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Jordan Wright
September 10, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) – Photo by Doug Olmstead What would you do if your briefcase had been switched for one containing 735,000 British pounds? No need to answer right away. At least not until after you’ve seen the rollicking British farce Funny Money now playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria. No time for high-minded morality and other sticky wickets with so much at stake.
Henry Perkins is an ordinary accountant toiling at an ordinary job in middle class London when on his commute he pops open his attaché to discover his cheese and chutney sandwich has been substituted for an identical-looking case chockfull of cold hard cash. He hightails it into the Prince of Wales Pub using the loo to count and recount the money. After a few whiskeys and multiple trips to the bathroom to revel secretly in his good fortune, a local detective, mistaking his joie de vivre for solicitation, follows him home for questioning.
 Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins) and Marisa Johnson (Slater) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Henry’s birthday celebration is put on hold when he concocts a plan to take it on the lam to Barcelona. Jean is not enamored of the sudden change of party plans and even more dismayed by the jolly criminality displayed her husband. “I preferred it better, when you were a bloody wimp,” she confesses.
Everything begins to go topsy-turvy in a most delicious way, when best friends and celebrants Vic and Betty Johnson arrive and add to the mayhem. As Vic attests, “You walk out the door in this place and you come back to Goo-Goo Land.”
 Erik Harrison (Henry Perkins) and John Shackelford (Bill) – Photos by Doug Olmsted Erik Harrison is the man-on-a-mission Henry Perkins while Charlene Sloan who makes an admirable debut at LTA is the whiskey-swilling wife Jean Perkins. John Shackleford plays Bill the Cabbie, a dead ringer for The Gleason Show’s Ed Norton aka Art Carney. Gayle Nichols-Grimes is riotous as Betty Johnson and Ted Culler, whose face can launch a thousand expressions, is her befuddled husband Vic. Larry Grey plays the straight man Inspector Davenport and Marisa Johnson plays Detective Slater. Apart from Bill and Slater, there’s no sense remembering the characters’ names as they take on new identities as readily as a chameleon changes color. It’s a classic Brit comedy on steroids and Harrison is uproarious setting a breakneck pace for the rest of the crack cast.
 Michael Metz (Passer-by), Charlene Sloan (Jean Perkins), and >Gayle Nichols-Grimes (Betty Johnson) – Photo by Doug Olmstead Brace yourself for two hours of sidesplitting mishaps, malaprops and misunderstandings. All by a cast whose timing, to coin a phrase, is right on the money.
Through September 29th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
Jordan Wright
September 4th, 2012
Special to www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com, www.broadwaystars.com, and www.localkicks.com
 Bistro Vivant’s daily specials – photo credit Jordan Wright Destination McLean, Virginia
With umpteen restaurants opening in the DC Metro area of late one might be reluctant to venture to the outlying burbs. But I assure you this 25-minute hop from the center of town to this destination restaurant is worth the drive. Tooling up the GW parkway and basking in the seasonal panorama is part of the adventure. You might stop along the way at Roosevelt Island and stroll the paths on a crisp fall day or catch a stay-in-your-car view from a Potomac River overlook. Peer down the cliffs and you might spot a Great Blue Heron eyeing his supper or catch a glimpse of Georgetown University’s scullers rowing to the cadence of the coxswain’s call.
Bistro Vivantis the perfect and rare combination of delicious food, knowledgeable service and charming ambiance. That it is housed in a former BBQ joint in a lackluster strip mall is quickly forgotten as soon as you enter. Here’s a place that gets the details right and has a well-heeled clientele who appreciates the effort.
 Bistro Vivant’s Co-owner and sommelier Aykan Demiroglu – photo credit Jordan Wright Owned by Domenico Cornacchia, who is also the Executive Chef, and Aykan Demiroglu, the four month-old bistro is reminiscent of a Montparnassian retreat orchestrated by Toulouse-Lautrec himself. At the end of the long granite-topped bar sits an ice-filled silver bowl where bottles of champagne await and mason jars of fresh fruit and vegetable garnishes stand single file. Bottles of wine are stacked to the ceiling and bentwood stools cozy up to high-top tables alongside the 22-seat bar.
