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Photos from Taste of the Nation
Jessica Leung hit up Taste of the Nation at the Loews Hotel yesterday evening, camera in hand, to take in the scene. Here's her report from the event, a fundraiser for the national non-profit Share Our Strength.
Photos from Taste of the Nation
Jessica Leung hit up Taste of the Nation at the Loews Hotel yesterday evening, camera in hand, to take in the scene. Here's her report from the event, a fundraiser for the national non-profit Share Our Strength.
Everyone was all smiles at Taste of the Nation last night. Whether it was due to the many small-bite samplings from local restaurants or the unlimited amount of booze, all the guests, chefs and mixologists in attendance seemed to buy into the spectacle.
When I arrived, I was a little nervous about being in a room full of established chefs, but there were no larger-than-the-sun egos yesterday. Every participant I interacted with took their time to genuinely show how happy they were to be there and support a good cause. The SOS chefs also demonstrated that it's not all about using the most expensive, flashy ingredients or capturing the largest profit margins; food is often taken for granted, so it was nice to see that this event highlighted the bigger picture of helping those who can't easily get three meals a day. The food prepared by the chefs was just a kind gesture to thank everyone for showing their support. Since 1988, the Share Our Strength organization has raised more than $75 million to combat hunger in America; all of the proceeds earned yesterday will go to support No Kid Hungry, SOS' campaign to eliminate childhood hunger in America by 2015.
Some of my highlights of the evening:
- Jennifer Carroll was presented with an award for serving as this year's "Chef Chair." The bites the 10 Arts chef put out — a foie mousse, and a goat cheese mousse with blackberries, streusel and tomato gelee — were among the best I tasted.
- The team from McCrossen's Tavern carved up a whole pig for the event.
- Preston Eckman, a bartender at Opa and representative for the acai liquor Veev, made a "Red Mule," a ginger beer cocktail. He showed that it's not just about mixing drinks when dealing with a big crowd — it's also putting on a show to capture the attention of guests.
- Another bartender about town, Christian Gaal (Noble), worked on hand-chipping smooth spheres of ice throughout the event.
- Bar Ferdinand produced a giant pan of paella downstairs in the kitchen and brought it up the gala.
- Capogiro talked about their philosophy of using fresh, in-season ingredients to produce their gelati. Mango-Champagne was a definite highlight.
- The ladies of A Cupcake Wonderland graced us with dark chocolate cupcakes, Swiss buttercream and raspberries. They'll actually appear on an episode of Food Network's Cupcake Wars tonight at 8 p.m.
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
