FOODSERVICE MONTHLY'S Sauce on the Side

Maryland Restaurants Celebrate 'Stars of the Industry'

On a night that the restaurant industry of Maryland took a brief time out to celebrate its "stars of the industry," the annual gala at Martin's West in Baltimore was highlighted by the induction of the late Marcia Harris into the Maryland Hospitality Hall of Honor as the single honoree for 2008. Marcia and her boundless enthusiasm received one more heartfelt standing ovation as the announcement was made.

With a forward step toward the future that Marcia Harris would have expected, the 800 attendees were introduced to the new president CEO Paul Hartgen, who will leave the Nevada Restaurant Association and begin his tenure in Maryland June 30.

The awards were then announced with precision and fanfare as the evening showcased the stars of the entire state.

And the names in the envelopes were all met with applause and appreciation:

McCormick Cornerstone Award
Potomac Pizza
New York J&P Pizza, The Greene Turtle

The Brice & Shirley Phillips Lifetime Industry Achievement Award
John Paterakis Sr., H&S Bakery

Maryland Favorite New Restaurant
The Oceanaire Seafood Room

Favorite Bar & Tavern
Seacrets Bar & Grill, Ocean City

Favorite Restaurant
Da Mimmo Finest Italian Cuisine

Favorite Caterer
Martin's Caterers

Favorite Wine & Beverage Program
Jordan's Steakhouse

Pastry Chef of the Year
Duff Goldman, Charm CIty Cakes

Chef of the Year
Gary Leach. Ocean City Convention Center, Centerplate

MHEF ProStart Teacher of the Year
Elaine Heilman, Howard County Applications and Research Lab

MHEF ProStart Student of the Year/Mimmo Cricchio Memorial Scholarship
Ryan Meliker

Erikka Hayes Foundation Scholarship
David Cox

The Schellhase Award
Paula Kreuzburg

Marcia S. Harris Legacy Fund Scholarship Recipient
Edson Miranda, $5,000

Allied Member of the Year
Phillips Foods, Scott Miller

Restaurateur of the Year
Fred Rosenthal. Jasper's American Grille

You can find a set of photographs that can be downloaded in our FOTO GALLERY that you can reach by clicking HERE.

The foto: l-r Lynn Martins, Chairman RAM, Marshall Weston, Interim President CEO, RAM; Fred Rosenthal, Restaurateur of the Year; Paula Kreuzburg, The Schellhase Award; Paul Hartgen, President CEO, RAM starting June 30; Mary Ann and Mimmo Jr. Cricchio, Favorite Restaurant of the Year.

The Hummingbirds Arrive

It was dusk Friday evening and I spotted the first male Ruby Throated Hummingbird at the feeder. And this evening I was out a little earlier to shoot a foto of the first guy back from Mexico as he was enjoying a little sugary nourishment. Now it's official, Spring has Sprung. For more info on hummingbirds and their travel plans, eating and mating habits, you can check out hummingbirds.net If you click on the fotos, you will see him a little clearer.

Gaylord Celebrates Official Opening

The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center held its official opening ceremonies today in the atrium of the $865 million facility. The Gaylord National is the largest combined hotel and convention center on the Eastern Seaboard. It houses 2,000 guest rooms, including 110 suites, and 470,000 square feet of meeting, convention and exhibit space.

Gaylord CEO Colin Reed, hotel general manager Sheldon Suga, Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson and Maryland Lt. Governor Anthony Brown were joined by too many to count politicians praising and shaking each other's hands and then congratulating themselves. National Harbor developer Milt Peterson accepted his share of kudos although he was jokingly (we think) prevented from speaking to keep the program length manageable.

Then with a bang, a short blast of fireworks and a squirt of the fountain, the ribbon split and the hotel was officially declared open.

Chipotle Opens in My Hood

It was the best kind of event to cover ... one that was a mile from my house ... and one that wasn't even a press event, but the usual Chipotle neighborhood welcome. In order to say hello to its new neighbors, they held a fundraiser tonight, to benefit the Charles H. Flowers High School Athletic Department in Bowie. A $5 donation got you a big, gourmet burrito, or order of tacos, a bowl or a salad, along with crispy tortilla chips and salsa and guacamole. All proceeds, yes 100%, went right to the school’s various sports teams' programs.