The sunny space succeeds with a refreshing absence of pretense. Dark wood accents, creamy walls and a tiled floor convey a no-nonsense we-are-all-about-the-food-and-wine message, leaving the distinct sense that no trendy restaurant designer had a hand in the décor. Rather it feels effortless and familiar – as if Paris were your usual stomping ground. Open and airy with windows lining the room, the focus is a giant blackboard scribbled with the day’s specials, an ever-changing selection of classic French bistro “soul” food.
 Escargots en cocotte – photo credit Jordan Wright  Poached lobster with two sauces – photo credit Jordan Wright  New Zealand cockles with chorizo – photo credit Jordan Wright
On a recent evening Demiroglu sprinted from bar to dining room in this lively place checking on patrons’ dishes and pouring wines. “Here try this one,” he says, offering a Pouilly Fumé. “I think this will go best with your lobster. Not to your taste? Okay, try this. It’s from a very small French winery, no one else carries it in the US,” the Turkish-born sommelier urges, pouring an estate grown Chablis, this one right on point.
Bistro Vivant’s wine program is exceptional for any restaurant. Wines are offered by the bottle, carafe, half carafe and glass and are ninety percent French sourced. “We seek out small boutique wineries in France,” he beamed, “They’re just not found in area restaurants or stores.” Daily menu specials suggest pairings but Demiroglu seems happy to accommodate individual tastes.
Each Sunday he haunts the Dupont Circle Market to select produce from local farmers and twice a week much of the restaurant’s seafood is flown in from the Mediterranean. Briny New Zealand cockles, spiked with chorizo and bathed in a light saffron broth, are spicy and delicious as are the shelled escargot served en cocotte in a sauce of butter, wine, roasted garlic cloves and herbs. Swoon-worthy is the whole poached lobster with fava beans, baby fennel and heirloom tomatoes atop two dazzling sauces – one of carrot ginger, the other a basil pistou.
Recently a posh burger has joined the ranks. Eponymously called the Pat LaFrieda Burger, after the New York butcher to renowned chefs such as Mario Batali, Danny Meyer and Laurent Tourondel, the custom made seven-ounce patty is made from Black Angus beef, chopped not ground, and boasts two parts chuck, one part brisket and one part boneless short ribs. The juicy wonder comes with Niçoise olive tapenade, grilled tomatoes, vinegar-spiked grilled onions and aged Comté cheese on a brioche bun.
Reservations are highly recommended. On the weeknight we dined several disappointed diners had to be turned away. Call 703 356-1700 and visit www.BistroVivant.com for further information.
 Southern Skillet Vinegars Praise For Fruity Wine Vinegars
I’ve been trying to compartmentalize. Work some/play some segments dictated by weather and deadlines. At home healthful meals are prepared quickly with ingredients able to last a few days between catch-as-catch-can shopping. With heirloom tomatoes at their juiciest and pickling cucumbers at their crunchiest, a nutritious meal can be ready in a jiff. Just add some crumbled goat feta, radish slices, drizzle with EVOO and lightly sprinkle Satsuma Wine Vinegar from Southern Skillet over all. Fresh greens or arugula form a green nest packed with vitamins and chlorophyll. Pack in some protein with cooked chicken, seared scallops, shrimp, lobster (if you’re feeling flush) or a lightly boiled egg. Fresh herbs from the windowsill are quickly snipped in.
I discovered these delicate vinegars earlier this year at the Fancy Food Show and have been slipping in a dash or two in lieu of lemon juice. If you like white wine or champagne vinegar you will love these for their subtle flavorings and adaptability.
The Alabama-based company also makes five other wine vinegars. Red and White Muscadine, Sugar Cane, Tomato and Blueberry. The Sugar Cane Wine Vinegar goes nicely with bacon-wrapped quail; the Blueberry lends itself to enhancing fruits and the White Muscadine cheers up a béarnaise sauce. Try the Tomato to add a unique dimension to andouille gumbo and tomato gravy. You get the idea.
