/Vespa accident ... the car had pinned his ankle and subsequent surgery locked the ankle in one position. Later as he advanced his career, Amendola left Le Sirenuse and opened his own restaurant Scirocco, but the ankle pain became a daily burden.

In March, Amendola visited the United States for the first time to cook with his good friend, Masoodi at Da Mimmo. The two planned an Amalfi Coast dinner and Amendola brought authentic ingredients from his local producers. However, the two did not know if this dinner would come to fruition because the Italian chef was in such pain. He could not stand on his long-injured ankle.

Mary Ann Cricchio remembered whenever her late husband had trouble with his feet they turned to Mark S. Meyerson, M.D., one of the world's foremost experts on foot and ankle reconstruction and injury at The Institute for Foot and ankle Reconstruction at Mercy Medical Center. Meyerson told Amendola that he could operate on his ankle, giving him mobility and most importantly, relieving him of his pain ... something that doctors in Italy and Germany told him they could not do. He gave him temporary relied to allow the March dinner to go on. Plans were placed into motion for the December operation to improve the quality of Amendola's life.

Fast forward to tonight's "cooking class" at Da Mimmo and Masoodi and Amendola are working together again ... only 13 days after a successful American operation on the Italian chef's ankle. He is continuing his "working" recuperation in Little Italy with his Da Mimmo "family" until his final release by Meyerson and his return to Positano in the second week of January.

On this evening, a week before Christmas, an overflow gathering of friends of Da Mimmo gathered in the upstairs dining room for a dinner class with the two chefs conducting the culinary tour. With Massodi taking the lead, the two worked through a menu and demonstration of cooking techniques /ingredients for Tuscan Onion Soup, Penne Amatriciana, Veal Spiedini with Polenta and Grilled Pear and Banana with Almonds and Mascarpone Cream.

Amendola's daughter Veronica assisted in the service of the meal with the Da Mimmo staff.

The FOTO GALLERY with a collection of the evening in pictures can be found by clicking here.

Georgetown Jingle Plays a Comforting Child’s Cancer Tune of Hope

2011-12-12T20:07:08-05:00

Linda Roth writes the Latest Dish column for Foodservice Monthly – the monthly insider’s recounting of the goings on in the DC dining scene. The current column is here: Download FSM latest 1211. As a resident of Georgetown, she also works as our investigative reporter … looking for even more good deeds where members of the restaurant community donate time, talent and great food, like at the Georgetown Jingle held Sunday at the Four Seasons Hotel Washington DC.

In the photo are members of the RIS team: Will Quartel, Sarah Biglan, Jarla and Bill Ulman.

The event benefits the mission of Georgetown University Hospital’s Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The hospital specialists deliver compassionate family-centered, state-of-the-art clinical care and education through a multi-disciplinary approach in an academic environment grounded in spiritual and ethical values. Since 2006, the Georgetown Jingle team has supported that mission by raising funds to support the creation and establishment of a Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Georgetown University Hospital (GUH). In addition, the proceeds from the Georgetown Jingle have also supported the Cancer Survivorship Program at Georgetown University Hospital. The program at Georgetown University Hospital provides comprehensive on-going follow-up care for children to ensure they have a fulfilled life after cancer. This year, the 2011 Georgetown Jingle, will expand its support to include support for the continued growth and evolution of the Pediatric Palliative Care Program. Palliative care is a new medical and nursing specialty devoted to relieving pain and providing physical, psychological, and spiritual comfort to patients who have complex or challenging problems associated with serious illness.

The family-friendly holiday extravaganza is hosted each year by Four Seasons Hotel, JDS Designs, and The Washington Design Center.

The Georgetown Jingle offers something for everyone. Each year, CVS/pharmacy sponsors a Children’s Workshop, where young guests decorate holiday treats, do craft projects, meet Santa and friends, and enjoy kid-friendly food. Georgetown Jingle guests also sample culinary creations and libations from top area restaurants including RIS, matchbox, Four Seasons Hotel, Hudson’s, The Source, Paul Bakery and Hill Country Barbecue. In the photo to the right are the matchbox team: Perry Smith, John Donnelly, John McArthur, Caros Castera.

Over the past five years, the Georgetown Jingle has raised $1.7 million for these pediatric programs. The 2011 event co-chairs are Cynthia Bruno, mother of a former Georgetown University Hospital patient and cancer survivor, and Tamara Darvish, vice president of DARCARS Automotive Group.

For additional information about the event, visit www.georgetownjingle.com.

