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Jordan Wright
Whisk and Quill
February 2010
Wine Techno-Speak Cranks up the Message
If your wine talks to you have you had a bit too much to drink? Not if you’ve purchased a bottle with the new wine decoder technology embedded in the bottle itself. Holy vintage, Batman!
Producer Allegrini of Verona, Italy, known for their Valpolicellas using only their estate-grown fruit since 1557, has just launched a combination hand-held scanner and speaker, brand-named “Ecocoder” into its wine bottles. The wine-speak is activated by touching the surface of a wine label, instantly playing a prerecorded audio file stored in its memory card, allowing you to hear first-hand from the producer about the wine’s history, origin, production, flavors and ideal food pairings.
This cutting-edge wine communication system, patented by the Italian label designer and printer Modulgraf, was launched exclusively by Allegrini earlier this year at VinItaly, Italy’s largest annual wine trade show. As of this writing it’s only available in New York.
“The international wine market is thirsty for information about wine and Italian wines can be difficult for many consumers to understand,” notes winery owner Marilisa Allegrini.
Now if only it could make the pasta too!
Francophiles Rejoice!
I took in the opening of the stellar Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery of Art last week and felt like a star-struck groupie. The Gallery owns these works but has never before mounted them in one glorious show. It was completely and blessedly overwhelming and I quite nearly threw my neck out of whack deciding which masterpiece to zero in on. There were works by Picasso, Monet, Manet, and Morisot, Degas, Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse and Modigliani, Renoir et al…the finest representative art from Impressionism up to Modernism. A riveting oil, “Blue Morning’ by George Bellows, one of Dale’s final purchases, begged me to linger. This is a triumph of a show on exhibit through July.
 Chef Michel Richard signs his book Happy in the Kitchen at the opening of the National Gallery's Chester Dale Collection exhibit - photo by Jordan Wright Wait for it… Wait for it…. You expected to read about food in this story and here it is. The Gallery, in its infinite epicurean wisdom, has chosen Michel Richard to design the food for their Garden Café Francais. The award-winning world-renowned chef of DC’s Citronelle and Central Michel Richard fame, who studied under the distinguished chef Gaston Lenotre, has created a charming bistro menu that will have you believing you are dining on the Left Bank with Toulouse Lautrec sketching by your side. In-house Executive Chef David Rogers worked with Richard to translate the dishes for the newly expanded café.
See the paintings and dine on charcuterie, cassoulet, gougeres, coq au vin, ratatouille and so much more. French fromages such as Camembert, Comte and Livarot precede dessert in the French way. Fruit tarte, crème brulee, chocolate mousse or crepes Suzettes follow. Quelle joie!
Virginia Wines Wow at Wildfire Dinner
 Wildfire's Executive Chef Steven Lukis checks on WUSA's Angie Goff's dinner - photo by Jordan Wright Food and wine events continue to draw a crowd and it was a rollicking group that attended last month’s wine dinner at Wildfire Restaurant in Tyson’s Corner. James Roth, wine consultant and owner of Red, Hot and Bleu Wine Shop in Falls Church, conducted the dinner whose five courses were paired with Virginia wines. How can you go wrong starting out the evening’s festivities with Kluge’s 2004 sparkling Blanc de Blanc and an hors d’oeuvre of lump crab on an herb-roasted cottage fry with lemon mustard aioli and ending with a 2006 Barboursville Vineyards’ Cabernet Franc Reserve served with a molten chocolate cake?
Renee Catacalos, of the recently folded magazine, Edible Chesapeake, was there to speak of the importance of eating locally-produced foods, while WUSA’s 9News Now Morning Show’s savvy and stunning, Angie Goff, just wanted the scoop on the local artisanal cheeses served with a 2007 Prince Michel Cabernet Franc.
On hand local PR maven, Bunny Polmer, who started her successful career prepping mis en place for the likes of Wolfgang Puck and Craig Claiborne when she worked for retailer Kitchen Bazaar, setting up demos back in the day. Bunny knows finely minced parsley.