Here’s a recipe using the Tomato Wine Vinegar from Southern Skillet Chef Amos Watts of Jax Fish House in Denver. It even uses our local Rappahannock River Oysters!
Gazpacho Mignonette
3 tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/3 red onion
3 cloves garlic
4 sprigs cilantro
1 sprig basil
1 bottle Southern Skillet Tomato Wine Vinegar
3 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 tsp. salt
Puree all ingredients in a blender and let sit in the refrigerator overnight. Strain through fine cheesecloth or a coffee filter.
Then add ¼ cup chopped shallots
1 Tbsp. coarsely crushed pepper
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
Use on top of freshly shucked Rappahanock oysters or as a sauce for fish or steak.
These unique vinegars haven’t hit the stores yet, but you can find them on Amazon.
Jordan Wright
August 28, 2012
Special to Indian Country Today Media Network – Magazine feature
 Long-Lost Silent Film With All-Indian Cast – Photo Credit Oklahoma Historical Society How a silent film featuring an all-Native cast came to be made, lost (seemingly forever), discovered nearly a century later (in shambles), then restored and shown to the cast’s descendants is one of the most fascinating stories in the annals of American filmmaking. The Daughter of Dawn, which had its world premiere in June at the deadCENTER Film Festival in Oklahoma City, may be the only all-Native cast silent film ever made.
In the autumn of 1919 Norbert Myles was hired to direct a film for Richard Banks, owner of the fledgling Texas Film Company. Banks, who had written the story for his new project, was looking to make an adventure film in Oklahoma. He had met Myles a few years earlier on a California movie set and was impressed by the ambitious upstart. Myles, who had been a vaudevillian, a screen actor and sometime Shakespearean actor, had fallen out of favor in Hollywood and had turned to screenwriting and directing.
Banks drew on his 25 years of experience living among the Indians and his knowledge of what he called “an old Comanche legend,” to lend authenticity to the film. He decided to shoot on the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, a national reserve known for its mountains and grassy plains spread across 60,000 acres in southwestern Oklahoma. This was an attractive setting for several reasons, including the fact that in 1907 a program to reintroduce the nearly extinct bison to the Great Plains was launched. Under the auspices of the American Bison Society, 15 of these American icons, plucked from New York City’s Bronx Zoo, were sent by railway to grasslands in Oklahoma, and in little more than a decade, they flourished and were an enormous herd.
Banks must have also realized that shooting there would provide not only the perfect backdrop, but would also afford him an abundant source of American Indian talent. For actors Myles tapped into the local tribes—notably the Kiowa and Comanche, who were living on reservations near Lawton, Oklahoma. This wildly ambitious project had an all-Native cast, just one cameraman, no costumes, no lighting, no props and wild buffalo. The Indians, who had been on the reservation less than 50 years, brought with them their own tipis, horses and gear. Featured in the film were White Parker, Esther LeBarre, Hunting Horse, Jack Sankeydoty and Wanada Parker, daughter of Quanah Parker, a Comanche chief and one of the founders of the Native American Church movement. Among the 100 extras were Slim Tyebo, Old Man Saupitty and Oscar Yellow Wolf.
Myles ordered his cameraman to shoot buffalo chase scenes “from a pit so as to have all the buffalo…and Indians…pass directly over the top of the camera.” To add verisimilitude, Myles incorporated the tribe’s tipis, horses, personal regalia and other artifacts, and shot scenes of the Comanches using cross-tribal Plains Indian sign language. He also shot scenes of tribal dancing while the women prepared buffalo for a celebratory meal.
 Comanche “raid” on Kiowa village (Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society) The tribes’ participation in the film did not sit well with a certain “Assistant Field Matron” assigned to the area by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to monitor the tribes’ activities. In her weekly report, filed July 31, 1920, and sent directly to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, she wrote: “Went to a camp close to headquarters where their [sic] are about 300 Kiowas and Comanches gathered dancing and having pictures taken to be used in the movies.… I talked to the manager to have the camp broken up and dances stopped.
“These dances and large gatherings week after week are ruining our Indian boys and girls as they have been going on for about three months and different places. No work done during these days.”
Her actions had little effect on the enthusiastic cast members, who Myles called “very shrewd” in their financial negotiations with him.