The Chef Link: A Restaurant Jobs Connection ... For Real, For Free

2011-12-03T21:09:41-05:00

The Chef Link is a website designed to link qualified employees and restaurants together.

Designed by those who know the industry well, TheChefLink.com allows members of the foodservice industry to post and search both front of the house and back of the house jobs in an uncluttered, easy to use layout. TheChefLink.com is an alternative to the traditional non industry-specific classified boards that foodservice industry professionals have used in the past.

The best feature? It is free!

The site is new and is being upgraded based on user feedback ... created as an industry service, with advertising on the websute covering costs. It should be worth a try; you have nothing to lose.

Want more information: steve@thecheflink.com or www.thecheflink.com

Phillips Celebrates Power Plant Opening ... announces Cordish casino deal

2011-12-02T19:19:18-05:00

Phillips Seafood Restaurant celebrated 30 years at Baltimore's Inner Harbor with a grand opening at its new Power Plant location. On hand for the ceremonial ribbon cutting was Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake; Steve Phillips, President and CEO of Phillips Foods & Seafood Restaurants; Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and David Cordish, Chairman and CEO of The Cordish Companies.

Phillips Seafood at the Power Plant officially opened for business on November 11. The restaurant accommodates 400 people with a variety of dining options. In addition to the main dining room, there is a patio promenade, a raw bar, and a piano bar. In warm weather, starting April 2012, a 200-seat outdoor crab deck will serve a "crab house" style menu focused on steamed seafood offerings. While details of the crab deck are being developed, plans are to feature crabs from different parts of the Chesapeake Bay and highlight the work of the watermen to make the Bay a sustainable resource for generations to come.

"We're thrilled that Phillips Seafood has been so warmly received on this side of the Harbor," said David Cordish. Steve Phillips echoed, "It was with great anticipation that we opened at the Power Plant and our reception has been outstanding. Phillips is sure to thrive at its new home for decades to come."

In addition to the grand opening festivities, Steve Phillips and David Cordish announced another collaboration by the two family-owned, Baltimore-based companies. Phillips Seafood will be opening a new location at the Cordish-owned Maryland Live! Casino at Arundel Mills. The $500 million casino will be one of the largest gaming, retail and entertainment destinations in the country with 4,750 slot machines and electronic table games. Phillips Seafood will open as part of the "Live! Market" featuring an array of Phillips' crab cakes and seafood specialties. Maryland Live! Casino broke ground on January 27, 2011 and its opening is anticipated in Summer 2012.

Phillips Seafood Restaurants and Phillips Foods, Inc. is a family-owned business founded in 1956 with headquarters in Baltimore. Phillips is best known for its crab cakes and seafood dishes served at the 19 Phillips Seafood Restaurants throughout the East Coast. In addition, Phillips is the leading importer and distributor of crab meat and other crab products in the U.S.

I'll Have a Local (Maryland) Lobster, Please ... at The Shark

2011-12-01T22:53:40-05:00

[EDITOR NOTE: OK, I haven't made a blog post in so long that more than half of my Twitter (@fotorules) followers don't even know this page exists ... so why wait until January 1 to start living my new year's resolutions when I can start December 1. Let's hope there will be 20-30 others by January 1. Give me a couple of weeks to update the links/columns etc. Happy New Year ... MB]

Steve Vilnit (@SteveVilnit) heads up Commercial Fisheries Outreach and Marketing for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources. He's made a name for himself among the chefs of the region for his "water" trips to the Chesapeake Bay to participate firsthand with the watermen to harvest oysters, crabs and rockfish while learning about the ongoing sustainability efforts to improve the Bay. Foodservice Monthly covered a late spring crab outing with Spike Gjerde of Woodberry Kitchen that was the cover story for the July issue.

I talked to Steve about the Atlantic Ocean seafood purchased from the West Ocean City harbor. Susan Jones, executive director of the Ocean City Hotel Motel Restaurant Association (@ochmra), had told me about the boats landing everything from lobster, clams, scallops and tuna. Even Campbell Soup has slips in the harbor to bring in product they need for their retail/foodservice operations. Steve made a call to Travis Wright (@ocshark), chef/partner of The Shark on the Harbor in West Ocean City, and the Thursday day trip was planned.

We met with Travis and his wife Jody as well as Susan Jones at the dock of John Martin's Martin Seafood where Captain Kerry Harrington of the Sea Born had returned that morning with a boatload of mostly dogfish shark and a few skate.

