Pati Jinich is one of four Dames gracing the cover of the LDEI Quarterly for a feature Camera! Action! Cook! Dames with TV Cooking Shows.

Johanna Mendelson Forman and Evan Kaplan have launched a curated blog  on the Social Gastronomy Movement  website to  share stories about how food is being used for social impact during these times of crisis. Johanna and Evan will conduct interviews and curate articles that are of interest to the Social Gastronomy Movement network. If you have a story to share, please contact Johanna at johanna@jmendelsonforman.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Paula Shoyer prepared Passover matzo balls April 9 on WJLA's Good Morning Washington and Ratatouille Brisket for Passover on WUSA9's Great Day Washington on April 6.  ​

​Wendy Bazil reports that the garden writer for the Washington Post wrote an article about the front yard "farmette" that is cultivated by her colleague at the Montgomery County Food Council. Wendy did a plant-based cooking demonstration at the colleague's open house which featured produce from that garden. Read about it and Wendy in the article.
 
Janis McLean, executive chef of the Sound Bites Café at National Public Radio, and Nancy Baggett, author of The Art of Cooking with Lavender, recently teamed up to present a lavender demo and menu for the NPR staff. Said Janis, "Everyone who came in to the cafe was wowed! And the recipes were beyond outstanding!" 
 
The highest "hurrah" to our own Nora Pouillon, named as Les Dames d'Escoffier International's 2019 Grande Dame. She will officially receive this recognition at the LDEI National Conference in Nashville later this month. The owner of this country's first certified-organic restaurant, Restaurant Nora, she has been a member of our Chapter since 1991. Her support of DC Les Dames has been unwavering. Over the years she's hosted many events and meetings in her restaurant space. In fact, Restaurant Nora was where we held our annual meeting in June 2017, the very month she closed the restaurant after its unparalleled 38-year run. 

Cathy Barrow was featured in the September 16 issue of the Washington Post Magazine in an article about moving and downsizing her kitchen, Kitchen Compression Confidential:  How I Downsized the Most Important Room of my House, written by Bonnie Benwick. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/kitchen-compression-confidential-how-i-downsized-the-most-important-room-in-the-house/2018/09/14/dd7d8aca-9fc5-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?utm_term=.f11eac3b6c29  

Najmieh Batmanglij publishes Cooking in Iran:Regional Recipes and Kitchen Secrets (Image Publishers) on November 2. Overcoming myriad daunting challenges - emotional, political, and logistical - Naj spent five years, travelling 10,000 miles on a deeply personal journey to reexamine her culinary roots in the country from which she was exiled 39 years ago. Hers was a mission to preserve the rich and historically significant culinary foodways of Iran before they are lost "under the bulldozer of modernity."
 
Nancy Tringali Piho completed a dietetic internship through Iowa State University and is now a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. Nancy has specialized in food and nutrition marketing communications for more than twenty years. She is also the director of Shopping for Health, a program for supermarket dietitians. 

​Linda Roth was profiled in the August/September 2018 edition of Food Service Monthly as a D.C region food publicity pioneer. https://foodservicemonthly.com/linda-roth-restaurant-publicist-and-game-changer/ 
Carole Sugarman is serving as chairperson for the Capital Area Food Bank's Empty Bowls Bethesda funraiser for the third consecutive year. Last year's event was its most successful, with 450 tickets sold and nearly $24,000 raised, and funded over 59,000 meals to neighbors in need. See Of Interest for more info.  
 

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The power of Dames' networking pays off again!  Nancy Baggett (DC) reached out to Barbara Pool Fenzl (Phoenix) to set up a lavender demonstration/book signing while Nancy was in town to present the keynote at the U.S. Lavender Growers Conference. Barbara put her in touch with Phoenix Chapter President Candy Lesher, who connected her to local restaurateur Pat Christofolo. Pat invited Nancy to teach a culinary lavender class at Botanica her food, art, kitchen and garden market at her beautiful Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix. Candy served as Nancy's class assistant. The event was so popular, Candy is planning a follow-up Botanica class featuring Nancy's recipes from The Art of Cooking with Lavender.  ​

Mary Beth Albright appeared on WTOP on Thanksgiving Day to share tips to make the gathering less stressful and more delicious and gracious.  
http://wtop.com/thanksgiving-news/2016/11/cooking-thanksgiving-10-tips-success-sanity/ 
 
Sheilah Kaufman is now an instructor in Montgomery College's Life Long Learning Institute. She will be teaching personal enrichment courses on culinary subjects including History of Chocolate; History of Jewish Food in America and History of Turkish Cuisine, among other topics.

Monica Bhide will speak at the National Press Club on Monday, December 12 about her book Karma and the Art of Butter Chicken.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/karma-and-the-art-of-butter-chicken-dinner-at-the-fourth-estate-restaurant-tickets-29416576773?aff=efbnreg

Thursday, April 7 at 6 pm, Hooray for Books,1555 King Street in Alexandria, booksigning for Lisa Cherkasky, for her newest cookbook You're the Chef (American Girl, 2016.) The spiral-bound paperback is filled with recipes, beautifully-styled photos and useful cooking and baking hints. It is suitable for anyone of any age who might need a little help in the kitchen. Recipe categories are breakfast and brunch, soups and sandwiches, meats and mains, salads and sides, sips and snacks, and sweets and treats. Contact: Shirley Cherkasky -shircher@gmail.com ; 703-684-5861.

Thursday, April 14 at the Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital on Capitol Hill, Joyce Goldstein (SF) will be interviewed by Vered Guttman  to discuss her forthcoming book, The New Mediterranean Jewish Table. In it, Ms. Goldstein explores the kitchens of three Mediterranean Jewish cultures: the Sephardic, the Maghrebi and the Mizrahi.  Susan Barocas will prepare light Hors d'Oeuvres from the cookbook.  For more information, click here.  
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Sheilah Kaufman has been invited by The Library of Congress to participate in the 2014 National Book Festival on August 30 at the Washington Convention Center. She will speak on Turkish cuisine and present a cooking demonstration. Her books: A Taste of Turkish Cuisine and The Turkish Cookbook: Regional Recipes and Stories both written with Nur Ilkin will be available for sale and a book signing