When the 80-minute silent film was screened in October 1920 at the College Theater in Los Angeles, it received raves, with one critic calling it “an original and breathtaking adventure…hardly duplicated before.” But despite favorable reviews, the film was, for some unknown reason, never released. And it was never shown again—that is, until June 10, 2012.
The story of the film’s unlikely return is as dramatic as the story of its making. It began in 2003 when a private investigator in North Carolina looking to collect his fee from a client was given five cans of what was originally a six-reel film. The investigator-for-hire needed to convert the rapidly decaying film into cash to cover his expenses so he contacted Brian Hearn, film curator at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. He told Hearn he believed the film was The Daughter of Dawn. At that time the museum was not in the business of collecting films so Hearn got in touch with the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS), which also operates the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City.
 Moore (seated), purchased the five canisters of footage from a private investigator. (Courtesy Bil Moore/Oklahoma Historical Society) The film was purchased by the OHS in 2006, and Bill Moore, the society’s film archivist and video production manager, took possession of the five cans of the nitrate film. “Our first concern was to protect it,” he recalls. “So after watching the footage on a Moviola and noting its fragile condition, we applied for a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation in the hopes of preserving it as soon as possible.
“In the early years of filming, producers had to provide a copy to what was called the Paper Print Collection. It was a requirement to show every frame of film and file it with the Library of Congress’s Copyright Office in order to establish the copyright of the film. The library would then shoot the films from the ‘contacts’—the individual frames—and that’s how this film survived. It took only a few months to restore the film and after the intertitles [dialogue text pages inserted into the film between cuts] were added, the footage expanded out to the full movie and the original six canisters.” The completed film has a four-way love story and includes two buffalo hunt scenes, a battle scene between the Kiowa and the Comanche, scenes of village life, tribal dances, hand-to-hand combat and a happy ending.
In 2008 Robert Blackburn, executive director of the OHS commissioned David Yeagley, a Comanche classical composer who is well regarded in his field, to do a new score for the movie. “I knew the music was important,” Blackburn says. “That’s why we decided to go for a full symphonic score. Yeagley’s original score is timed to each second of the movie, and he uses different styles of music for each character. Seventy Oklahoma City University Philharmonic grad students working on a Fast Track system recorded the score earlier this year.
“This film is so important to Indian people and is a rare piece of art as well, since only two percent of independent films made in this era have survived,” Blackburn says. “We plan to show it in Telluride, Denver and the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in 2013. [Documentary film producer] Ken Burns has committed to assist with the film’s distribution.”
Once descendants of the Kiowa and Comanche cast members were identified, Blackburn arranged to screen The Daughter of Dawn for the families in the Oklahoma towns of Anadarko, Carnegie and Lawton. “There were tears,” he recalls. “They recognized an aunt or a grandparent, and out of that conversation came recognition of the tipi used in the film. It was very powerful for them to see family members who were pre-reservation wearing their own clothing and using family heirlooms that had been brought out of trunks. It was very emotional for them.”
Yeagley, whose works have included a commissioned symphony called The Four Horses of the Apocalypse: A Comanche Symphony and who once wrote an opera based on the life of a Holocaust survivor, calls Blackburn a visionary for choosing to score the movie with what he refers to as a high-European classical piece. “You would expect the typical drums and rattles.” He was conscious of how his music will be received—and perceived. “How do you write music that makes sense to a 21st century audience who is looking at something that is right out of history? What are other Indians going to think when they hear symphonic music? How are they going to regard me?”
Blackburn, clearly thrilled with the interest the film is drawing from audiences and historians, describes its appeal this way, “The Daughter of Dawn is all Oklahoma. Acted by Oklahoma Indians, filmed entirely in Oklahoma, in a story of Oklahoma’s Kiowa and Comanche nations, scored by a Comanche and played by the Oklahoma City University Philharmonic students, even the film was restored by an Oklahoman working in Hollywood for the Film Technology Lab.”
He believes the film has the potential to become the centerpiece for a national exhibit and wants it to be shown at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. In the meantime, the OHS is making a short film to show next spring. It will tell the story of the making of The Daughter of Dawn and Native Oklahomans talking about their ancestors, as well as an interview with Yeagley.
