Najmieh Batmanglij is one of the women profiled in what looks like an interesting new book, “Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America,” by Mayukh Sen. Read more about the book in this Civil Eats article. 

The Washington Business Journal’s Power 100 list of local leaders is out, and Mary Blackford and Kathy Hollinger are on it! Mary is cited for her plans to open Market 7, a food hall in Ward 7 that promises to be the premier marketplace for Black-owned food and health businesses. Kathy, along with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington--where she’s the President and CEO--is recognized for being a vocal advocate for the survival and success of restaurants as they have struggled through the pandemic. View the slide show listing here.  
Mary Blackford (left) and Kathy Hollinger (right) 
      
Late breaking kudos to Sheila Crye and Jessica van Dop DeJesus, who were among the five winners of International Association of Culinary Professionals’ (IACP) Members of the Year Award. The announcement was made on October 23 at the association’s conference and awards ceremony in Birmingham, Alabama.

Learn about the artichoke’s intersection in Jewish and Italian cuisine in Marcia Friedman’s October 20 article in Tablet magazine entitled “Peeling Back the Layers of Italian Jewish Cuisine: Or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the artichoke.” The piece, which includes a recipe for spicy stuffed artichokes, can be found here. 

Congrats to the indefatigable Pati Jinich, who won third prize and $1000 in the 2021 LDEI M.F.K. Fisher awards for her August 11, 2020 article in the New York Times entitled “Finding the Soul of Sonora in Carne Asada.” Read it here. 

Fashionably gracing the cover of the October issue of Middleburg Life & Hunt Country magazine is Rachel Martin, owner and vintner of Oceano Wines. Inside, a four-page spread details her wine career, starting at her family’s winery and vineyard, Boxwood Estate Winery in Middleburg. Rachel then went on to open her own vineyard and winery on the coast of San Luis Obispo with her husband Kurt Deutsch. Here’s the article. 

An upside to down times: When the pandemic first hit in 2020, Debbie Moser became president of MeatCrafters, the Landover, Md. charcuterie company where she had been a partner and handled marketing. Since then, the company has grown its online business, expanded its staff, acquired a gourmet bacon firm called Epic Curing, and partnered with Chapel Hill Farms in Berryville, Va. to sell their Randall Lineback breed beef as well as make pate with it. MeatCrafters is in the process of building a new curing room that will triple capacity to accommodate the increased sales of its products, which are now distributed in 14 states. Debbie says the growth of online food orders during the pandemic both propelled and saved the business, and that current supply chain shortages have created more demand among restaurants and distributors for locally made products. 

In October, Tambra Raye Stevenson kicked off the Tufts Innovation Summit at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, sharing her take on nutrition security with faculty, students and guests.
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Our chapter’s past scholarship recipient Ashleigh Pearson is opening a chocolate shop, Petite Soeur, in Georgetown this fall at 1332 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Pearson, who received a Dames scholarship in 2015 to attend Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, has built up an all-star resume with stints at Marcel’s and Thomas Keller’s Per Se. Read the feature about Ashleigh in DC Eater. ​

Congratulations to all our chapter members nominated for the 39th Annual Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s RAMMY Awards. RAMMY winners will be announced on Sunday, September 19. 

Standout Family Meal Packages To Go: Christianne Ricchi, Ristorante i Ricchi 
Splendid Holidays at Home Offerings: Amy Brandwein, Centrolina  and Gladys Abi-Najmieh, Lebanese Taverna  
Outstanding Covid-Safe Redesign (Indoors or Outdoors): Ellen Kassoff, Equinox 
Good Neighbor Award: Micheline Mendelsohn, National Guard Inauguration Program. 
Finer Dining: Bresca, PR Rep Maru Valdes 
Most Impressive Pivot to Provisions or Market: Officina, PR Rep Aba Kwawu  
Good Neighbor Award: Anna Valero, Hook Hall Helps - PR Rep Jill Collins; Tim Ma, Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate – DC - PR Rep Aba Kwawu; David Guas, Bayou Bakery Soup Kitchen BEAN-EFIT - PR Rep: Simone Rathle. 
Prime Pandemic Patio Scene, Hook Hall - PR Rep: Jill Collins and La Famosa - PR Rep: Charissa Benjamin  
Company/Organization Honors: RASA -PR Rep: Kyle Schmitz; Pizzeria Paradiso - PR Rep: Charissa Benjamin

And a special congratulations to Ruth Gresser of Pizzeria Paradiso on The 2021 Honorary Milestone RAMMY Award for 30 years of serving locals and visitors in Metropolitan Washington! ​

Happy belated birthday to Linda Forristal who celebrated her 70th in September with a gathering at La Piquette in Northwest Washington that included Cici Williamson, Karen Vartan and Philadelphia chapter Dame Pat Nogar. ​

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Super exciting news! Rabia Kamara won the Food Network’s Ben & Jerry’s Clash of the Cones competition, taking home $20,000 with her Black Joy Sundae, a creation of salted malted dulce de leche ice cream, vanilla ice cream, Old Bay caramel swirl, dark chocolate fudge brownie chunks and salty toffee hazelnut blondies. Watch this great four-minute video with excerpts from the final episode.

