Mark your calendars for a day of learning and community building with Les Dames d'Escoffier DC! We are thrilled to announce the return of our symposium, Bringing It to the Table: Talk. Taste. Transform., at The Kellogg Conference Hotel on the Gallaudet campus in Washington, DC.
This year’s event promises another dynamic lineup of DMV women in food, beverage, and hospitality sharing their expertise. It will feature engaging panel discussions and hands-on workshops on topics including: the low- and no-alcohol movement; fostering an inclusive workforce; perfecting breadmaking at home; and the future for women who contribute to food, beverage, and hospitality in the DMV. Attendees will be treated to a delicious lunch crafted from Dames' recipes, highlighting the culinary talents within our chapter. Our biennial symposiums are designed to inspire and engage through interactive discussions and workshops that explore the transformative power of food in our lives. Proceeds from them will support scholarships, grants, and mentoring programs aimed at empowering women in food and hospitality across the DC region. We hope you'll join us for this opportunity to connect with industry leaders, chefs, and fellow food enthusiasts as we explore the intersection of food, culture, and community. More details follow below. And, be sure to check out the latest details on our Symposium tab under News and Programs. Click here to register!
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Celebrating Black History Month: A Conversation on African Food and Culture Let’s celebrate African Food and Culture with a special Zoom conversation with entrepreneur and culinary ambassador Nina Oduro and food writer and culinary anthropologist Ozoz Sokoh. Together, they’ll share their personal journeys, discuss their work and books, and explore the rich diversity of African cuisines. From how recipes travel across borders to the adaptation of African ingredients in the US, this discussion will highlight the deep cultural connections and evolving narratives of African food. Dame Susan Barocas, Chair of the Global Culinary Initiatives Committee will moderate the panel. Don’t miss this insightful and inspiring conversation! Monday, February 24, 2025 | 7:00 to 8:15 pm This online event is free. Registration is required - reserve your spot today! Open to the public. Zoom link will be sent to registrants the day before the event. Register here! Symposium Sneak Peek: No & Low Alcohol – Beyond the Buzzwords
We’re thrilled to share one of our first confirmed sessions: an exclusive tasting and discussion featuring Dame Nadine Brown, sommelier of At Your Service Wine Experiences and Dame Vanessa Cominsky, sommelier and Beverage Consultant with Prestige Ledroit. More people are opting for no- and low-alcoholic beverages to drink at home and away, and the market space for lower-ABV wine, spirits, and beer reflects the growing diversity in this category. Dames/experts Vanessa Cominsky and Nadine Brown will explore the reasons behind the movement, and highlight some of the excellent choices in dealcoholized wine and beer, as well as the N/A spirits and cocktails using spices, herbs, and teas. Sacrificing quality and taste is no longer the case! Tastings included in this session. Other workshops include: Facing Workforce Challenges: How to navigate immigration issues and foster inclusivity What’s Your Gut Telling You? How to maximize the health of your innards Be a Better Bread Baker: Home-based strategies to get you rolling in dough, with tastings Goody Solomon Plenary/How Women are Changing All Things Food in the DMV: Insights on restaurants, media, advocacy, and sustainability (for all attending; immediately following Buffet Lunch + Table Talks) Don’t miss this and so much more at the symposium! Be sure to register for your ticket! Les Dames d’Escoffier’s Washington, DC Regional Chapter is pleased to announce our biennial educational event: Bringing It to the Table: Talk. Taste. Transform., which will take place Saturday, March 8, 2025, 9:30 am to 3 pm, at the Kellogg Conference Hotel, 800 Florida Ave. NE, on Washington’s Gallaudet campus. Registration will begin at 9 am.