In June at the deadCENTER Film Festival, award-winning actor Wes Studi, Cherokee, came to view this major cinematic event that had brought together film buffs as well as descendants of the Kiowa and Comanche tribal members who had performed in the film. After the screening, Studi said, “It’s a film worth seeing for all people who are either in the business of making films or those who watch film in terms of American Indians.
“It’s really a historic film.… I would say this film proves that Indians have been acting since day one.”
Jordan Wright
August 27, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Sherri L. Edelen (as Miss Mona, center) leads the cast of “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” in the production’s toe-tapping finale. . Photo: Scott Suchman. Miss Mona Stangley is running a respectable house of ill repute in 1972 Gilbert, Texas and the century-old business is doing jes’ fine. Fine is a three-syllable word you understand. She has “A Lil’ Ole Bitty Pissant Country Place” as she describes it. At the Chicken Ranch Miss Mona lays down the law with some “no-no rules” for her girls. “Call ‘em guests”, she drawls, and “no smokin’, drinkin’ or wavin’ to men in town.” Summing it up for new hires, “We go in for mass volume and repeat business. Just like Coca-Cola!”
Miss Mona’s got friends in high places including Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, Mayor Rufus Poindexter, Senator Wingwoah and the Texas Governor himself, but all that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans when Melvin P. Thorpe climbs on his soapbox. Thorpe is the local KTEX-TV’s crusading television reporter whose Watchdog group of bible-thumpin’ do-gooders, known as ‘The Dogettes’, are determined to rid Landville County of Miss Mona’s sinful activities, “Texas Has a Whorehouse In It”, is their rallying cry.
In Signature Theatre’s current production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, the popular musical inspired by a real life story with book by Texas author Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, Director Eric Schaeffer has stuffed so much talent into this show it’s hard to know when to start the music. Highlights are DC favorite, Sherri L. Edelen as the saucy Miss Mona; Sheriff Ed Earl played by Thomas Adrian Simpson who tenderly sings the classic “Good Old Girl” in his gravelly baritone; Matt Conner as both Mayor Poindexter and Senator Wingwoah; Christopher Bloch as Melvin Thorpe who lights up the stage with fire and brimstone; and the riveting scene stealing of Dan Manning as The Governor who tears the house down in Act Two.
 Dan Manning dances “The Sidestep” as the Texan governor in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” Photo: Scott Suchman Costumes by Kathleen Geldard favor the men – and the men favor the costumes. And how! Tight cowboy shirts and sexy jeans on hot ripped bodies had audience members whooping, hollering and drooling to the hard driving, boot-stomping dancing and R-Rated stripping. The female side of the equation seemed to have a distinct disadvantage as to both pulchritude and costumes. The women, on whom you might reasonably expect some spangles, corsets, frilly garters and perhaps diaphanous peignoirs, were dressed in tame black and red lingerie, daisy dukes, prairie dresses and dime store cowboy boots. The dreary clothing and bad wigs made the women pale in comparison. Even Miss Mona’s outfits were more appropriate for a 1970’s office manager. But eight-time Helen Hayes Award nominee Karma Camp has created choreography to outshine any anomalies combining vaudevillian burlesque with high-kicking chorus lines to ratchet up the wow factor.
 The Aggie Boys (from left to right: Davis Hasty, Benjamin Horen, Vincent Kempski, Stephen Gregory Smith) celebrate their football victory before they leave for a night at the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman Collin Ranney has designed a stunning barn red two-tiered set hotter than a Colt 45 after a shootout at the O.K. Corral. Punctuated with mounted steer horns and featuring rows of louvered bedroom doors that fling open to reveal steamy recreation, the stage evokes the Wild West on steroids. Overhead chandelier fans swirl lazy shadows on the stage and a circular red velvet banquette provides a cozy setting for Miss Mona and Jewel in the number “No Lies”.