I've been a big fan of Chipotle for a long time now ... how can you miss with good food, served quickly in a quick serve environment that works. I can remember meeting Bill Niman (he's one of the fine pork producers for Chipotle) and Steven Els, the chef founder who has made a credo of selling Food With Integrity at the opening of the Dupont Circle store. Here you have an owner committed to doing it right and suppliers who are actually food people, not commodity pushers.

Most people you see in a Chipotle don't read the massive positive press clippings, understand fully the green commitments in the way they build out their locations. Most miss the highly entertaining Web site that is more like a visit to Facebook than to a corporate portal in cyberspace. If you like dogs, go here. If you believe in pentapping go here.

Onward. While I've tasted many other items, I always get the carnitas bowl and tonight I made my first adjustment from the norm, I had pinto beans instead of black beans. I was happy ... but the ordering will slow down as I will have to think now ... black beans or pinto or maybe black beans. That's the other thing I like about Chipotle is that the line moves fast. Good food coming at you fast ... OK, so I'm taking a break from the Slow Food people for a moment ... relax. I will eat slowly and savor each bite.

In the foto that's regional director, Phil Petrilli -- until I just looked at his card, I didn't realize he has the while Northeast Region. Well, he can be a tough interview ... he would much rather be helping out and talking to happy customers. That's OK, it gave me time to enjoy my carnitas bowl.

In case you're in my hood, this Chipotle is at 10201 Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy, Bowie, Md.

'Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day' with the NRA and McCormick & Schmick's

Mel Krupin at the McCormick & Schmick's on K St. in DC is still leading the hospitality charge at the door of the power saloon/dining room. It made perfectly good sense for the Dawn Sweeney, president CEO of the National Restaurant Association to show up with her son and 17 other parents and children from their nearby offices. It's the annual "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work" program that goes beyond the average practice of “shadowing” an adult. The theme is “Making Choices for a Better World.”

Sweeney couldn't have made a better choice than to expose the kids to a working restaurant (with lunch included) and a tour from the master of "working the door." The 79-year-old Krupin has made the choice to keep on leading the way in power hospitality in the nation's capital. Before lunch today, he gave the kids a tour of the restaurant from the host desk with all the reservation/seating equipment to the lounge area (for when they are a little older) to the raw bar, dessert and salad station and then into the kitchen with a view of the prep and cooking lines.

Mr. Krupin did the obligatory "Washington waltz" at the end ... he handed out his business card. He told the kids that a call to him could get them a table when it might seem impossible ... and that's a good thing, but that it "would not be free." That's the business part of the show-biz of hospitality.

[In the foto Dawn Sweeney is on the left and Mel Krupin -- well you know who he is. All of the pictures are in the Foto Gallery ... just click here.]

FOOD WINE DRINK 22

Over dinner last night at Vermilion, I told Jeff Dufour (Washington Examiner columnist and co-correspondent for "Yeas and Nays") about our Food Wine Drink iMixes. It didn't take long for Jeff to get ten of his favorites together. It's a good one!

Hartgen Named President CEO of Restaurant Association of Maryland

PAUL HARTGEN has been named president and chief executive officer of the Restaurant Association of Maryland. He replaces Marshall Weston, who had served as interim president as the Association searched for a replacement for Marcia Harris who died in September, 2007.

“After conducting a thorough national search for our next leader, we are pleased to have found Paul Hartgen whom we are convinced is most capable of leading the organization at this key stage,” said Lynn Martins, chairman of the board of directors and owner of Seibels Restaurant of Burtonsville, Md. “His hands-on, managerial experience will make all the difference as we continue efforts in making RAM the most effective and influential hospitality organization in Maryland and the region.”

With more than 25 years in the hotel and restaurant industry, Hartgen leaves the presidency of the Nevada Restaurant Association where he has served since August, 2005. Before that Hartgen was president of the New Hampshire Hotel Lodging and Restaurant Association. Hartgen will begin his new position June 30 at the Columbia, Md. headquarters for RAM. He is currently president of the International Society of Restaurant Association Executives.