This year’s programming promises to be our most impactful yet, delivered by some of the most knowledgeable women in DMV’s lively food, beverage, and hospitality scenes. Expect engaging panel discussions and workshops on topics including: the low- and no-alcohol movement; fostering an inclusive workforce/facing immigration challenges; perfecting bread-making at home; and what the future holds for DMV women in these fields. If you attended our symposium in 2023, you know what to expect. If you’re new to us, check out this recap video. FYI: This year’s location is Metro accessible (NoMa-Gallaudet Station), and the hotel’s garage parking is free. The buffet lunch menu will feature DC Dames’ own recipes. For a limited time only–today through Feb. 12–the general public can take advantage of the special early-bird rate of $130. After that, your rate will be $175. If you can’t attend, you still can help support this dynamic day of learning by donating to the fundraising goal for the symposium via One Cause. We look forward to seeing you at 2025’s Bringing It to the Table! To take advantage of this early-bird rate, register here. Register here! GET STUFFED!
Put your hands on some hand pies from around the world during our upcoming Global Culinary Initiative program! Nearly every culture has small, easy-to-eat pastries stuffed with savory and sweet fillings…from börekas, empanadas and samosas to Cornish pasties and Chinese xian bing. Together we’ll explore the diversity of hand pies with an introduction by Dame Susan Barocas before breaking into groups and heading for the kitchens for hands-on preparation of two hand pies led by Nura Sakati Mendez, a Levantine cooking expert; and Master Chef and food writer Dame Evelyn S. Bunoan. After cooking, we’ll come together to eat what we made as well as some tasty contributions by other Dames. This program is generously hosted by Dame Maria Kopsidas, owner of Cookology Culinary School and the Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute. Wine for the event has been donated by Prestige Ledroit. This event is open to the public. Sunday, October 27, from 2:00-4:00 pm at Cookology in Arlington’s Ballston Quarter 4238 Wilson Blvd, 3rd Floor, Suite #3110 $59 for the public, $45 Dames Members Cancellation Policy You may cancel your ticket for a full refund if notification is received by October 25. No-shows are ineligible for any refund. Note: if you have to cancel, please remember you can turn your ticket purchase into a tax deductible donation to Les Dames DC if cancellation is received by October 25. Cancellations received after October 25 will likely incur the cost of your ticket from the vendor, therefore would not be available as a donation. ![]() Join us on Wednesday, May 15 at 6:30 PM for Part II of our pasta explorations. Dame Meryl Feinstein, author of "Pasta Every Day" and ThePastaSocialClub.com, will focus on "Italy's Tagliatelle," the flat, ribboned noodles of the country's Emilia-Romagna and Marche regions. She will show us how to make the simple egg dough and roll it into sheets by hand. No special equipment required. Registration in advance is required. Click here to register. Meryl's session follows Les Dames DC April 24 presentation by historian Karima Moyer-Nocchi on "How Pasta Became Italian." We'll be continuing this occasional series, so stay tuned. Meryl Feinstein is a chef, pasta maker, and food writer. After graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education, she got her start at the renowned New York establishments Lilia and Misi, where she was part of the pasta production team. While there she founded Pasta Social Club, a platform that brings people together over a shared love of food, learning, and making connections both on- and offline. Meryl now lives in Washington, D.C., where she develops recipes and teaches pasta-making workshops. She is the author of Pasta Every Day, a guide to making pasta doughs, shapes, fillings, and sauces with joy and confidence for all home cooks, which will be published in September 2023. Her writing and recipes have also been featured in Food & Wine and Food52, for which she was the website’s Resident Pasta Maker, and she has been quoted as an expert in pasta making for BBC Travel, La Cucina Italiana, Martha Stewart, New York magazine, and more. Her dishes draw on her travels in Italy, ongoing research into the rich history of traditional pasta making, and her Jewish heritage. Follow her on Instagram @pastasocialclub The program is free to all but a $5 donation is welcome, and will go toward our fund for grants and scholarships for women in culinary fields. Note: We have a waitlist set up on Eventbrite. If you are unable to register for a ticket, please be sure to add yourself and your email info to the waitlist drop down menu. We will contact you by email and help you register as well as provide you with the zoom link a few days before the