[MarignyBywater] SoFAB Newsletter

Wed Jan 14 14:08:03 EST 2009

Dear Friends,

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum kicks off the new year with exciting
programming and a new book club, Dish.  Dish has its first meeting this
Saturday, January 17 at noon.  The book is Brillat-Savarin's _The Physiology
of Taste_.  The book club is open to all readers. The club is available at
no charge for members of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum; non-members
pay the price of museum admission to attend. During the course of the year,
various types of books relating to the culinary field will be read and
discussed, including fiction.  Please contact chris at southernfood.org with
any questions and to sign up for the club.

Chef  Tenney  Flynn  of  [ http://www.gwfins.com ]GW  Fins presents one of our most exciting
presentations on January 31.  Chef Tenney Flynn will give a presentation on
Gulf Oysters, with some fantastic tastings.  The menu follows.  Please
click here [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=541 ] for more information.

_Oysters  on  the half shell with American Sturgeon caviar and uni with
mignonette sauce
Pickled oysters
Creamy oyster stew with oyster butter
Oyster and mushroom pie _

In addition to our upcoming events, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum
ended the year with some equally exciting events and honors.  The January
2009 issue of Restaurant Business magazine named us one of the 50 Great
Ideas in Food for 2008.  We would also like to thank the Edgar Degas
Foundation [ http://www.degas.org/foundation.htm ],[ http://swirlinthecity.com ] Swirl Wine, and [ http://www.rndc-usa.com ]Republic Beverage Company for generously
hosting  a fundraiser for us at the [ http://www.degashouse.com ]Degas House.  Lastly, Elizabeth
Pearce,  Senior  Curator  at  SoFAB,  spoke about gumbo during cooking
demonastrations at the Treme Gumbo Festival.
Elizabeth Pearce, center, speaks during  demonstration by Leah Chase, left.
(photo courtesy of The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation, Treme Creole
Gumbo Festival)

Cheers,

Stephanie Carter
Editorial Director
stephanie at southernfood.org
  _________________________________________________________________

Food News_ _
_Stephanie Carter__
__Cristeta Comerford President-Elect Barack Obama Selects White House Chef_
- After much speculation regarding the next White House Chef, Michelle Obama
announced Friday that Chef Cristeta Comerford will remain in her current
position as White House Chef.  Named to the position in 1995 by the Bushes,
Comerford is the first female and the first minority to hold the position.
Many people thought that a new White House Chef would be appointed because
the Obamas have markedly different eating habits than the Bushes.  According
to the Huffington Post [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/10/who-will-be-the-obama-whi_n_142820.html ],

"The President who notoriously wouldn't eat anything 'green' or 'wet' is
being replaced by one who loves his meals straight from the garden.

While George W. Bush spent his two terms scarfing down BLTs, white-bread
grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, President-elect Barack Obama will
usher in just as big a culinary makeover as a partisan one."  (Huffington
Post, November 10, 2008)

However, to reduce Comerford's abilities to BLTs and burgers seems a bit
narrow.  In addition to the dinners she has put on during her time as White
House Chef, Comerford has also trained in hotels in the U.S. and has worked
in Vienna, Austria.  It seems that in addition to the many formal White
House dinners she has organized (and BLTs), she will be quite able to handle
vegetables and a low-carbohydrate diet.  _The Southern Food and Beverage
Museum currently has Cristeta Comerford's chef whites on display in the
_White House Exhibit [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=325 ]_._
_Wham-O Company Produces its First Frisbee on January 13, 1957_- You may be
wondering what the Frisbee has to do with food and beverage.  The pie tins
from the Frisbie Pie Company where the inspiration for what we now know as
Frisbees.  According to some stories, college students found that the pie
tins, once emptied of their delicious contents, provided a wonderful disc to
toss around and, consequently, hours of entertainment.  Other stories credit
the Frisbie Pie Company delivery truck drivers with the discovery by tossing
the empty pie tins during idle hours on the loading dock.  Whatever the
reason,  I  may  brave  the  cold to run outside and toss a Frisbee in
celebration.  On the other hand, I could just stay in and eat pie.
  _________________________________________________________________

January Events

_Bourbon House and New Orleans Bourbon Society Welcome Kentucky Bourbon
Distillers_
_Date:_  Thursday, January 15, 2009
_Where_: Upstairs at Bourbon House, 144 Bourbon Street, New Orleans
_Time_:  5:30-7:30
_Cost_:  $20 inclusive per person
_Contact:_   reservations  by  email: nobs at bourbonhouse.com or by phone:
504-274-1829

New Orleans native, Hunter Chavanne of KBD, Ltd. will lead an informal
guided tasting of his award-winning Small Batch Boutique Bourbons. The
relaxed get together includes hors d'oeuvres and cocktails for $20 inclusive
per  person.   Signed bottles will be available for sale with proceeds
benefiting the Southern Food & Beverage Museum. [ http://www.southernfood.org ]  Information on Bourbon
Society, click here [ http://www.bourbonhouse.com/bourbon-society.html ].