Putting It All Together – Saturday Morning Along Del Ray’s Mount Vernon Avenue
Good news for locavores. The popular producer-only Del Ray’s Farmers Market on Mount Vernon Avenue is now open year-round. Here you’ll find organic produce, meats, cheeses, yogurt, homemade pastas and sauces to accompany them, baked goods, jams, honey and herbs locally raised and/or grown. We love this small neighborhood market where you can get to know your local farmers up close and personal.
Augment your food shopping with a stop along the way at Cheesetique where you can select from over 330 local and international cheeses. Pick up some salami, prosciutto, patés and duck rillettes too. Which leads me down the block to Planet Wine, where a nice Cabernet franc from Virginia’s Horton Vineyards or the slightly drier Pigeoulet en Provence, a Grenache blend from Vaucluse, France, suggested by wine consultant Alyssa Blevins, complements the rillettes quite nicely.
Princesses Rule at Old Town’s Lavender Moon Cupcakery
 Devil's Food Peanut Butter Mousse Cupcakes beckon at Lavender Moon Cupcakery - photo by Jordan Wright Back in Old Town Alexandria at 116 South Royal Street, Lavender Moon Cupcakery is a must visit serving up delectable cupcakes using only the finest ingredients….sweet European butter, dark Belgian chocolate, whole vanilla beans and organic eggs from Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in Swoope, VA.
Owners Peter and Tammy Durkin are emphatic about using organic ingredients and no food dyes for their luscious cupcakes. To color their red velvet cupcakes, they use blood orange or pomegranate juice. The quality is evident in all their cupcakes baked up with seasonal flavors.
 Sisters Sophia (left) and Rachel Margarella with their to die for cupcakes at Lavender Moon Cupcakery in Old Town - photo by Jordan Wright In summer fruit-filled cupcakes contain fresh local berries, peaches and apples. Last week I sampled a few of their winter specialties: Flourless Chocolate with Sea Salt and Almonds (gluten-free), Vanilla Bean with Lemon Curd filling, Red Velvet, Buttermilk with Mexican Chocolate Pudding, Devil’s Food with Peanut Butter Mousse filling, Triple Belgian Chocolate, Blood Orange Dreamsicle, Mocha and Vanilla Vanilla.
All were exceptional, with a dense buttery crumb and ethereal icing. Yes, you really could taste the difference with the use of premium, all-natural ingredients. Birthday boys and girls tell your moms. They do full-size cakes too.
While there, two tiny princesses, sitting pretty on small café-style chairs, were enjoying their after-school treats. “This is to die for!” exclaimed one. Her companion was polite enough to refrain from speaking with her mouth full of Vanilla Vanilla.
Barton Seaver Takes His Message to France
At Bibiana Enoteca last Thursday, I ran into DC Chef Barton Seaver relaxing at the bar before his flight to France where he’ll speak on sustainable seafood. Barton, formerly of Hook, is a huge advocate for sustainable fishing and in his soon-to-be-open Diamond District Seafood Company restaurant and market he will source fish from a dozen different fishermen. Swordfish need not apply.
The new location will be at 14th and Q Street, back in his old stomping grounds, where he told me his first cooking gig was at the Black Cat, too many years ago to count. “It’s named for the shape of the district itself,” Seaver explains. We are looking forward to seeing him in his upcoming PBS series, “Turning the Tide” scheduled for Spring 2010.
 Misha (center) with Nikki Giovanni and Patowmack Farm Executive Chef Christopher Rogers at a recent taping at the restaurant And while we’re on the subject of a new TV series, “Cooking Up a Better Life with Misha” premieres next Saturday at 11am on ABC. The charming Misha will be featuring celebrities, politicians and local chefs. The show will be produced in a recently designed Virginia studio kitchen in Alexandria, where I visited her last month while she taped one of her first segments with the author of a cookbook that features DC’s embassy chefs and their recipes.
For questions or comments on this story contact Jordan@WhiskandQuill.com
Jordan Wright
January 2010
I was nearly raised in a palace in the rugged highlands of Northern India.  A palace in India When my model/artist/writer/socialite mother found herself smack-dab in the throes of a divorce in the swinging ‘60’s, she threw herself Eva Tanguay-style into New York’s social whirl attending the opera, ballet and nightly galas. Invitations by the handful would appear daily on heavy vanilla card stock from every hostess and charity committee in town. It was at one such soiree that she met a very distinguished man who began to ardently court her.