In the September 2021 Entre News, we told you how Gladys Abi-Najm and her family’s restaurant, Lebanese Taverna, were working with World Central Kitchen to provide meals for Afghan refugees arriving at Dulles Airport. For more details, check out this article in the City Paper. 

In a segment on WUSA9, Cheryl Bell was interviewed in a story about a group of George Washington University students who are growing produce in Foggy Bottom for Miriam’s Kitchen. Cheryl is executive chef of the nonprofit organization, which provides healthy meals to the homeless population in Washington D.C. Watch the clip here. 

New member Mary Blackford was featured in the September 24 Washington Business Journal cover story, “The DMV Divide: Unhealthy Imbalance.” The article details how access to food, nutrition and health care remains as divided as ever in the region. Mary has been a leading force in bringing healthy food options and retail east of the Anacostia River. She organized, with nearly 60 Black-owned food and wellness businesses, the launch of pop-up markets in that part of the District. In addition, Mary’s plans to open a 7,000-square-foot food hall in Northeast Washington were featured in the September 29 DC Eater. The project, called Market 7, will focus on food stalls offering cuisines from the African diaspora. Read about it here.

Sheila Crye is sponsoring a program for the Culinary Historians of Washington (CHoW): A Taste of Maryland, by culinary historian Joyce M. White on Sunday, November 14 at 2 pm. Learn about the history of Maryland’s most iconic food traditions and food businesses, such as Maryland beaten biscuits, hominy, crab cakes, terrapin, muskrat, stuffed ham, coddies, the Baltimore fish pepper, McCormick Spices and Old Bay, as well as some lesser-known fare such as white potato pie and Jewish Apple Cake. Other notable facts will be explored, including Maryland’s history as the leading producer in the U.S. of both peaches and strawberries. Join the free Zoom presentation here, or join CHoW for $35 per year, and receive in the mail a box of sweet and savory Maryland treats to accompany the talk. 

At the Food & Beverage Litigation Conference in Chicago on October 14, Michelle Douglas will be speaking about recent legal trends affecting restaurants and the hospitality industry. Her talk will cover the rise in Americans With Disabilities Act claims against restaurants by mass filers, the latest in eviction trends, and how COVID-19 has impacted the application of force majeure (act of God) clauses in contracts.

Johanna Mendelson Forman will be traveling to Ukraine for the State Department Arts Envoy program in October.  She will be lecturing about Culinary Diplomacy, Gastrodiplomacy and Nation-branding to their Diplomatic Academy.  Johanna will share her experiences of working with refugee chefs in Turkey, and also learning how Ukraine is starting its goal of creating borscht as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO.
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Aviva Goldfarb and Carole Sugarman are working together as event consultants for “No Waste, Big Taste” a cooking competition sponsored by Montgomery County’s Manna Food Center and its program, Community Food Rescue. The contest, which takes place Saturday, October 9, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on the Ellsworth Drive pedestrian walkway between Fenton Street and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, highlights the issue of food waste and the efforts of the two anti-hunger  organizations to recover perfectly good food from local businesses that would have been thrown away—and deliver it to groups helping people who are experiencing food insecurity. Two chefs and two sous chefs will be challenged to create a two-course meal using ‘ugly’ produce and other rescued foods. Sophia Maroon will be one of the sous chefs. Prizes will be awarded to audience members who correctly answer trivia questions about food wastage. Among the prizes are gift certificates to Lebanese Taverna, donated by Gladys Abi-Najm, and packages of cookies, donated by Nona Nielsen-Parker of Atwater’s. Everyone is welcome to attend and to help support this important cause.
 
Leni Sorensen has been awarded a grant by the Culinary Historians of New York to continue her research on the life of Henry Orr, the freedman waiter/caterer in Washington DC in the 1830s. In the meantime, read about Leni’s fascinating life in the September 21 New York Times profile.