event. We have plenty of room for everyone! Photos by Nico Schinco, with food styling by Judy Kim ![]() Join Les Dames Escoffier Washington DC Regional Chapter in celebrating our Gala and Auction, Les Dames in Normandy, on Monday, June 3 at 6:30 pm at La Maison Française of the Embassy of France, 4101 Reservoir Rd. NW. The evening promises a merveilleux mélange of the area’s finest chefs, sparkling personalities, music, and fun all for a good cause: to help fund the grants and scholarships we award each year to women seeking careers in the culinary arts, beverage, and hospitality. Share VIP drinks and dinner with luminaries such as chef/TV host Carla Hall, food critics Tom Sietsema and David Hagedorn, esteemed cookbook authors Joan Nathan and Toni Tipton-Martin. Bid on terrific dining and experience packages in a live auction (hosted by Dame Carla!). Meet our new and past grantees, scholarship winners, and notable Dames. TheListAreYouOnIt and radio host Nycci Nellis will emcee. Enjoy a feast honoring Normandy and the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, featuring, cheeses, cider and wines, and a Normandy-inspired meal prepared by noted area chefs including: Scheyla Acosta of La Bonne Vache; Susan Bae of Moon Rabbit; Ann Cashion of La Bonne Vache; Bertrand Chemel of 2941; Hugh Cossard of Food Expression; Mark Courseille of Olivia Macaron; Tony DiGregorio of Kingbird at The Watergate Hotel; Stéphane Grattier of Boulangerie Christophe; Seng Luangrath of Thip Khao and Padaek; Christophe and Michelle Poteaux of Bastille Brasserie & Bar; and Kevin Tien of Moon Rabbit and students and instructors from Metropolitan Culinary Arts Institute. DC Dames are part of an international philanthropic organization (LDEI) dedicated to lifting up all in the fields of food, beverage, and hospitality. Our diverse chapter includes restaurateurs and chefs, wine and spirits professionals, cookbook authors and journalists, nutritionists and food policy advocates, social media powerhouses and public relations experts, and event planners. Since our group’s inception in 1985, we have given out more than $500,000 in grants and scholarships. Tickets are $350 VIP dinner (for the general public + Dames); $250 dinner (for the general public); $125 dinner (only for members of the DC Regional Chapter of Les Dames). For VIP ticket purchasers, please select your VIP table when purchasing your ticket. Click here to view a brief video about our chapter, a nonprofit 501 (c)(3). For media inquiries, contact Charissa Benjamin at [email protected] For general questions and other information, contact us at [email protected] We hope you will join us on April 13th for a wild foods cooking class where you’ll learn how to prepare and cook wild ingredients you can find in DC, Maryland, and Virginia during the early spring. Wild plants offer electrifying tastes of a time and place – hyperlocal, super seasonal, and nothing like typical produce from big-box grocery stores. Registration in advance is required. Click here to register.
Two experienced local foragers, food writer Nevin Martell and chef Iulian Fortu, are teaming up to share their secrets about cooking with three wild ingredients commonly found in the region during the springtime. You’ll get a primer on when, where, and how to harvest morel mushrooms, ramps, and garlic mustard, followed by a culinary demonstration, where you’ll learn the best techniques for storing, prepping, and cooking with them – and get a chance to try three dishes crafted by chef Iulian, who will share the recipes for you to take home. After the lecture and cooking demo, you will have the opportunity to purchase ingredients from Foraged, a community marketplace of foragers, farmers, and artisan food producers offering unique specialty ingredients. Guests will receive 20% off items purchased at the event. Nevin Martell is a D.C. food and travel writer-photographer whose work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, National Geographic, AARP, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. He has been writing about foraging for over a decade, leading him to hunt for chanterelles in the wilds of Vancouver Island, search for morels with the Inn at Little Washington's Patrick O'Connell, and go looking for wild Blue Ridge truffles outside Asheville, NC. Iulian Fortu is a chef, forager with a life-long passion for food which he loves to share with others through workshops, foraging walks, cooking classes, and private dinners. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he has worked at the acclaimed Noma restaurant in Copenhagen and has been a speaker and instructor for the Mycological Association of Washington and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. A professional forager certified to sell wild mushrooms, he is purveyor to many notable fine restaurants in DC, including Reverie, Oyster Oyster, Bresca, and The Dabney. Note: Incorrectly identified or improperly prepared wild foods can cause GI distress, injury, or even death. All of the ingredients used for this class will be sourced and prepared by chef Iulian, so you can be assured they are both correctly identified and properly prepared. Tickets are priced to ensure this educational event is accessible to all. Please consider donating to Les Dames DC’s grants and scholarships fund to support our mission to nurture the careers of women in the culinary and hospitality fields. Join us on Saturday, March 23, for a multi-sensory event hosted by Les Dames d’Escoffier Washington D.C. Regional Chapter and the Common Grain Alliance, We'll enhance your understanding of the regional grain supply chain, introduce you to local millers and producers, and show you how to incorporate more local flours in your home cooking and baking. This is a unique opportunity to learn about the Mid-Atlantic Grain Movement that is reinvigorating local grain production for food and beverages. Tickets must be purchased in advance by clicking here. The packed afternoon program will feature: a panel discussion with local grain farmers, millers, and bakers,; a virtual mill tour; a regional grain product tasting; a pop-up mini grain shop/grain showcase offering local flours, grain products and beverages; a hands-on class comparing commercial all-purpose flour vs. local flour in cookie making (14 participants only; first-come, first-serve). ON THE PANEL Madelyn Smith, executive director, Common Grain Alliance, panel moderator https://www.commongrainalliance.org/ David Sachs, of family-owned Grapewood Farm, producing organic small grains and stone-ground flour in Virginia’s Norther Neck https://www.grapewoodfarm.com/ Gabriel Key, founder, Foggy Mountain Pasta and Milling https://foggymountainpasta.com/ Abby Levine, owner of Maple & Rye Bakery, opening in a brick & mortar store in downtown Brunswick, Md., later this spring. https://mapleandryebakery.com/ PLUS representatives from: Wheatland Spring Farm + Brewery, Saatva Bakery, Seylou Bakery and more! WHERE: Hill Center DC at the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE; Eastern Market Metro station is a block away. Street parking available nearby. WHEN: Saturday, March 23, 1:30-5 pm 1:30 pm-2:45 pm for limited-space cookie class; 15-minute break; 3:05 pm-4 pm panel discussion; 4-5 pm, regional grain tasting and showcase TICKETS: (Choose either with or without cookie class) Panel discussion, sampling and 1 beverage (beer or barley tea), grain showcase, pop-up shop access, WITH cookie class (14 participants only for the class, first-come, first-serve): $70 for Dames and CGA members; $80 for general public Panel discussion, sampling and 1 beverage (beer or barley tea), grain showcase, pop-up shop access (WITHOUT cookie class): $50 for Dames and CGA members; $60 for general public A portion of the proceeds from this event will go toward funding grants + scholarships for young women in the culinary field, and to the CGA. We'll be discussing the varied and complex issues involved in nutrition and aging, including food access and security; the unique needs of older adults; available programs and services; optimal dietary and exercise factors to support healthful living, and more. Registration in advance is required to receive the zoom link. Click here to register.
Meet our panelists: Sheryl Hoehner has worked as a registered dietitian in the USDA’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, at Johns Hopkins University Children’s Hospital and then for the U.S. Army. She has also taught nutrition and cooking classes in local grocery stores, for senior centers and for corporations and individuals of all ages. Currently, her private nutrition practice, Hoehner Health and Wellness, provides a variety of nutrition services including consultations for assisted living facilities for senior care. Rose Clifford is the Senior Nutrition Advisor for Iona Senior Services in Tenleytown, DC. Her work focuses on food access, advocacy, and education to help older adults live their best lives in their own homes and communities. She is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and community healthcare professional. Paulette Thompson is a retired nutritionist/dietitian. She has worked in the supermarket industry, in public health, and maintained a private practice. In retirement, she volunteers for an aging in place program, helping people by grocery shopping and cooking meals. The program is free to all but a $5 donation is welcome, and will go toward our fund for grants and scholarships for women in culinary fields. |
Les Dames d'Escoffier
LDEI is the premier organization of influential professional women who are committed to the advancement of education and philanthropy in food, beverage and hospitality for the good of the global community. Categories
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