 Narendra Singh Sarila at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, where he gave a presentation based on his book about the partition of India. Enter the Maharajah Narendra Singh from the Princely State of Sarila, who had still retained his palace with its many lands and servants, though along with many other rulers when independence ended the days of The Raj, he had been stripped of a great deal of the usual privileges and status. I was fifteen, wildly impressionable and safely ensconced in an all-girls boarding school. On holidays I would often see the elegant maharajah when his trusty manservant would fill the kitchen with the alluring aromas of exotic curries in our East Side apartment. This was my first introduction to Indian cuisine aside from the occasional tandoori chicken my mother would whip up in her small clay pot when the cooking spirit moved her.
On my tiny bunk bed in a frigid dormitory in New England I dreamed of life in a palace. I conjured up halcyon days of jewels and robes, elephant hunts and lavish parties. What fodder for a young girl’s fecund imagination! As it happened he had a handsome son about my age. Now I had a vested interest.
In letters home I began my indelicate campaign of pleading and cajoling, hoping to sway my mother to marry him. Eventually the maharajah returned to India pressing my mother through the mails to accept his proposal. One day a massive tiger-skin rug, postmarked Sarila, arrived. I felt certain such an extravagant gift would seal the deaI, but my mother was far less moved, and alas, it was not to be after a prince showed up on our doorstep and trumped the dear maharajah. But that’s another story for another day.
It’s a curious thing how memories will come flooding back after so many years, triggered by a mere morsel, but this is what happened to me, in a most unlikely place, as I sampled the Indian cooking sauces produced by a small company named Stonehouse 27 Spice Company on the cement floor of a convention hall in Washington, DC where I occasioned to meet the owner of a fledgling company out of Germantown, Tennessee.
 Sharon Fernandes creator of Stonehouse 27 Indian cooking sauces - photo by Jordan Wright Sharon Fernandes descends from a family accustomed to bridging cultural divides. A trained engineer, she was born in what is now called Mumbai of a British father and Portuguese mother who worked as a caterer. Later she made her home in Dubai and Australia where she received her degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
A few years ago she had a slap-to-the-forehead moment. “My right brain and left brain finally hooked up,” she says of her epiphany and decision to start the company. “I created the line for my family. I wanted them to have the best.”
Her six beautiful sauces made using stone-ground spices reflect her combined heritage. In a recent phone call she told me that she grew up eating steak and potatoes. “A part of India is all Christian and we love our pork and beef,” she explained. “With that in mind, I made my line of sauces compatible with meats and seafood.”  Gourmet sauces from Stonehouse 27 Spice Co - photo by Jordan Wright Working daily on-site from start to finish in the cooking process she explains, “Everything is done in a very staged approach – one step at a time. At first I tasted over a dozen types of onions before selecting the perfect one for its flavor and consistency. I now get all my onions from Oregon and we sauté them for two hours, allowing them to achieve just the right texture and deepest flavor, before the garlic is added. It all gets just the right amount of cooking as it would in a home or restaurant.”
Her mild Tamarind and Garlic sauce for shrimp and vegetarian dishes and a more delicate Cilantro and Coconut sauce for fish like tilapia, flounder and cod reflect the care she puts into the sauces. A hotter Cashews and Cream sauce, a medium heat Tomato and Chiles sauce and the more spicy Dates and Tamarind sauce are designed to go with meats like beef, lamb and pork. I like that the dishes take only minutes to prepare but taste as though you have been slaving away all day.
Sharon is very proud of the fact that only agave nectar and California dates are used for sweetening and no salt is added keeping sodium levels very low unlike other prepared curry sauces on the market. “People try to compensate for bad-tasting products by adding salt. So I don’t use any salt and there is only the naturally occurring sodium from the lemons, limes and tamarinds in the sauces.”
