​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. 

Gladys Abi-Najm and her family's Lebanese Taverna were presented with a 2019 Honorary Milestone Award for their 40 years of service in the community at the 37th annual RAMMY awards ceremony held on Sunday, June 30 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

Amy Brandwein was featured in the July issue of Food & Wine magazine about her work with DC Urban Greens.
https://amp.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/amy-brandwein-centrolina-urban-farming?source=dam
 
Ellen Gray and her husband, Chef Todd Gray were featured in the cover story for the June/July edition of Food Service Monthly focusing on their efforts to recycle and move toward zero waste in their kitchens.
http://foodservicemonthly.com/view-magazine/
 
Susan James' and husband Alan James' Stonyman Gourmet Farmers' regional farmstead artisanal cheeses were praised as "world class"  by Jose Andres in his new cookbook,   Vegetables Unleashed, A Cookbook (Ecco 2019).

Pati Jinich is part of a feature story, Starpower, about a behind-the-scenes look at local celebrities hide-aways in the July/August issue of Home and Design magazine.
https://www.homeanddesign.com/

Rachel Martin's 2017 Oceano Chardonnay, from her Spanish Springs Vineyard of Oceano Wines, won "Wine of the Year, Domestic", "Best of Show", "Best of Class", the Platinum Award and 95 points at the 2019 San Diego International Wine & Spirits Challenge in January; "Best of Show", "Best of Class" and the Platinum Award at the 2019 Critics Challenge International Wine & Spirits Competition on June 8 and 9 in San Diego and "Best of Class" and the Gold Medal at the 2019 International Women's Wine Competition held June 11 and 12 in Santa Rosa, CA.
 
Nancy Piho will host her 9th annual Shopping for Health conference in St. Louis in July. SFH brings together 25 supermarket dietitians from national chains and food and beverage industry leaders to discuss how both can offer healthier options to meet supermarket shoppers' needs.
 
Christianne Ricchi and Ristorante i Ricchi was presented with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington's Honorary Milestone Award for her contributions over the past 30 years to the community at the 2019 RAMMYs Awards on June 30.  ​
 

Najmieh Batmanglij was featured on the cover of the  Washington Post food section in the Wednesday, November 7 edition as "the Grande Dame of Iranian Food." It is a well-earned title reflecting Najmieh's dedication to sharing, teaching and writing about the glorious cuisine of her native Iran since 1983 and her widespread influence among the culinary luminaries including Yotem Ottolenghi and Jose Andres. Her latest cookbook " Cooking in Iran: Regional  Recipes &Kitchen Secrets " (Mage Publishers) is the culmination of three visits over the last three years to her homeland, the first since her exile in 1979, to visit, interview and gather recipes from mostly women across the country. 

Johanna Mendelson Forman  and Roberta Dyuff (St. Louis) appeared on a panel at the Food and Nutrition Conference Expo of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics on October 23rd in DC to discuss "Gastrodiplomacy: The Transformative Power of Food. 

Susan Holt  celebrated the tenth anniversary of CulinAerie, her cooking school located on 1131 14th Street in D.C., on October 30. Susan and former business partner Susan Watterson opened the school, after years of teaching at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, to respond to the rapidly expanding interest in avocational cooking, food tv and culinary team-building activities.

Ris LaCoste  will be honored by The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington's annual Culinary Arts Visionary Awards dinner on November 14 at RPM Restaurant, 650 K Street, D.C.   Ris is one of the most respected, beloved and dedicated chefs working in Washington D.C. today. Her reputation has been built upon her deft abilities to create dishes  that are simultaneously familiar and innovative and always absolutely delicious. Her regional American fare has drawn national and local attention and earned her numerous other awards.
https://www.ramw.org/culinary-arts-visionary-awards-dinner?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ontheline&utm_content=OTL+--+10%2F31&fbclid=IwAR2fTL8YfRk63KGSs-Q1FICjKPpAHAKo8ECSUDqANhAIWDIEFMd-6dyoej8

Nora Pouillon  sold her Nora's restaurant property on Florida Avenue in D.C. to restaurateur Ashok Bajaj.

CiCi Williamson  resigned as M.F.K. Fisher Awards Contest chair after 12 years on the job to spend more time with her family. CiCi originated this writing competition in 2006 and has managed it to become extraordinarily successful and prestigious. This year there were 94 entries.  She said, "Five months managing the contest takes a lot of time for a volunteer. I enjoyed immensely working with the women who entered our contest every year as well as the stellar judges who donated their expertise and time to choosing our winners." CiCi continues as the editor of the fall and spring LDEI Quarterly magazines.

Carla Hall was featured in today's Washington Post Food Section in an article entitled  Carla Hall is 'the most visible black person in food.' Now she wants to take soul food mainstream.  The article profiles Carla's new cookbook    Carla Hall's Soul Food: Everyday and Celebration  (Harper Wave), which arrives Oct. 23.  Click here to read the entire article.

Pati Jinich  was featured on the front cover of the October 9 edition of The New York Times Dining section, Forget The Wall: Pati Jinich Wants to Build a Culinary Bridge to Mexico.    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/dining/pati-jinich-mexican-food.htmlx    

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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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Sheila Crye directed five week-long, half-day youth cooking camps this summer at her Silver Spring home and led many to compete in the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair on August 10. There her Young Chefs bakers won two grand champion ribbons, six blue ribbons, four red ribbons, three white ribbons and one yellow ribbon.
 