After he emptied the morning catch, Harrington's crew filled the hold with ice, refueled and loaded the boat with bait for a three line set (nights) tuna hunt. They will use whole squid fished from Rhode Island to tempt the tuna. Captain Kerry also found time to break down the dogfish and the skate and deliver it across the way to The Shark for that night's menu. If you go to their website you'll find that Travis changes the menu twice a day ... lunch today included scallops from the Christy, flounder from Valarie Marie as well as tuna, swordfish and mako from Captain Kerry.

You also can see a picture here of a seven-pound Maryland lobster brought in yesterday by Pot Luck Captain John Gourley also based in West Ocean City for The Shark's lobster feature.

Wife Jody, besides restaurant duties, also helps maintain a very active collection of Ocean City "catches" and stories on the website.

Click here for a GALLERY of fotos from today's visit to West Ocean City.

Fancy Food Show Has Arrived ... Day One ... #SFFS11

2011-07-10T14:26:55-04:00

The Fancy Food Show has arrived in DC ... let the food frenzy begin.

Last night I met with the Virginia Pavilion folks at the Tabard Inn after they had finished their setup at the convention center. You can find them at BOOTH 2929 and there is much to see ... I'll be checking out the gluten free products of Dr. Lucy Gibney: Dr. Lucy's cookies.

Afterwards I had a great dinner with the Westminster Crackers team (BOOTH 3127) at the Old Ebbitt Grill ... humming like you would expect for a Saturday. Their oyster crackers were a perfect flavor/texture fit with the Ebbitt's Oyster Stew.

The most interesting product I've run across so far has been the olive oil from Chateau Estoublon (BOOTH 2050). Only the French would package it in a perfume bottle.

At the show opening, I visited the ceremony for Chile pavilion (BOOTH 2037) with Alejandro Buvinic, Chilean Trade Commissioner; Felix de Vicente, Director Chile Trade Commission; Ambassador Arturo Fermandois, Ann Daw, NASFT President and Chris Nemchek, NASFT Senior VP.

The afternoon calls for tasting the sofi finalists, talking Korean foods with Elliot Chung, CJ Foods, and then it's on to the tweetup at Helix and a visit to taste German foods at the German American Heritage Museum. Finally I'll make it to the residence of the Chilean Ambassador for an evening reception.

And tomorrow it starts all over again.

Brice Phillips Sr., Phillips Seafood Patriarch Dies Today at 90

2011-07-01T15:49:21-04:00

Brice Phillips, Sr. died today at the age of 90. I have been lucky enough to have met Brice a few times over the last few years as Phillips has grown from the crab shack he and his long wife and partner Shirley started in 1956 to the world leader in the seafood marketplace that Phillips Foods is today. Brice and Shirley have been symbolically and literally the mother and father of the "family" that is Phillips from their immediate family to its employees to the community made up of those whose lives have passed through the Phillips restaurants and plants in the U.S. and the world. Today the Phillips family is in mourning and we offer our sincerest sympathies.

I print bleow the statement issued by Phillips Foods this afternoon along with the wonderful picture they sent of Brice and Shirley doing what they loved.

Phillips Foods:

It is with great sadness that Phillips Seafood conveys the passing of Brice Phillips, Sr. at the age of 90 on Friday, July 1, 2011. As his family mourns his passing, so too will the thousands of lives he touched through his leadership of Phillips Seafood Restaurants.

Brice was a role model to not only his family, but to the employees who worked for the popular seafood restaurant company that grew out of humble beginnings in Ocean City, MD.

Brice and Shirley, his wife and partner in founding Phillips Seafood, were both natives of Hooper’s Island, Md. on the Chesapeake Bay. Brice and Shirley started Phillips Crab House in 1956 with little money but a whole lot of determination. They came from families that lived off the water. They knew that their opportunity to make their mark was to take the crabs from the family’s seafood plants and open their own restaurant. What started as a “crab shack” in the burgeoning beach town of Ocean City, Md., soon became a restaurant seating 1200 and covering one square block of land.

Brice is survived by his childhood girlfriend and wife of 68 years, Shirley, sons Stephen and Jeffrey, daughters-in-law Maxine and Janet, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Most recently, he was recognized by longtime friend Maryland’s former Governor and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. Brice was included in Schaefer’s last will and testament and was honored as having the only sentence-length tribute which read, “He is one of the nicest men I have ever met.”

His life will be celebrated by those who knew him best and the many whose lives he touched when they dined in his restaurants or worked for this great man.