Stonehouse 27 Spice Company’s Indian Cooking Sauces are not yet available in our immediate area though plans are underway. In the meantime Sharon has kindly offered Whisk and Quill readers free shipping on three jars or more if purchased online. Use the code WhiskandQuill10 to get a dollar off too.
 Chef Willis Underwood of McNulty's 7 Fruit Chutney - photo by Jordan Wright To complement your curry, do try McNulty’s 7 Fruit Chutney, another recent discovery of mine. Fifty years ago North Carolina native Margot Walser started making this condiment during the holidays in her home kitchen from an 80-year-old family receipt. Chockfull of fresh-picked peaches, plums, golden raisins, honeydew, apples, grapes, pineapples and spiced with ginger it is hand-made in small batches as it has always been. Distinctive, flavorful and toothsome it has no preservatives or additives. Toss out the syrupy and gelatinous jelly-like chutneys. This is the gold standard. Find it in Dean & De Luca and some Whole Foods or online.
So here’s my plan…a Bollywood-inspired party. Just ring up your friends, slip in a DVD and whip up some curry in the comfort of your own home. Pretty soon you’ll be having dreams of India too.
For cooking ideas and to order the all-natural Indian sauces, go to:
www.stonehouse27.com
For the heavenly chutney:
www.mcnultyschutney.com
For questions or comments on this article email Jordan@WhiskandQuill.com or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com
Jordan Wright
January 25, 2010
Whisk and Quill
 Chef Jean-Pierre Moulle of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA - photo by Jordan Wright An early morning trip to the White House with a tour by White House Chefs Sam Kass and Cristeta Comerford were just desserts for some of the country’s top toques who flew into Washington, DC this weekend for a noble cause.  Visiting Chef Charles Phan of San Franciscos The Slanted Door - photo by Jordan Wright Their goal: To raise money for local charities, Martha’s Table and DC Central Kitchen.
The visit proved auspicious. After torrential rains last night, the dark skies parted and all were greeted with a warm, sunny morning to tour the White House private kitchens and vegetable garden. Alice Waters, who had no small hand in influencing the First Lady to plant the organic garden as a teaching tool for local schoolchildren, was part of the group of stellar chefs. Along the way she noted the small size of the wine closet in comparison to an enormous refrigerator holding a vast supply of soda. She tsk-tsked and a suggestion was made that sodas be done away with in the presidential manse. Do I detect a new initiative?
The previous evening they were paired up with local chefs like Jose Andres, a longtime supporter of DC Central Kitchen; Kaz Okochi of Kaz Sushi Bistro; Bryan Moscatello of Zola and Potenza; Michel Richard of Citronelle; Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve; Nora Poullion of Restaurant Nora’s; Nick Stefanelli of Bibiana; Fabio Trabocchi of DC’s Four Seasons; and DC resident, Joan Nathan, who used her not unsubstantial sway to organize the event she is calling “Sunday Suppers”, pairing up chefs to create their signature dishes at private homes throughout town.  Top toques chow down at the celebration brunch at Potenza - photo by Jordan Wright Wine selections were arranged by Italian wine journalist Filippo Bartolotta of Le Baccanti, whose suppliers donated dozens of wines (although I heard that some gracious hosts opened up their personal wine cellars to amp up the festivities). Grass-fed Dorset-cross lamb was provided by John and Sukey Jamison from their farm in Latrobe, PA.  Rustic egg bake at Potenza's Brunch Celebration - photo by Jordan Wright From Berkeley, California, came Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Co-Chef Jean-Pierre Moulle, who has been cooking beside her for 35 years; from Martha’s Vineyard Chef/Caterer/Culinary Instructor Jan Buhrman of The Kitchen Porch; from The Modern in New York City, Executive Chef Gabriel Kreuther and his Pastry Chef Patrick Clark; and from San Francisco, Charles Phan of The Slanted Door. Chef Elisabeth Bourgeois of Le Mas Tourteron brought her Provencal style from her iconic restaurant in Vaucluse, France. In all there were 23 participating celebrity chefs.
It all culminated in a lavish Italian-style brunch at Potenza where owner/host Dan Mesches and Chef Bryan Moscatello, marshaled their forces to put on a fabulous spread and thank the chefs for their donation of time and talent. It was all very collegial. You just had to be there.