Johanna Mendelsohn Forman gave a keynote speech at the World Food Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 30, sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Food and Agriculture. She spoke about Gastrodiplomacy in Times of Uncertainty.  Johanna also conducted workshop on global food heritage. On September 11 she will be a speaker at the Museum of Modern Art's Salon series in New York on Gastrodiplomacy as way to build community.
 
Debra Moser's and Mitch Berliner's MeatCrafters was featured on WJLA's Kidd Around Town on Friday August 24.  Host Kidd O'Shea toured MeatCrafters USDA plant and joined in the making its popular Skinny Salamis.
Click here to view: www.facebook.com/kiddoshea/videos/322050235020983/.
MeatCrafters and Central Farm Markets also was featured on Nycci Nellis' Industry Night show August 27. http://industrynight.fullserviceradio.org/

Vickie Reh's book, The Wine Table: Recipes and Pairings from Winemakers' Kitchens, (Skyhorse Publishing 2018), released September 4, details her experiences visiting and cooking with 18 winemakers in France and Italy, exploring their food and wine cultures and celebrating their understanding of the best dishes to accompany their vineyards' offerings. https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781510730830/the-wine-table/  

​Susan Soorenko's Moorenko's was listed in Visit Montgomery as one of the best ice cream spots in Montgomery County, Maryland.  https://visitmontgomery.com/eat-drink/best-ice-cream-spots/

Tambra Raye Stevenson, will lead a healthy kids cooking demo and story time of her "Where's WANDA" book series at  DC Veg Fest's Kids Zone, Saturday, September 15 at the Yards Park; appear on News Channel 8 Saturday, September 8 at 11:30 a.m. and lead a breakfast session during Chesapeake Food Summit on September 25 at Union Market.

​Amy Brandwein is a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef Mid Atlantic.

Pati Jinich was a guest on ABC7 WJLA "Let's Talk Live" on March 1, promoting Women in Gastronomy.    http://wjla.com/news/lets-talk/celebrating-food-with-pati-jinich as well as on WTOP News.  https://wtop.com/food-restaurant/2018/03/3-ingredients-go-a-long-way-in-weeknight-cooking/  Pati is also a finalist for the James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding TV Host for her PBS cooking show, Pati's Mexican Kitchen.

Paula Shoyer's recipe for chocolate quinoa cake from her new book The Healthy Jewish Kitchen was featured in Food52 as a Genius Recipe.


Nancy Hart's and husband Jerry Trice's Gunther & Co. was featured in Baltimore Magazine's  50 Best Restaurant 2017 and Nancy was profiled in its Meet the Makers, unsung restaurant heroes.  http://www.baltimoremagazine.com/2018/3/5/50-best-restaurants-in-baltimore. Also, Nancy and Jerry are active in No Kid Hungry and are hosting their annual fundraiser for Chefs Cycle on April 10th at their restaurant.  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-no-kid-hungry-chefs-cycle-fundraiser-at-gunther-co-tickets-41841363645. They will be riding 300 miles in Santa Rosa May 15-17.

Cathy Barrow just signed a deal for her third cookbook, due to arrive October, 2019: When Pies Fly. Sweet and Savory Free-Form Pies and Filled Pastries, with Karen Murgolo, her editor at Grand Central Life & Style, a division of Hachette. She begins work on it right away! Cathy's second book by the same publisher, Pie Squared. Irresistibly Easy Sweet and Savory Slab Pies, is scheduled for release this October.

Amy Brandwein has been named a semifinalist for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic by the James Beard Foundation!
https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2018-james-beard-award-semifinalists>

Aviva Goldfarb's first travel article was published in The Washington Post's Sunday Travel section. "If You Only Have Time for Three Meals In San Francisco, Make Sure They're Here."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/if-you-only-have-time-for-three-meals-in-san-francisco-make-sure-theyre-here/2018/02/07/66ba1cc0-06bc-11e8-b48c-b07fea957bd5_story.html?utm_term=.cd6c66b5a653 

Rachel Hayden is now director of marketing for Rebecca Linder's Linder Global Events team. In her new position she will head up Linder's social media and marketing efforts and work with its clients to amplify their messaging.  Prior to joining Linder in January, she served as director of public relations for The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia for the past eighteen years. There she handled media relations and marketing, building its social media presence, acting as a project manager for the Inn's room and design projects as well as promoting Chef Patrick O'Connell
and his books and orchestrating the Inn's 25th and 30th anniversaries and other memorable events.

Rosa Mendoza left Adams Burch last March after nine years as a table top specialist and in April joined Long & Foster as a real Estate broker in its Bethesda office. (This is a nearly year-old Hurrah!) 

Polly Wiedmaier's and Robert Wiedmaier's Marcel's restaurant has been named as a semifinalist by the James Beard Foundation for Best Service! 
https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2018-james-beard-award-semifinalists>
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​Paula Shoyer just published her new book  "The Healthy Jewish Kitchen: Fresh, Contemporary Recipes for Every Occasion" (Sterling Epicure, 2017). It offers recipes for more healthful Jewish classics, that are also updated for the modern table, along with international and American recipes that reflect food trends beyond the Jewish culinary world. Her book was featured in The Washington Post's Food section January 2 and that article was picked up in papers across the U.S.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/how-to-eat-jewish-and-be-well/2018/01/02/f4b1d9f0-eaa1-11e7-9f92-10a2203f6c8d_story.html?utm_term=.354bcd50d601