FOODSERVICE MONTHLY'S Sauce on the Side

'Setting the Global Table' for the RAMMYS

Lynne Breaux, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, announced at the monthly members' social held at The Monocle Restaurant on Capitol Hill that the theme for the annual RAMMY awards is "Setting the Global Table." Held this year on June 29 at the Marriott Wardman Park, the 26th annual Gala will have "global" partners including Platinum sponsors Sustainable Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and ProChile with the Embassy of Chile. Joining as Diamond sponsors are Christiania Vodka and Fiji water.

The RAMMYS celebrate the best of the hospitality industry in Washington and Northern Virginia ... described as a "not-to-be-missed bodacious evening" of food and fun.

FOOD WINE DRINK 16

Make mine a gin and coconut water ... as long as it is Plymouth.

Lynne Breaux Marries Peter Arapis

Lynne Breaux, president of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), married Peter Arapis, federal legislative manager for Ford Motor Co. in Las Vegas this week. According to Lynne, they have been together for 13 years now ... and have talked about tying the knot on and off for the last few years and "Vegas makes it so easy." Peter is from Nevada and used to work for Sen. Harry Reid.

Still in Las Vegas, members of the restaurant industry will be able to congratulate the new bride in person at the monthly RAMW social on Monday, January 28 at 5 p.m. at the Monocle on Capitol Hill. Give Ishi at the RAMW office a call at 202-331-5990 or e-mail if you plan to join the party.

Congratulations Lynne and Peter!

10 Arts by Eric Ripert

Chef Eric Ripert announced that 10 Arts by Eric Ripert will be the name of the restaurant to open in The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia in the spring of 2008. Groundbreaking for renovation of the space began January 3, 2008. The project entails a multi-million dollar renovation of the hotel’s majestic, historic Rotunda and the adjoining Pantheon area, which, when completed, will include a new bar, lounge and restaurant.

Chef de Cuisine of 10 Arts will be Jennifer Carroll, a native of Northeast Philadelphia and graduate of the city’s Restaurant School. Chef Carroll’s most recent position was as sous chef at Ripert’s prestigious Le Bernardin in New York City. She will oversee the culinary team of 10 Arts and work with Chef Ripert in designing and executing the restaurant’s menu which will feature American cuisine with an emphasis on local products and farms.

A native of the Somerdale neighborhood (where her family still resides) Carroll’s career has taken her from her education at the city’s Restaurant School to positions as sous chef at San Francisco restaurants Julia and Café Kati, back to the area’s Manayunk section where she worked in the kitchens of Derek Davis’ Sonoma and Arroyo Grill, to her most recent position as sous chef at Ripert’s Le Bernardin in New York. Carroll plans to move back to town sometime in late winter/early spring.

“I’m thrilled to be back in Philadelphia. It’s an exciting time to be here—the city’s restaurant scene has changed so much for the better in the past 10 years,” Chef Carroll says. “I’m excited to be back home—close to my family and in my city that’s so comfortable—and it’s such a big city yet such a small town.”

Ten Arts by Eric Ripert is located at Ten Avenue of the Arts. For reservations and further information, call 215-523-8000.

Taste of Maryland

Every year on Martin Luther King Monday the Restaurant Association of Maryland invites the state legislators over to the Loews Annapolis Hotel for some refreshments and great food from 30 or so of the state's restaurants. From oysters to steak sandwiches to sauteed scallops to a fine glass of Maryland wine -- the food, wine and Fiji water satisfied a happy crowd glad to be in a warm place. There was nary a trans fat in sight.

Karen Montgomery, House Delegate from District 14, Marshall Weston, interim president and CEO of the Restaurant Association of Maryland and Lynn Martins, Seibels Family Restaurant and RAM Chairman of the Board.

The Loews Annapolis Hotel hosted the Taste of Maryland with key members of the food and beverage management team on hand: Derek Adams, Absar Malik, Sajin Price and Andrew Saba.

It's Zagat Time!

My friends at Zagat asked if I could invite you to play the survey game ... and you get a free guide ... and even better you have an opportunity to be witty/funny/smart or bitter. The message below pretty much covers it ...

Vote in Zagat's Washington DC/Baltimore Restaurants Survey and get a FREE guide!

To Eat or Not To Eat... Where is the Question. Would you like to be a restaurant critic? Here is your chance to eat, drink and share your thoughts about restaurants in Washington DC & Baltimore. Participate in the online survey before the February 24, 2008 deadline, and you will receive a FREE copy of the resulting guide book when it's published.

To vote, visit www.zagat.com/survey.

Hey There

I have a little story about a computer adventure ... which in the way many of us live and work can be a story of misadventure, desperation and hopefully resolution. I haven't posted since Monday because on Tuesday evening around 10:30 in the middle of working on the magazine with my production/design person -- my MAC crashed. And it crashed hard. I had experienced a Kernel Panic ... and if you want to look it up online ... it's mostly fatal. I couldn't reboot. I couldn't repair. I couldn't reinstall. I couldn't do anything. I did manage to cobble together the magazine with a four-week old backup I had made for my PC laptop which I had taken on a trip. It was less than ideal and took until 5 in the morning, but it did get done.