For questions on this story contact Jordan@whiskandquill.com or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com
Jordan Wright
March 2010
 Ted Deasy, who currently stars in the Alfred Hitchcock-inspired THE 39 STEPS at the Warner Theatre, graciously granted me an interview to share his views on theatre, food and the arts. The two-time Tony and Drama Desk award-winning play will run till March 28th. The following are some earlier reviews. It is scheduled to open Off-Broadway later this month.
Ben Brantley of the New York Times, called the production, “Absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock’s film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands. The actors themselves seem to be having a helluva good time. As does the audience.”
 Claire Brownell and Ted Deasy in ALFRED HITCHCOCKS THE 39 STEPS Clive Barnes, of the New York Post, pronounced THE 39 STEPS “Inventively astonishing, riotous & marvelous.”
Joe Dziemianowicz, of the New York Daily News, exclaimed, “Hitchcock probably never imagined his thriller had the makings of a hilarious comedy, but this show is a dizzy delight and an ingenious spoof, inventively directed by Maria Aitken. A fast-paced fun ride!”
It continues to play to sold-out houses in London’s West End.
Jordan Wright – I apologize that I haven’t seen the show as of yet. I’ll be seeing it next week.
Ted Deasy – It’s fairly common to hear that unless you’ve seen it in New York. It’s a gem of a show that most people haven’t yet heard of. It just didn’t get that much attention. But it’s like the little engine that could.
Its success is mostly word-of-mouth. People say, “Ya hafta see it!” It’s an irreverent and fun send-up of Hitchcock. It’s music hall and vaudeville…pure theatricality.
For me it’s a joy to be in a show like this because it’s enjoyable for all generations. It’s an evening full of actors playing multiple roles with a script directly from the 1935 film. It has a great sense of decorum and tongue-in-cheek for the adults as well as kids and teens.
JW – I understand there is a great deal of slapstick and physical comedy?
TD – Our director pulled from everything you can imagine – from vaudeville, from comedia, from slapstick. Also any of the old theatrical styles, like Shakespearean asides. The physical part is done super-fast. In order to create that sense of excitement it moves incredibly quickly and with great style. It captures that sort of breathlessness.
JW – I understand that there are only four actors but dozens of roles. How does that work?
TD – The roles are divided up. I play one role and I’m on stage throughout, but Claire, the classic Hitchcock blonde, plays four different roles. The other two actors play between 130 – 150 different roles, some “roles” are actually inanimate objects. Some of the actors are instantaneously changing characters over and over, often playing three characters simultaneously.
JW – Had you done physical comedy before?
TD – Sure. One of the great treats doing this show was that the casting agents were looking for actors that had had careers doing classical work. I’ve done Moliere and outdoor Shakespeare, as have Eric and Claire, but this was nothing like I’ve done before.
It looked effortless when I first saw the show. But it took a lot of rehearsal to make it look that way. It was a great challenge to make this crazy, mayhem, funny, show look fast and effortless.
JW – I discovered you had a coffee shop and bakery in Jackson Heights, very near Astoria, where actors, Christopher and Glenn Walken grew up and where I met them when they were in their twenties. Their parents owned Walken’s Bakery, where Lydia Bastianich once worked. I wondered if you knew that Queens was an incubator for Hollywood actors and gourmands!
TD – That’s extraordinary! I didn’t know that. My partner, Gina and I started baking for casts and they loved it and we loved doing it. People kept asking us to do more. When we moved to NY we worked for a farm cooperative. We were just doing this on the side.
Three years ago we opened the bakery and coffee shop and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it work – to find the right balance. The store is on hiatus right now since we are both under contract in different parts of the country.
JW – Recently one of the country’s top chefs, Jose Andres, was given an award in the arts by The Vilcek Foundation who included the culinary arts in their definition of the arts. As an actor who is involved in the food arts how do you see the relationship between the two?
TD – That’s great to hear that! I listen to so many people and their issues with food and I think about why we eat and how we eat. And I hope for people to experience, especially if they’re in the arts, sitting down to a meal and thinking of it as if it were an art event. It incorporates all of your senses.
 Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS You need to look at what’s in front of you and see the preparation visually and then experience it orally. Then you feel afterwards, like with a play, or an art opening, a dance piece or the opera, that you might have the same satisfaction. You can ask, “How did this happen, why did this happen, where did this come from and where are we going with this?”
I think the best dietary experience that people can have is to not talk about restricting or denying [themselves], but to actually think about, “What this is, how is it made, what is the preparation and why do I want it?”
People just don’t take the time to examine these things. I do think that the theatre and the culinary arts are intrinsically tied together.
JW – Will you reopen your bakery again?
TD – We plan to be back in New York in July and, although we’re not sure what we will do with the bakery, Gina, who is now out West, was experimenting with a new cupcake recipe yesterday. It was a chocolate Guinness cupcake with a milk chocolate malted buttercream icing.
So although we don’t yet know if we’ll continue with baking it’s like Tom Stoppard said [in Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern], “You can’t unstir the jam!”
This interview was conducted, edited and condensed by Jordan Wright. For questions or comments on this interview contact Jordan@WhiskandQuill.com or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com.
www.warnertheatre.com
www.39stepsonbroadway.com
Jordan Wright
January 2010
 Chef Fargione in the kitchen at Teatro Goldoni - photo by Jordan Wright Chef Enzo Fargione employs a decidedly patrician ethos with his modern Italian cuisine at Teatro Goldoni’s exclusive ‘chef’s table’, conjuring up tantalizing innovations more suitable for Roman Gods than mere mortals.  Cavatelli with roasted garlic cream and smoked lobster served in a silver tin - photo by Jordan Wright This is a chef who twists, tweaks and molds his ingredients, cajoling them into his gastronomic fantasies. Will he caramelize, braise, gelatinize, puree, concentrate, desiccate, smoke, infuse or lacquer with gold leaf? Will he froth, fill, roast, bake or contort his culinary components demanding ever more textures, shapes and essences?
During a 17-course prix-fixe menu with optional wine pairings (perfect for diners disinclined to order half a dozen different complementary selections) Fargione will engineer an encyclopedia of techniques, inventions and tantalizing flavor complexities in presenting his latest gourmand fantasies.
Unlike other chef tables around town, this is a very elegant and intimate spot indeed, and oh so private. The glamorous table features a semi-circular banquette and is stunningly but simply arranged with white Garnier-Thiebaut damask, Limoges china and Fortissimo hand-blown wineglasses. A Napoleonic bee graces the handle of a tortoise-shell patterned steak knife. While under a black-shaded chandelier, twinkling with delicate crystals, the glasses sparkle, the lighting is flattering and, restaurants take note, you can see your food.  Tea light deconstructed apple flight - photo by Jordan Wright Fargione’s signature style is to present his creations like precious gifts…whether a glass tealight holder for a deconstructed apple flight; sweet crispy cones of smoked tuna, with green olives and a tart cream and nestled in a duet case; glass vases encasing veal cheeks bathed in a huckleberry froth; or an imaginative trompe l’oeil panna cotta ‘fried eggs’ served in a petit gratin dish.
 Chocolate coated olive oil mousse dusted with gold leaf - photo by Jordan Wright His enthusiasm palpable, the charismatic Fargione follows each preparation to the table describing the wines, the regions and his inspiration. Wine pairings are personally selected by the chef to balance each dish and carry certain flavors to the foreground. After a chilled glass of prosecco to launch the evening, I experienced no fewer than eight starters, called ‘appetite openers” on the menu, five subsequent entrees and seven or so wines. With small servings for each presentation you won’t be overfull.
The field informs his delicate white corn and Parmesan custard with a ruby-hued red wine caramel sparked with a translucent basil leaf. In another clever presentation, served in a sleek, round silver tin, the sea influences a luscious cavatelli with roasted garlic cream, smoked roasted lobster, porcini, peas and fresh thyme cradled in a single spoon (though cataloguing of the ingredients barely expresses the complexity of this offering).