 Welcome to the Chicken Ranch. Photo: Scott Suchman. All in all the show is a sizzling, knee-slapping, kick ass, belly-laughing breath of fresh Lone Star air. Chockfull of high-steppin’ hoofers, country-spun one-liners, tearjerker ballads, and enough eye candy to raise your blood sugar to precipitous levels.
 The girls of Miss Mona’s whorehouse. From left to right, back row: Amy McWilliams, Nadia Harika, Maria Rizzo, Brianne Camp; from left to right, middle row: Nora Palka, Tamara Young; bottom row: Jamie Eacker. Photo: Scott Suchman. Through October 7th at Signature Theatre (Shirlington Village), 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
August 16, 2012
Special to www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com, www.broadwaystars.com, and www.localkicks.com
 Occidental Grill and Seafood Executive Chef Rodney Scruggs. Photo by Jordan Wright. The Occidental, Forever Young
In the shadow of the White House a special watering hole welcomes celebrities, power brokers and out-of-towners in equal measure. The Occidental Grill and Seafood situated beside the Willard Hotel continues its reputation as a swank establishment where legions of notable devotees have long gathered to drink, dine, swap State secrets, and make policy. That it continues to attract both the well-heeled and influential for over one hundred years is a tribute to its reverence for fine food and superb service. But what’s more impressive is, though it boasts a clientele of famous politicians and a roster of international scene-stealers, The Occidental has kept pace with the contemporary food scene. It’s one DC spot that doesn’t rest on its considerably august laurels but continues to forge ahead with innovative American cuisine.
Executive Chef Rodney Scruggs has been steering the kitchen’s progress over the past seven years buying locally as much as he can and delivering the kind of elegant dishes his guests expect. Oysters hail from War Shore Oysters and sustainable seafood is delivered six days a week from Prime Seafood. On a recent visit he beamed like a proud papa over a tray of biodynamically-raised heirloom tomatoes from Virginia’s Whipple Farms and patiently explained how Molly Visosky’s famers co-op, The Fresh Link a system that links farms, food artisans and farmers markets, provides the restaurant with the best local produce farmers have to offer on any given week. The spectacular steaks the Occidental is known for are from Rosetta Farms in Baltimore County who supply Scruggs with top quality naturally raised meat.
 Matt Baker. Photo courtesy of The Washington Loyalist The recent hire of Chef de Cuisine Matt Baker ups the game with his edgy twist to food styling and concept. Also new is Mixologist/Sommelier Jo-Jo Valenzuelawho is quite literally stirring things up with craft sodas and artisanal cocktails, plucking sprigs from the hotel’s herb garden and hunting down exotic spices, to create infused liquors and bring a fresh creative approach to the overall program.
 Lobster roll with fennel at the Occidental. Photo by Jordan Wright. Last week over Maryland lump crab cakes, yellow fin tuna burgers and lobster rolls with fresh fennel, and pleasantly ensconced beneath hundreds of framed photographs of the restaurant’s legendary clientele, tales of the town were swapped with a convivial group that included Metropolitan Opera star Alessandra Marc, über-defense lawyer and former DC Baseball Commissioner, Marc Tuohey III, National Theatre’s Executive Director Tom Lee, and Sean Graystone who currently oversees the restoration of the magnificent Temple of the Scottish Rite one of DC’s most iconic historic buildings.
As we talked our indoor table looked out over the pretty patio with its royal blue umbrellas and cast iron jardinères and window boxes spilling over with herbs and bright pink flowers reminiscent of a sidewalk café along the Champs Élysées. You could almost sense the city’s original designer, Pierre L’Enfant, smiling down in approval, his vision realized and still very much alive.
Summer is Peachy Keen at Station 4
The sleek interior of Station 4 is a fitting stage for the playful cuisine of Executive Chef Orlando Amaro. Decor is a mix of campy chic and studied casualness with lipstick red button tuck leather banquettes, honey-toned pearlized leather chairs and shaded chandeliers. The space is large and lively, with a bar that runs the length of the room and the tables are well spaced, affording easy conversation. On summer evenings opt for the outdoor patio separated from the street by a pathway lined with rosebushes and shaded by white umbrellas.
