Dear Sister Dames,

By the time you are reading this, I will have attended, along with many of you, our chapter's initial planning meeting for the 2016 LDEI conference that will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Georgetown. Ann Stratte heads up our planning committee. We want as many of you to be involved as possible. If you weren't able to attend the meeting, stay tuned for planning developments and volunteer opportunities. Boston organized a wonderful 2014 conference. We have no doubt that 2015 in Charleston will be fantastic. But, we want to make our LDEI Conference 2016 the best one yet!

The LDEI Charity Buzz auction went live on November 18. A big thank you to everyone who contributed to our two auction items: Carla Hall, Annie Boutin King, Ris Lacoste, Amanda Mannheim, Theresa Morrison, Ann Yonkers and Ann Stratte. Our fabulous auction items are:

1) Four VIP Tickets to ABC's The Chew in New York and lunch with Carla

2) A weekend at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in D.C.,dinner at the West End, brunch at Ris, a TBD experience at the Dupont Circle Fresh Farm Market and a very special wine tasting.

I look forward to seeing you at the Rustic Maryland Hunt Sideboard in Baltimore this coming Sunday, November 23. A big thanks to Diane Feffer Neas for organizing the event. The menu looks spectacular. Don't hesitate,  signups are due today.

Theresa Morrison has organized a unique Dames Who Drink Beer and Play Ping Pong evening on Monday, December 1. Come out and show us your skill with the paddle!    

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season is rapidly upon us. Make sure to mark your calendars for our holiday potluck on December 8 at Karen Vartan's home. This is always a warm and wonderful event and a great opportunity to socialize with your sister members.  

Do plan to attend the Culinary Women in Words event on Sunday, December 14. Meet and mingle with many of the published book author members of our chapter while completing your holiday shopping list. What could be better! Thanks to Ann Stratte for putting this event together.

We are looking for an administrator for our chapter. See the description in the job opportunities section. Initially, we would like a sister Dame who has an understanding of the workings of our chapter to fill this position. If you are interested, please contact me or Stacey Adams.

Planning for the Women in the Arts of Escoffier fundraiser is continuing. You all will receive additional information from the committee soon.

I wish you and your families a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving.

All my best,

Drew Faulkner

President

[email protected]  

Annie Boutin King for being featured in the November 2014 edition of Food Service Monthly's Fork in the Road column by Genevieve LeFranc "Excellence in Any Language: The Very French Tr�s Charmante Annie Boutin King."  http://issuu.com/osbornepub/docs/fsm_10-29lr/13?e=1060738/9953722  

Ris Lacoste on the launch of her new Ris Catering and for being featured as a cover story , "Ris Catering is LIVE!" in the November 2014 edition of Food Service Monthly.http://issuu.com/osbornepub/docs/fsm_10-29lr/17?e=1060738/9953722http://foodservicemonthly.com/view-magazine/ 

Diane Feffer Neas for being invited to join the FIT Relationships Program advisory board. Fit Relationships provides financial literacy education and employment coaching to strengthen relationships in low-income families and improve the lives of their children. (see more in Job Opps -special)

Marjorie Meeks-Bradley for winning the DC Central Kitchen's Food Fight competition on November 11 at the Ronald Reagan Building. The competition was hosted by Anthony Bourdain and Carla Hall.

Bettina Stern and Suzanne Simon for signing a lease for a bricks and mortar Chaia vegetarian taco shop at 3207 Grace St. NW in Georgetown.

Robyn Webb for being named spokesperson for America Gets Cooking for Diabetes Month, November 2014. For this American Diabetes Association outreach program, Robyn created a holiday video, participated in a nationwide radio media tour and conducted an American Gets Cooking Twitter chat.

This scarf was left behind at our annual membership meeting at Roofers Union

 We are asking charter members of our chapter to write their remembrances of the beginnings of our chapter. This is for an occasional series. Here is the first installment by Distinguished Dame Carol Cutler.

