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Sara Mosqueda-Fernandez
June 2010
 Kids learn a love of cooking and food at Destination DC's Restaurant Week for Kids - photo courtesy of Destination DC This week DC plays host to Kids Restaurant Week, where young and budding foodies will have a chance to kick off the start of their summer with special kid-friendly menus from various restaurants.
Destination DC has brought back this week for children (ages 11 and younger) to encourage healthy eating initiatives and family bonds with the aid of some of Washington’s most prized restaurants. The restaurants have kept parents in mind by offering special fixed-price adult menus, too.
 Fun and food for DC Metro Area families - photo courtesy of Destination DC Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, said that this week is meant as a “fun and meaningful way for parents to introduce their kids to new foods and dining experiences while enjoying a delicious meal themselves.”
Besides trying to turn tiny tykes into petit gourmands with palate-pleasing kid menus, some area restaurants feature unique family-friendly experiences. Taberna del Alabardero offers children a tour of the kitchen and a picture with Executive Chef Javier Romero. Some restaurants are taking the experiences to the kids by going “back to school”. Chefs will visit third-grade classrooms, offering cooking presentations and tastings through a partnership with DC public schools.
“It’s a different way to introduce families to our establishment,” said Nicole Restivo, spokesperson at Taberna del Albardero. “We want to show that we’re not just fine dining, we’re open to families and kids as well.”
Other participating restaurants include Acadiana, Art and Soul, Beacon Bar & Grill, Belga Café, Bistro 525, BlackSalt, Café Dupont, Clyde’s of Gallery Place, Fourth Estate at the National Press Club, Georgia Brown’s, Jaleo, Juniper, Kellari Taverna, Kemble Park Tavern, La Tasca, M Street bar & Grill, Mie N Yu, Oyamel, Palette, Ping Pong Dim Sum, Rosa Mexicano, and Zola. Special kids menus are available for lunch and early dinner, 5-6:30 PM.
For more information on Kids Restaurant Week, please visit www.restaurantweekforkids.org.
By Jordan Wright
June 16, 2009
 Robert Kenner, director of FOOD, INC., a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. In a conversation with Executive Director Robert Kenner the week before the June 19th Washington, DC release of his new film, “Food, Inc.”, I had a chance to follow up on a review I wrote about the documentary earlier this month. This searing expose of the food industry that plays out like an eco-thriller is going to have a big impact on the industry and he told me he was very encouraged by the response so far. The film profiles agri-business villains, who currently hold the world hostage with their domination of our planet’s food supply, facing off against the small American farmer practicing sustainable farming methods. The good news Kenner wants you to know is that you, the consumer, can write a happier ending to this real-life tragedy with your daily food choices.
Jordan Wright – Food, Inc. is as powerful a documentary as any ever produced. How do you hope it will be received?
Robert Kenner – I hope this makes people start to think about where there food comes from. And it wasn’t just the food that I found to be important in the making of this film I discovered all the information that’s being denied to us. I was just shocked at the power of these mega-corporations. Our food has been fundamentally transformed in the last fifty years, without us seeing it. It’s become a totally different food than we’ve ever eaten before.
Wright – An Inconvenient Truth has done more to shine a spotlight on the dangers of global warming than any scientific treatise, government agency or print article. Given its worldwide success, do you envision Food, Inc. will have the same far-reaching impact on policy-makers and the general public in reigning in world domination of the agri-business conglomerates?
Kenner – Agri-business spends a fortune, billions of dollars, and people are not aware of the consequences of this system. We are spending less of our money on our food than any time in history. However, this inexpensive food is coming to us at a very high cost in the long run. It’s time to think about what those costs really are. The system that we have now is not a sustainable system and cannot continue its dependence on polluting the earth.
Continue reading Interview with Robert Kenner – Director “Food, Inc”
JORDAN WRIGHT – Food Editor
Published -LocalKicks.COM – NIBBLES AND SIPS
MAY 2009
 Southern-style baker Anita Benton of Desserts, Etc. Photo by Jordan Wright Anita Benton, of Desserts, Etc., exudes a certain unmistakable Southern style. She’s Hattiesburg, Mississippi, born and bred, and although the drawl is nearly gone you’ll know you’re down-home with her steal-the-show Southern-inspired cakes and cookies. I had a chance to meet Anita and her delectable desserts this Saturday at National Harbor’s local-centric Farmers Market. This lady cooks with love and you can taste it in every bite.