Tin Chef Competition _POSTPONED_
_Date:_ to be rescheduled
_Where:_ Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia
Street Entrance
_Time:_ to be announced
_Cost:_  Museum admission required; SoFAB members free
_Contact:_  504-569-0405

We regret that the Tin Chef Competition has been _postponed_ because of the
passing of Arnaud's [ http://www.arnauds.com ] Restaurant owner, Archie Casbarian.  Arnaud's chef
April Bellows was to compete in the Tin Chef Competition [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=540 ].  The event
will be rescheduled for a later date.

DISH Book Club Meeting: _The Physiology of Taste_
_Date:_  Saturday, January 17, 2009
_Where_: The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia
Street Entrance
_Time_:  noon
_Cost_:  free to SoFAB members; museum admission required for non-members
_Contact:_  chris at southernfood.org

_Cochon Ball: A Pig Field Folly_
_Date:_  Saturday, January 17, 2009
_Where_: The Brickyard, on Chartres at Montegut. In the Bywater, New Orleans
_Time_: Foosball starts approx. 3pm. Pig roast eating approx. starts 5-6pm

COCHON BALL: A PIG FIELD FOLLY is the first of its kind - a celebration of
pork, the legacy of oral histories, and the playfulness of table foosball
brought to life size.  With true serendipity, our Cochon Ball landed on the
day dedicated to the Patron Saint of swine, sausage and bacon!  With such
fortuity, we are devoted to increasing the fun percentages while eating down
good cooked pork- tasty decadence…

_Opening Reception:  Our Food-Our Culture_
_Date:_  January 23, 2009
_Where_: Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia
Street Entrance
_Time_:  noon
_Cost_:  museum admission required, SoFAB members free
_Contact:_  504-569-0405

Kids! Come by SoFAB to create your own Fleur de Lis Masterpiece out of Red
Beans and Rice
_Date:_  January 23, 2009
_Where_: Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia
Street Entrance
_Time_:  10 a.m-6 p.m.
_Cost_:   Kids  12  and  under - no charge for admission, others: museum
admission required, SoFAB members free
_Contact:_  504-569-0405

_Chef Tenney Flynn of GW Fins - Gulf Oysters_
_Date:_  January 31, 2009
_Where_:  Pearce/Johnston  Tasting  Room, The Southern Food and Beverage
Museum, Riverwalk Marketplace, Julia Street Entrance
_Time_: 2 p.m.
_Cost:_ Museum admission required, SoFAB members free
_Contact:_ Reserve a spot with stephanie at southernfood.org

photo by stephanie carter _Oysters on the half shell with American Sturgeon
caviar and uni with mignonette sauce
Pickled oysters
Creamy oyster stew with oyster butter
Oyster and mushroom pie _
click here [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=541 ] for more information
  _________________________________________________________________

A Quick Bite
_Susannah Albert-Chandhok_

    photo by Stephanie Carter It’s 2009, a new year for new eating. Across
the South, many sat down at one p.m. on New Year’s Day, after a very late
night, and wrote out, as if it were a grocery list, “This year I resolve
to,” and then listed and listed. Our resolutions are our hopes for the year
to come, and writing it all out is a comforting task, as if we can dictate
the words on the uncertain page ahead of us. Many people resolve, putting
the past behind with a simple rip of the page, to lose weight or to eat
healthier. Indeed, this resolution is like a firecracker; it burns and
sparkles with baby blue hope and golden stars of possibilities, for less
than a second, then turning into dust and miserably falling from the smoky
sky.  The second coming of the resolution is on Ash Wednesday, after a
decadent Mardi Gras, when not only do we resolve to eat healthier, but to
give up sweets or candy or high fructose corn syrup. After we finish the
King Cake leftovers, that is. Then for the rest of the year, we make a new
resolution to put off our old resolutions until next year.
    So I propose a new resolution of my own to just eat better, to not
deprive myself, but to really enjoy what I nourish my being with. I want to
fill my body up with savory food, which I spend hours making with my mother
and which is soaked in love. I want to indulge in local strawberries and dip
them into dark chocolate and powdered sugar without guilt. I want to avoid
food that spent its life being frozen, and take in all the food from the
sweet earth of the South.
  _________________________________________________________________