 Executive Chef Orlando Amaro of Station 4. Photo by Jordan Wright In honor of National Peach Month Amaro has embraced the summer fruit, giving it a supporting role in any number of dishes. Raw oysters become a cradle for a sweet tart peach mignonette; watercress is the underlying base for a piquant salad with blue cheese and pecans toasted with oregano and cayenne; and seared foie gras meets lightly charred peaches. Of particular note recently was an appetizer of watermelon topped with lump crabmeat, halved yellow grape tomatoes and speckles of dehydrated Kalamata olives – an alluring partner to a glass of Schramsberg Brut Rosé.
 Appetizer of watermelon topped with crab at Station 4. Photo by Jordan Wright. Most conveniently Station 4 is located across the street from the Waterfront Metro Station, next door to Arena Stage, and walking distance from Nationals Park making it a terrific gathering place before or after a boffo show or a winning season Nationals game. Check with the restaurant for Nats ticket promos.
Piaf Would Love This Place
 Chicken with mushrooms and summer vegetables at Bistrot Lafayette. Photo by Jordan Wright. Along Old Town Alexandria’s well-trodden King Street is where you’ll find Bistrot Lafayette. A cozy intimate restaurant – a little shabby, a little chic – just how the legendary French chanteuse would prefer. Last week a memorable soupe du jour was cream of spinach served with a dollop of fresh goat cheese and a ribbon of olive oil laced with fresh herbs. Expect to find classics like steamed mussels in white wine as well as roast leg of lamb and duck confit. When the weather turns chilly try the beef bourguignon with a cabernet sauce, or a silken foie gras from Hudson Valley served with pears poached in a soupçon of lemon, honey and five spices.
Every weekend best friends and owners Isabelle Zorro and Marie Sinclair throw a party in their quaint two-story brownstone. Aprés dinner those in the know head upstairs on Friday and Saturday nights to carouse with fellow songsters and Francophiles where live piano accompaniment is in full swing until the last drink is served.
Throughout the steamy month of August Bistrot Lafayette will celebrate their 10thAnniversary with champagne (Mais pourquoi pas, chéri?) offering guests a complimentary glass of French bubbly with each entrée and a full bottle for a table of four.
 Cream of Spinach soup at Bistrot Lafayette. Photo by Jordan Wright. Zorro sends out, “A big thank you to our loyal clientele who have supported us for the past ten years, with many more great times to come!” To that end they are offering another special extending past Restaurant Week. Lunch is $20 for two courses or $25 for three sans the champers. And Mondays are far from blue with half price on all bottles of wine during dinner hours.
Vive la France!
Jordan Wright
August 7, 2012
Special to Washington Life
 Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson at the Howard Theatre, Washington, DC – photo credit Jordan Wright A child is seated on the grass in the Land of the Midnight Sun, his attention drawn downward by a clump of flowers. They are everywhere stretching across the rolling hillside as far as the eye can see, but he is focused on collecting specific elements for a simple bouquet clutched in his tiny left hand. A striped knit cap is pulled down tightly over his head. He is five. He appears curious and self-assured, methodical and intense, traits he evidences in no small measure to this day. The scene is from a black and white photograph out of Marcus Samuelsson’s latest book, “Yes, Chef”, an autobiographical journey that opens with his earliest memories of his adoption from his native Ethiopia. 3,700 miles as the crow flies, to Sweden.
Marcus Samuelsson’s ascendancy to Top Chef Master is no fluke. Hard work, numerous television appearances and a slew of cookbooks have shown a bright light on his skills and restaurants. His unique path to a life in professional kitchens began when he was cut from his small town of Göteborg’s soccer club because of his slight frame. “I sometimes think of myself more as a failed soccer player than an accomplished chef,” he admits.
For a while he knocked around a few local restaurants until landing in Switzerland where he trained under the old European hierarchical system where Larousse Gastronomique and Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire were the bibles of French cooking. There he was put to the test in a brutally exhaustive regime fraught with demeaning work, withering insults from head chefs and inhumane hours. The system offered internships to Michelin-starred restaurants where the treatment of young chefs was equally as intense. Samuelsson not only survived, unlike many of his peers, but thrived, learning the intricacies and pitfalls of the business from the inside out and perfecting a disciplined mind that would rival that of an Eastern mystic.