 Manila clams with candied cherry tomato, spinach foam and pipette of briny clam broth at Teatro Goldonis Chefs Table - photo by Jordan Wright The journey progresses with a miniature Manila clam ragout, strewn with candied cherry tomatoes bursting with a deep sweet intensity, while a plump caper berry acts as counterpoint beneath aeronautical spinach foam. At the table an infusion of briny clam broth squeezed through a miniature pipette, activates the alchemy. The tiny sampling utterly delicious…but you will find your own treasures…there are so many to swoon over.
 Wild Sockeye salmon with acqua pazza arrucola pesto broth - Photo by Jordan Wright An unforgettable foie gras, studded with mostarda di Cremona (preserved fruits from the Lombardy region), harmoniously balanced the goose liver, mustard and candied cherries. The world melted gently away. Imagine it with a Merlot wine caramel, balsamic vinegar gelato and hazelnut tuile. This is a mere sliver of the evening’s culinary jewelry that takes inspiration from many different regions of Italy.
In all, Fargione challenges earth, wind and fire, revealing sparks of brilliance at every turn. At this extraordinarily sophisticated level of cooking, the desire of the chef to tempt the palate, prepare it for the next bite and dazzle with ever greater gastronomics speaks passionately to the connoisseur. And does that not define the language of love!  Vanilla pannacotta dessert sunnyside up with virtual bacon - photo by Jordan Wright Bravisssimo, Chef Fargione!
If you go, and I highly recommend it, make your reservations for the Chef’s Table and inquire as to the optional wine pairings.
Teatro Goldoni
1909 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006
202 955-9494
www.TeatroGoldoni.com
For questions or inquiries about this article contact Jordan@WhiskandQuill.com
or visit www.WhiskandQuill.com
Jordan Wright
Whisk and Quill
February 2010
 From left Cynthia Tsai with 'Whisper', Neil Livingston with 'Flake' and Stephanie Woods at the Washington Humane Society's Sugar and Champagne - photo credit Jordan Wright It was cheek-to-muzzle last week as hosts Todd and Ellen Gray of DC’s Equinox Restaurant put on the dog for all those who love their four-legged friends. The 9th Annual Sugar and Champagne Affair benefiting the Washington Humane Society at the Ritz-Carlton showcased area chefs, mixologists, and their fans, who showed their sweetest support at the scrumptious event. There were treats for canine guests and their escorts as pastry chefs like Amanda Cook of City Zen and Sou-Wester whipped up dog biscuits and profiteroles. “This is the first batch of dog treats I’ve ever made,” she admitted. “It has peanut butter and other natural ingredients in it. Let me know how your dog likes it!”
 Alexandria's Barkley Square handed out home made dog biscuits with a little help - photo credit Jordan Wright Some chefs were cooking savory delights a la minute, partridge consommé from Brabo Chef Robert Wiedmaier and ravioli over Napa cabbage from Equinox Chef and the evening’s host, Todd Gray, while others had prepared lavish pastries, molecularly-crafted ice cream ‘dots’ and precious marzipan animals gallivanting across grass-lined displays.
Pastry chef extraordinaire David Guas was signing his new cookbook, DamGoodSweet, an homage to his youth in New  Pastry Chef of the Year David Guas signs his new cookbook Dam Good Sweet - photo credit Jordan Wright Orleans and replete with stories of Hubig’s Pies and Café du Monde. He brought dozens of melt-in-your-mouth pecan pralines (the recipe is thankfully in the book). Can you guess who he’ll be rooting for come this Sunday? Who dat!
Don’t fret if you and your pet missed this one. The Fashion for Paws Runway Show will be at the Embassy of Italy on April 10th and the 23rd Annual Bark Ball follows on June 5th where the four-on-the-floor crowd goes black tie. Book your grooming appointments now.
In a little horn-tooting, our little Shih-Tzu, Inspector Foo Foo, (he’ll have his report on your desk in the morning) was selected from over half a million dogs with the distinction of having one of the 10 Wackiest Pet Names and featured on the Today Show. Eat your hearts out Spot and Fido!
See the rest of the list including favorite pet names.
For questions or comments on this story contact Jordan@WhiskandQuill.com.
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