Johanna Mendelson-Forman will be a speaker on Culinary and Gastrodiplomacy for the "Cooking the Nation" event hosted by New York University in Abu Dhabi.  The event will celebrate the decision by Abu Dhabi to brand the country's cuisine as "Nomadic" and feature the work of Hanan Sayed Worrell who wrote Table Tales: The Global Nomad Cuisine of Abu Dhabi. Johanna also moderated a panel discussion on November 5 for the School of International Service Global to Local: Food Insecurity program that included Ellen Kassoff-Gray as a speaker.
 

Tambra Raye Stevenson will be a panelist with Dr. Jessica Harris and Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson at the 5th Annual Smithsonian Food History Weekend on Saturday, November 9 at 10:30 am at the American History Museum. The moderated panel, "Women Saving Communities Through Food," will focus on women and food activism in American history. Tambra's children's book, Little WANDA Finds a Cure For Nana will be available for purchase at the museum store.  Click here for more information.  ​

​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. 

Amy Brandwein's Amy Palmer drink, a riff on the Arnold drink that subs the lemonade with lemon granita at her new Piccolina restaurant in CityCenterDC, was featured in Florence Fabricant's "Front Burner" column in the New York Times' Dining section.
 
Johanna Mendelson Forman will present at the YEDI Istanbul Food Conference, one of the largest food conferences in the region, on September 23 about War and Peace Around the Dinner Table. The group will then host refugee women for a luncheon prepared by the women from their recipes with the help of well-known Turkish chefs. Many international food stars will be in attendance. 
 
Deb Moser's and husband Mitch Berliner's Central Farm Market was featured in the Bethesda Magazine, (September/October  2019), article by Carole Sugarman with photographs by Deb Lindsey, Susan James, Sophia Maroon and Sandra Miller are all vendors at the market.
 
Tambra Raye Stevenson was invited to pitch some new ed technology and toys she developed to improve health and gender equality at "Her Impact Summer Pitch Competition powered by the Ford Motor Company Fund" on Wed, Sept 10. Tambra is the founder of WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics, and Agriculture, an organization inspiring women and girls to become 'food sheroes' in Africa and Diaspora. 
 
Taueret Khepera Thomas participated as a panelist during the Congressional Black Caucus session, Building Economic Power in Black Communities through Business and Entrepreneurship, at The Association of Black Foundation Executives symposium on September 14 in Washington, DC. The symposium program focused on successful methods Black-owned business owners can generate capital, create infrastructure and identify support to grow and thrive.  
 
Toni Tipton-Martin's newest book, Jubilee: Recipes From Two Centuries of African American Cooking, will be published Nov. 4 by Penguin Random House. ​

Claire Gill has founded a new nonprofit, the National Menopause Foundation.  www.nationalmenopausefoundation.org  Its mission is to create a positive change in how people perceive, understand and experience menopause through education, peer-to-peer support, activism and research. The organization will be supported through individual and corporate giving. 
Claire at cgill@nationalmenopausefoundation.org welcomes input and volunteers to provide content and programs about managing menopausal symptoms and ideas to inspire women to thrive during midlife.

Ellen Kassoff and husband Chef Todd Gray were featured in an August 15 Eater.com article about their innovative solutions to reduce food waste at Equinox and their two restaurants at the Museum of the Bible.  Click here for the article. 

Julia Rutland authored two cookbooks that were published over the summer by Adventure Publications: Blueberries and On a Stick Cookbook: 50 Simple, Fun Recipes for the Campfire. Julia also completed coursework to become a Loudoun County Master Gardener.

Erinn Tucker, a co-founder of DMV Black Restaurant week, was included in a Washington City Paper feature about the Nov. 3-10 event.  Click here for the article.  In addition Erinn received a faculty immersion grant to Bangalore, India to study food and context for two weeks. With fourteen other hospitality faculty grantees, she cooked in the studio of Chef Shazia Khan, winner of Master Chef India Season 2, for two days. Khan also led the group on a food shopping trip through the historic Russell Market.
 
Janet Yu was featured in Alexandra Greeley's Local Cooks column in the final issue of Food Service  Monthly. Click here for the article. 

Ellen Kassoff Gray appeared on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show July 11 as part of a panel discussion about handling trash in DC and, specifically, to talk about how Equinox manages to compost its waste. Click here for more details.
 ​

Chef/Owners Amy Brandwein, Centrolina, Ruth Gresser, Pizza Paradiso, and Danielle Harris were guests on WAMU's The Kojo Nnamdi Show June 6, for his program "Three Local Chefs On Owning Food Companies, Mentorship And Engaging With D.C." and Bettina Stern was a call in questioner.   https://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2019-06-06/three-local-chefs-on-owning-food-companies-mentorship-and-engaging-with-d-c 
 
Kristen Hartke's lovely story "To Commemorate a Loved One's Death, Some Turn to the Comfort and Memories of Food" appeared in the June 3 edition of The Washington Post 's Food section.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/to-commemorate-a-loved-ones-death-some-turn-to-the-comfort-and-memories-of-food/2019/05/31/c92989ec-7b2b-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html?utm_term=.89f835226201
 

​CiCi Williamson did such an excellent job managing the Association of Food Journalists 2019 Awards Competition, she has been hired to manage the 2020 contest. This spring, CiCi handled a record 373 entries in 15 categories of food writing, videos, audios, and photos. Launched in 1986, AFJ's awards competition is the nation's longest-running contest for food journalists.