Over the years and throughout his travels Samuelsson kept a diary of his food experiences carefully recording the regional dishes he learned to prepare and daydreaming about how he would do them differently when the time came to open his own restaurant – a time that would come when he could at last merge international flavors with traditional cuisine. That day came in 2011 with the opening of Red Rooster in New York’s Harlem where he has put down roots in the city he has come to call his own.
 Ambessa Teas Last month I sat down with him in the newly restored Howard Theatre in Washington, DC where he has created the venue’s current menu and where he was preparing to discuss and sign his latest book along with an onstage cooking demo. He kindly brewed me a cup of Choco Nut Blend from his new line of Ambessa specialty teas he has created this year for Harney and Sons.
Jordan Wright – You say in your book that a jazz musician looks for a new kind of perfect as going “deep in the shed”. Does that apply to you?
Marcus Samuelsson – Yes! Well, sometimes. For me perfection can be different things. When I started cooking French food we were serving only about two percent of the population. Now I find perfection in berbere [an Ethiopian spice mix] and the countryside of Ethiopia where I’ve found the smells and flavors that I didn’t know how to value earlier in my life. Perfection can mean different things at different times in your life.
JW – You mention in your book wanting to hang out with Keith Haring and Madonna. Who would you like to hang out with now that you haven’t yet met?
MS – It’s been planned for me to cook for Nelson Mandela and that would be really nice. It just hasn’t worked out yet.
JW – Who are the chefs that you most admire today?
MS – My grandmother, who was not a professional but got me going, Charlie Trotter who embraced me early in my career, and I love what Alice Waters has contributed to American cooking. Also I look up to Daniel Boulud and the so many of the unknown chefs who are not yet recognized for their craft.
JW – Are you working with any new ingredients?
MS – Well, not new. I love discovering the ancient Ethiopian foods and presenting them to a non-Ethiopian crowd. It’s fun to treat things a little bit differently like using the chili-like berbere with chocolate or on popcorn.
JW – Who’s been the greatest influence in your life?
MS – My mom and my dad who always gave me guidance. My grandmother giving love and cooking, my parents for my schooling, and my Ethiopian mother who gave me the ultimate sacrifice by making sure we [Samuelsson’s sister was adopted into the same family] would survive.
JW – Your book has a powerful message to future chefs that they should be tough, detailed and methodical. Do you think artistry ever trumps hard work?
MS – Cooking is a great craft because it’s a balance between craftsmanship, traditions, storytelling, artistry, finance and marketing. It’s all of those things.
JW – Do you believe that people have an innate talent for cooking?
MS – I’m a firm believer that you have to work on your talent constantly. I’m always traveling and asking myself questions. Talent will get you in the room, but it’s not going to help if you don’t have a good work ethic and curiosity. It’s evolution, evolution, evolution!
JW – Was the White House State Dinner for the Prime Minister of India hosted by the Obamas one of the highlights of your career?
MS – Absolutely! It was a huge honor to be a part of the team on such a big day where so much of the cooking came down to care as well as research.
JW – Let’s talk about your experience on Top Chef Masters.
MS – I learned so much from being with Susan Feniger and Jonathan Waxman, friends that I so much admire, American chefs that came from California and were part of a cuisine revolution that we didn’t have in Europe. What’s great about the show was sitting around before the filming and listening to how they started in a truck back in the 70’s with no money. It was very inspirational. I remember moments that were not caught on tape like when my back went out and Susur Lee was giving me a massage because I could not move. There was such a camaraderie there that you cannot describe.
JW – Do you want to talk about the menu you’ve created for tonight?
MS – It’s really a fun menu. I will celebrate Sweden with its gravlax, go into Harlem with the fried chicken, and then there’s a hash that features Ethiopian flavors, finishing with the chocolate pancake with roasted cherries and blueberries. It’s comfort food and all the things that speak home to me. I’m really excited to be here in the historic Howard Theatre and to witness the resurgence of the neighborhood.
This interview was conducted, condensed and edited by Jordan Wright.
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