We tried tender and moist Sweet Potato Brownies, Kentucky Butter Cake, Snickerdoodle cookies and Mocha Madness Cake. They were sumptuous and mouth-wateringly memorable. She does Strawberry Red Velvet Cakes, Orange Dream Cakes layered with orange mousse, and my personal favorite Coconut Cake, which she fills with lemon curd pineapple curd or coconut cream. How divinely decadent! Another specialty is called Felicia’s Favorite Cake. It’s a white vanilla bean cake made with chunks of brownies and pecans, layered with caramel pastry cream and topped with chocolate sauce. Heaven can wait!
A graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and L’Academie de Cuisine in Maryland Anita is also a personal chef and creates dinner parties with classics like Shrimp and Grits.  Spring radishes and kohlrabi at National Harbor's Farmers Market. Photo by Jordan Wright To order online visit her site at www.desserts-etc.com or taste her wares at National Harbor’s Farmers Market, Saturday mornings from 10AM till 3PM.
I met farmers like Monica Medina  Sampling her mother's wares at Valle Produce Photo by Jordan Wright of Valle Produce who grow all their produce in Westmoreland County. Her French Breakfast radishes, tiny strawberries and kohlrabi were particularly beautiful and delicious.
David Thorne of Zekiah Farms raises Roseda Black Angus beef on his farm in Bryantown, MD. Free range grazed in his pastures without hormones or antibiotics, the beef is sold to some of our top local restaurants. Each animal has its own “biography” and they can even trace the meat back to the farm.
With over 16 cuts to choose from you can surely find your preference. He also raises pork, lamb, goat and poultry with the same high standards.
E-mail to writer [email protected]
Food Inc. Clips
By Jordan Wright
In his new documentary “Food, Inc.,” scheduled to premiere here on June 19, producer Robert Kenner lifts the veil on the shameful underbelly of food production in this country. Kenner is the director of the Academy Award-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” narrated by Al Gore. It’s now the fourth largest-grossing documentary of all time. After the screening I wondered, could “Food, Inc.” have the same radical, policy-changing influence on business as usual in the food production world as “An Inconvenient Truth” did when it challenged and informed us on climate change? Could we continue to ignore the realities of an industry gone haywire?
Featuring interviews with the iconic food author and activist Michael Pollan (“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World”), Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and Joel Salatin, real-life farmer of Polyface Farms, a sustainable, organic model farm in Swoope, VA, and author of “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven”, the directors have proffered the reality of agri-business in this country. This is an inconvenient truth of a different kind. It reveals how our nation’s food is being raised, produced, slaughtered, cloned, genetically modified, seed patented and engineered, and co-opted and controlled by a few mega-conglomerates. Monsanto, Smithfield and Con-Agra top the list of eco-villains. Continue reading FOOD, INC. REVIEW OF FILM BY ROBERT KENNER
 Chef Todd Grey and Jordan Wright
Photo by Roy Wright Valerie Plame has nothing over undercover agent Ellen Kassoff-Gray. Ellen is the power behind the magic of Todd Gray, executive chef of Equinox, Market Salamander and the forthcoming Salamander Resort and Spa. Working on the down-low, she pulled off a super-secret surprise party to celebrate her husband’s ten years at the helm of Equinox. (“I could be robbing banks up and down the East Coast and he would never know!”) But this was no ordinary party, it was a roast and the roasters were charged with serving up some zingers to nail the low-key kindly chef. No matter which long-ago episode they tried to pin on him he took it all in with his natural grace.
Sheila Johnson of Salamander Farms and Market Salamander in Middleburg was the first to skewer the chef.
“Todd Gray is so nice that he makes Mother Theresa look like Gordon Ramsay,” and “Todd Gray is so nice that the last time Dick Cheney ate here, he decided to use San Pellegrino in all future waterboarding sessions.” After eight straight nominations for a RAMW award and five straight nominations for a James Beard award, Johnson declared him the “Susan Lucci of Washington chefs.” He’s been nominated yet again this year. One hopes he has a better track record than Lucci. Johnson let us all in on Gray’s first passion — golf — which he traded in for the restaurant life many years ago. And to help atone for giving up his dream to play the Masters Tournament at Augusta National, she presented him with the iconic “green jacket.”