“As someone who has worked collaboratively with RAM’s membership and staff from the outside, I am very much aware of this association’s strong reputation within the restaurant industry as being on the cutting edge of new and creative approaches for our industry,” said Hartgen. “As President and Chief Executive officer of RAM I am committed to continuing this tradition on behalf of the restaurant industry of Maryland.”

Rites of Spring

There are several signs that indicate spring has finally arrived ... I just pulled out the next to last quart from the freezer of tomato sauce from the 2007 garden harvest of paste tomatoes and cayenne peppers (we like it spicy). This is a sign that I need to clean up the garden and prepare the soil for the planting in two weeks. I got 18 quarts of sauce last year ... and that's a good amount to get me through the winter unless I give away too many to friends. April is the month for the first burger on the grill ... no tomatoes (that's for harvest time) so I usually go with a cheese, a slice of a Vidalia and a big juicy hamburger patty -- no more than medium rare. Then it's awaiting my real messengers of spring -- the hummingbirds. Some have probably seen the first visitors back from Mexico ... my guys made it here April 20 last year, so I'm patiently maintaining their feeder outside my kitchen window so they know food is available as soon as they arrive from winter abode. Food is a mixture of table sugar and water ... 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. I make up a batch and keep it in the frig ... if you make a commitment to feed the birds (and I feed the squirrels too) then you have to keep the feeders full and the food fresh. As I wait for the hummingbirds, I replace the mixture every three or four days as the liquid will mold over -- not a friendly food at that point. Another sign of spring is that finally after the early game played with daylight savings time this year, where we lost an important hour of light at the beginning of the day and tacked it on at the end. When you get up at 6 like I do, and enjoy the early morning hours, that's a bummer. But now it's more civilized as dawn is arriving around 6 now and the sun comes up at 6:30. That I can deal with ... and we're gaining 2 -3 minutes a day for the next month or so.

I'll let you know when the hummingbirds arrive and in between the usual magazine and food happenings, you will find my diary of a garden on the Web log all the way through the fall. The garden is smallish but it works ... mostly paste tomatoes, some slicing varieties, cayenne peppers and pumpkins with sunflowers because I love them and some flowering varieties of plants that the hummingbirds enjoy au naturel. Hopefully I won't have any groundhogs this year ... the relocation process is tedious but we won't get into that until it happens (but the trap is close by in the garage). You know how it goes, each year is different. It could be the weather or bugs this year to drive me crazy. I'm looking forward to the weekend to get starting on the earth part of the plan. The herbs stay on the deck and usually I start over each year ... but more than ever wintered OK outside ... three rosemarys made it, some thyme, peppermint, chives (it always comes back), chamonmille and it looks like some others are trying to initiate a growth burst.

Time to go for a hummingbird check ...

FOOD WINE DRINK 21

Thanks again to Sauce on the Side friend The Candy Pitch for another great song recommend ... check out today's Candy Gram for favorite "perform to" songs by Kimberlee Rose ... "Coconut Woman" leads her list ... and this week's iMix is my new favorite, but then I say that every week. Enjoy!

Gaylord National Chefs Featured in April Foodservice Monthly

With April in Washington comes Cherry Blossoms, the opening of Nationals Park and yes, the long anticipated opening of the largest non-gaming hotel on the East Coast: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. While many in DC want to believe that this development along the Potomac called National Harbor just popped up overnight ... a hospitality surprise; the reality is that this has been a decade in the making. And imagine their surprise when they see that the old Wilson Bridge is gone and in its place there is a 12-lane double span bridge delivering traffic across the river to Maryland and Virginia.

The chefs of the 2000-room hotel and convention center have been their new kitchens fast track work outs in advance of the guests that arrived as early as March 29. Today April 1 is the first official opening date for the hotel.

Here is the opening culinary team to drive the food and beverage operations ... they appear on the April cover of my magazine ... and now, from left to right:

Wolfgang Birk - Executive Chef and General Manager, Old Hickory
Steakhouse

Juan Natal - Executive Chef, Pienza

Holger Frohlich - Executive Chef, Conference Center

Gunnard Cunningham - Vice President, Food & Beverage

Duane Keller - Executive Chef, Moon Bay

Gregg Malsbary - Executive Chef, In-Room Dining

Matthew Raiford- Executive Chef, Galaxy Diner