Now I have Leopard on my computer ... and part of the selling story of the newest MAC operating system is the Time Machine. With a separate hard drive it takes away the responsibility of backups from the computer owner and places it in the hands of the OS. My problem is that without a MAC to reach the backup, it sat attached to a dead machine. Wednesday was spent working on scheduled magazine interviews and running around in my car. Thursday and Friday was spent on the phone with Apple and the people from Disk Warrior -- an excellent maintenance/repair utility for MACs. And the rest of the day was spent with hours of futile steps and resteps.

Finally after having made my last effort, I went to my local Apple store in Annapolis ... bypassing Apple support, online groups, Google and Disk Warrior. If you haven't been, going to an Apple mall store is a wild adventure ... and this Saturday evening was a trip into kiddie world -- teenagers playing, kids trying to talk parents into iPhones, all display models humming, and the Genius bar crowded with drinkless Apple junkies -- with problems. After waiting 20 minutes I told my story to someone ... and he actually worked there. What I found out is that the Genius Bar is where you can take your technical breakdown issues ... and they start two hours before the store opens and go to closing. I got an appointment with my MAC with a Genius for Sunday morning at 9:15 a.m.

There I am at 9:15 looking in a dark Apple store and the Genius lets me in ... and what was wonderful is that the store was empty, no music, no lights and quiet. What I saw in the next few moments was a parallel moment that also takes place in the restaurant world -- that conflict between am and pm shifts. There was a lot of mumbling about who had closed the night before as things left out were in the way, disks needed for diagnostics are missing, and being scheduled to arrive as the first customer arrives is no fun. You can substitute a messy bar after a busy night, fruit left out, bottles not replaced, the bar not wiped down and being scheduled as the bar opens. That leads in both cases to that cry of frustration, "Who worked last night?!"

The Genius (I feel bad I never noted his name) spent two hours with me and in the end I left it for repair (it needs a new hard drive from which the chance is 5% that anything will be salvaged). But here is the real Apple pitch ... I brought a new MAC home and during the opening setup transferred my TIME MACHINE backup drive ... in twenty minutes I had my old computer on a new computer complete with all my applications. It was a miracle and what I learned now is that I need duplicate computers (synched daily) to go along with TIME MACHINE (my new savior). That I will have when the new hard drive is installed next week.

SO now, I have to catch up wildly on Monday morning with all I missed in the last few days ... and for SOS you can expect two entries a day for the week. There's a lot more going on than my tales of woe.

Stefano Frigerio Takes Over Mio Kitchen

Former Maestro sous chef Stefano Frigerio is back in the kitchen ... this time in DC at Mio in what some call Mid-Town Washington at 14th and Vermont (1110 Vermont Ave NW). Here his menu is described as "creative American with Mediterranean influences." All I know is Stefano is traditional in the way he works with food ... a carnivore who respects food -- so don't be surprised to find some fine tail to head cookery. Here's something to look forward to: grilled venison loin, sautéed cauliflower, anchovies, gin-juniper sauce ... yes. I can't wait.

Stefano was the sous chef for Fabio Trabocchi at Maestro ... having first worked for him at Grissini in London. Then the two chefs opened Floriana in London, before Stefano went on his own as Executive Chef of Ibla Ristorante. He joined Fabio in 2002 at Maestro ... and now is back running his own kitchen. The food scene just got a little better in Washington.

Greg Sharpe Named ACF/NCCA Chef of the Year

Greg Sharpe (on the right with last year's winner Tim Recher), executive chef at the Washington Convention Center was named Chef of the Year by the Nation's Capital Chef's Association (NCCA) ... a chapter of the American Culinary Federation (ACF). The annual Charity Gala Dinner was held Sunday night at the Washington Court Hotel on Capitol Hill where executive chef Mario Raymond was the host chef for the dinner benefitting D.C. Central Kitchen and ACF's Chef and the Child. Jeff Gordon of Saval Foodservice chaired the committee that organized the event: Michael Gaietto, David Ivey-Sotto, Kendall Richardson and Steve Ryder.

The dinner that included seven courses, an amuse bouche and aN intermezzo was prepared by chefs: Tim Recher, Hilton Mark Center; Chris Britton, Nestle, Inc.; Mario Raymond, Washington Court Hotel; Max-Phillipe Knoepfel (who I first met maybe 10 years ago with Pierre Salinger); Nancy Knoepfel, Progressive Gourmet; Bobby Vicker, Springfield Hilton; Don Shaw, Birchmere and if I had to make the tough choice as to a favorite course it would be his "corny upright salad") and Glen Bossie with David Rexford from Albert Uster Imports.

Others in attendance included Educator of the Year winner Denise Baxter from Mountain View High School in Stafford, Va.; Gregg Malsbary, chef at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center; Mickey Yaeger, RPA Food Service Sales; Roy Cargiulo, Keany Produce and Marcia Bernstein, In Venus Veritas. Marcia provided two of the wines ... a 2005 Gimenez Torrontes and the Orange Grove Muscatel.

For other fotos from the evening, the Foto Gallery ... as always they are downloadable.

FOOD WINE DRINK 15

YES, we have music to go with our poetry ...