 Chef Todd Gray and Dr. Shelia Johnson
Photo by Roy Wright Uber-restauranteurs Dan Mesches of Stir Food Group and the ever-charming Gus DiMillo of Passion Food Hospitality were on board, as were food writer extraordinaire Marion Burros of The New York Times, David Hagedorn of The Washington Post and the ubiquitous Michael Birchenall of Food Service Monthly, who told tales out of school to everyone’s delight, and wouldn’t have missed this for the world. There were foodies from as far away as Maine.
So many chefs came up through the ranks in this town or trained with Gray, the “kitchen shepherd,” and they wanted to be there to pay homage. Some of his contemporaries like cohort Robert Wiedmaier of Brabo, Tony Chittum of Vermillion, Michel Richard of Citronelle and Victor Albisu of BLT Steak gathered round to hear the stories and spin a few of their own. Old friend and award-winning pastry chef Heather Chittum brought a tray of her dazzling chocolate caramel tarts with Maldon sea salt topping.
Continue reading Chef Todd Gray’s 10TH Anniversary Party
By Jordan Wright
 Ripe strawberries at the Farmer's Market.
Crystal Farms, the new Farmers’ Market on Crystal Drive has a novel idea to re-use bags. You know the flimsy ones we try to recycle that sometimes blow away and get caught up in trees and make that fizzy flapping noise in the breeze for weeks.
Perusing the naturals at the Farmer’s Market.
Do we really need to use those anymore? They are also asking for the nice eco-friendly, re-useable bags. We have dozens of cloth totes around the house from past events. What a clever way to give these a second life!
The plan is to let other shoppers use them…a bag-sharing plan. (Please just the ones that are in good condition.)  Perusing the naturals at the Farmer's Market. 500 billion plastic bags, over one million every minute, are used worldwide every year with most of them ending up in landfills or the aforementioned trees. They break down into tiny particles that contaminate our waterways eventually our food system.
There will be designated areas at the market to collect them and they will give them to shoppers who have forgotten to bring theirs from home.
Check out this market with over 20 farmers and producers:
* Atwater’s Bakery: artisan breads, scones, cookies, organic ingredients
* Baguette Republic: baguettes, boules, challah, focaccia, rolls
* Barajas Produce: beans, beets, broccoli, herbs, salad mix, mustard green and more
* BIGG Riggs Farms: apple butter, hot pepper jelly, vodka sauce, fruit jams
* Four Seasons Nursery: cut flowers & herbs, culinary and medicinal herb plants
* G. Flores Produce: seasonal fruits and vegetables, cut flowers and herbs, container plants
* Graces Pastries: quick cakes, breads, scones
* Great Harvest Bread Co.: breads, cookies, baked goods
* Guata Java: premium Guatemalan coffee
* Kuhn Orchards: fruits and vegetables, herbs, flowers and plants, fruit butters, jams, jellies, canned peaches
A Monster Apple Pie and other sweets at the Farmer’s Market.
* LynnVale Studios: over 100 different kinds of specialty cut flowers and culinary herbs
* Meat Crafters: all natural handcrafted meats, cured, fresh and smoked
* Mount Vernon Farm: 100% grass-fed beef, lamb and pastured pork
* Red Apron Butcher Shop: bacon, pastrami and hotdogs
* Salsa Las Glorias: Salsas and Pico de Gallo made with locally grown ingredients
* St. Ambrose Apiaries: Honey, honey related products, 100% beeswax candles
* Teaco: wide varieties of loose leaf teas
* Toigo Orchards: applesauce, apple/pear butter, pasta sauce, honey and fresh fruits
* Tysons Farms: wide varieties of seasonal fruits and vegetables including peaches, plums, cherries, berries, beans, zucchini, peppers, cabbage, beans, eggplants and much more
* Walnut Hill Farm: seasonal vegetables including corn, potatoes, beans, kohlrabi, onions, watermelon and more
* Westmoreland Produce: seasonal vegetables and fruits, container plants, cut herbs and flowers
Radishes at the Farmer’s Market.  Radishes at the Farmer's Market. Crystal Farms Market is held on Tuesdays from 3 pm to 7 pm on Crystal Drive between 18th and 20th Streets in Crystal City. The market runs until October 27.
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