 It was a crisp October day in 1981 when nearly a dozen women gathered at the Bethesda home of restaurateur Barbara Witt. Helene Bennet, co-founder with Carol Brock of the New York mother chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier, had moved to Washington and decided to explore the possibilities of forming a group here. We were game and our first members were Barbara, Helene, me,   Joan Nathan, Kay Shaw Nelson, Anne Crutcher, Susan Derecksky, Susan Delean Hayes and Elizabeth "Tony" Esterling. 

To inaugurate the chapter, Carol Brock returned to officiate.  In true Brockian-style, she was wearing a bib napkin created by the great fashion designer, Halston.  She also came equipped with a candle which she lit as she officially welcomed Les Dames d'Escoffier's Washington D.C., as the organization's second chapter.      

Carol offered to order more Halston napkins for us.  We demurred.                  

 Anne Crutcher, Food editor of The Washington Times, was our first president and, in short order, we began raising funds for scholarships which we named the Anne Crutcher Scholarship Fund. We then became LDE rule breakers. We received a lot of applicants in response to our first scholarship notice.  The board carefully studied the applications and unanimously agreed that one individual rose above the others.  We then conducted personal interviews of the three or four leading candidates.  Imagine our surprise when a young man showed up.  He had an androgynous name, Randal, yet, after the interviews he was still the unanimous choice.  Our rules were quickly changed after that to specify women applicants.  We were on a steep learning curve.  Our inaugural winner went on to open a very successful restaurant in Richmond, VA.   

Another renegade experience also involved scholarships. We did not give cash to our recipients. Rather, tuition was paid directly to an established cooking school.  I was president when scholarship winner Kate Jansen explained that she had a job waiting for her in a fine restaurant in Tuscany and she needed cash for living expenses.  We agreed, but I asked for periodic reports on her progress. Kate sent them, of course, and upon her return, she invited me for lunch at the Cafe at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, MD for a full and impressive report.  Kate quickly became pastry chef at Roberto Donna's celebrated restaurant, Galileo, later co-founded Firehook Bakery, was named Pastry Chef of the Year in 2007 and now co-owns Willow restaurant in Arlington, VA with Tracy O'Grady. She also became a Dame and now heads our grants committee. We clearly made the right decision.   

About the same time we began our scholarship program, we decided that we needed a logo for our chapter.  We contact some artists who were friends of mine and after numerous versions, our current logo emerged. The cost was $800.  We offered it to the newly formed Philadelphia chapter if they would share the cost, but they declined. But, once they saw how useful it was, they chipped in. It was later adopted by our umbrella organization, LDEI. 

Many important programs were developed in our chapter in addition to scholarships. One that stands out is our bi-annual symposium, so expertly put together and directed by Gail Forman and Susan Callahan, that was first proposed by Gail. It is a chock-a-block full day of learning from high-profile experts and has attracted large numbers of enthusiastic participants who return year after year.  Philadelphia borrowed the concept and puts on a similar program in alternate years.

An initiative that honors our own is the designation of Dame of Distinction, created in 1996. We bestow this upon a Dame who has exhibited a history of generously giving her time, talents, energies and leadership to benefit our chapter in a lasting and meaningful way and to further its mission.

Do you have connections who would clamor to be a major supporter of Les Dames d'Escoffier and this stellar event? We're looking to identify potential supporters for the Table sales. Extraordinary wine and special attention will be splurged on these generous folks. Contact Theresa Morrison [email protected] to join the planning committee. MORE TO COME....

DATE: March 16, 2015

TIME: 6:30 p.m.

PLACE: Ritz Carlson Hotel, West End, 1150 22nd Street NW, DC

PRICE:

Dames-only cost: TBD

Escoffier Table for 10: $10,000

Grande Dame Table for 10: $7,500

Connoisseur Ticket for 2: $1,000

Individual Ticket: $450