Rethinking the Classics: Greens
Stephanie Carter

After the requisite greens cooked on New Year's Day, I do not want want to
see the marriage of pork product and greens for some time to come.  On the
other hand, my resolutions normally have me eating more vitamin-packed
greens.  My local market and farm, [ http://hollygrovemarket.com ]Hollygrove, helps me in doing this
through my weekly Buyer's Club box, filled with so much healthful produce
that  I rarely have any reason to eat out.  Here is one of my favorite
recipes for greens, sans pig.

2 pounds greens, such as mustard greens, swiss chard, or kale
olive oil
1.5 cups onion, fine dice
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 poblano chile, fine dice
12 kalamata olives, pitted and roughly chopped
1/3 c (one small container) capers, drained
salt, to taste

1.  Wash the greens very well by repeatedly plunging them into clean, cold
water.  Remove the outer, damaged leaves.  Cut into strips, about half an
inch wide and one inch long.
2.  Heat a large, nonreactive pot with enough olive oil to coat the bottom.
Add onion and chile.  Sprinkle a little salt.  Cook until translucent (this
is called "sweating").  Add garlic a a little salt and do the same.
3.  Stir in greens, olives and capers.
4.  Cooked, covered until greens are tender.
5.  Taste and adjust salt as necessary.
  _________________________________________________________________

New Exhibits
OUR FOOD - OUR CULTURE: NEW ORLEANS STUDENTS EXPLORING THE CONNECTION OF
FOOD, MUSIC AND LOCAL TRADITIONS

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum  is opening a new exhibit featuring
artwork created by students from Mc Donogh #32 Literacy Charter School. Our
Food – Our Culture: New Orleans Students Exploring the Connection of Food,
Music and Local Traditions is a lively exhibit curated by local art teacher
and Southern University Museum Studies student Myesha Francis. The students
learned the history and development of Creole and Cajun cuisine as well as
cultural traditions such as Second Line parades and Mardi Gras celebrations.
The projects on display combine the ingredients from one of the city’s most
famous dishes (Red Beans and Rice), jazz music and the newly adopted state
symbol the Fleur - de -  Lis. “The students loved learning and talking about
the foods and all the unique and different ways their families prepared
them,” said art teacher Myesha Francis.

The  musuem is hosting an opening reception for the exhibit on Friday,
January 23, 2009 at 12 noon. Kids of all ages are invited to visit the
museum  to create their own Fleur de Lis made of red beans and rice on
Saturday January 24, 2009. The exhibit also has three lesson plans for
educators  which  can  be downloaded on The Southern Food and Beverage
Museum’s website that can prepare students for a visit to the museum.
  _________________________________________________________________

Book Review: Hail to the Chef
[ http://www.juliehyzy.com ]review by: Liz Williams
_Hail to the Chef_
_by: Julie Hyzy_

(A White House Chef Mystery #2)
Berkley (Prime Crime), December 2008
336 pages ISBN: 0425224996
Paperback
$7.99

This  is  the  second  of  Julie  Hyzy’s  crime  novels  solved by her
chef-protagonist, Ollie Paras.  Paras, the fictional Executive Chef of the
White House, finds her parallel in the current White House Executive Chef,
Cristeta Comerford.  Fortunately for the country I believe that Paras’
adventures are not paralleled by the adventures of Comerford.  But Paras’
adventures are a fun read.

Because they take place in the White House, these adventures offer a view of
the inner workings of the kitchens and other domestic offices which makes
the reader feel like a Washington insider.  But because things take place in
the White House, there seems to be little chance that something bad can
really happen and not be resolved before the end of the novel.  To her
credit Hyzy manages to make the reader believe that these things could
happen.   And  that  is  actually  frightening, because no security is
foolproof.

>From the standpoint of those of us who care about eating, even eating in the
White House, having an observant, brave and knowledgeable Executive Chef is
important.  The added bonus in the book is that she can actually cook.  For
a fun romp through the Oval Office and the White House kitchens, complete
with a menu and recipes worthy of the red, white and blue, pick up "Hail to
the Chef".

Links

Donate Now [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=461 ]
Events Calendar [ http://southernfood.org/content/index.php?id=74 ]

[ http://sofood.blogspot.com ]Blog

Southern Food WIKI [ http://sofabmembers.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ]
[ http://www.southernfood.org ]Our Website
  _________________________________________________________________

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