More than 30 chefs from 10 states prepared tastes of their food and 10 wineries and purveyors kept supporters of Veggie U's fundraising Food & Wine Celebration in Milan, OH very happy last Saturday, 7/18/09. I joined several of my International Wine and Food Society - Columbus Branch members to partake in this event this year. We chartered a mini-bus to do the 2-hour drive for us, letting us all taste as much wine as we wished. (Milan is in farm country near Lake Erie, halfway between Cleveland and Toledo.)The event supports Veggie U, which provides a 5-week interactive curriculum for fourth-grade and special needs children throughout the U.S. to learn about healthy food and eating. It's part of the Slow Food movement in the U.S. I first learned of Slow Food in my 2007 trip to Barolo, Italy (it was started in nearby Bra in Piedmont). With my friends Roger & Sherran Blair, we luxuriated in a week of Slow Food dinners there, savoring carefully prepared meals each night in our typical 8:30 pm to midnight dinners. As suggested by the name, the Slow Food movement was started in reaction to the opening of the first McDonald's burger joint in Bra in the 1970s.
The 2009 Food & Wine Celebration was wonderful! I've had the pleasure of (over)eating at many such fundraising events over the decades. This was one of the most impressive, in terms of quality of food & wine presented. The chefs prepared most of the food on site and each taste was presented beautifully. The program provided diversions from eating and drinking, with cooking demonstrations, presentations on wine and food pairing, garden tours, and an Iron Chef-like cook-off judged by Food Channel personalities.
Since pictures are worth thousands of words, I'll let my photos do the talking. I've posted 160+ photos from the event on my smugmug photo website in the gallery 2009/07/18 Veggie-U Food & Wine Celebration. There, you can see many of the dishes offered and the chefs who did the cooking right on the spot. Warning: The photos might make you very hungry (or at least salivate)!
Hearty thanks to Sherran Blair for organizing the trip for us! It was definitely "worth the trip!"
It seems like a really outstanding event for a good cause and worth all the time and money spent participating. The chartered minibus was also a great idea. I enjoyed reading about the event and seeing all the pictures. I wonder how muh money they raised.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great photos... btw - there is a link to the recipe from Michael's blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chef Foss, for the exciting Deconstructed Buffalo Wings! Yum! (I admit to having 4 pieces, sacrificing tummy space and hence not tasting a few other things.) The chicken bone handles were genius! Looking forward to dining at Lockwood at the Palmer House Hilton on one of my trips to Chicago!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of Slow Food. I have been eating far too fast all my life. It might be too late for me to enjoy slow food.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first trip to Rome with my husband. He booked morning sight-seeing tours, afternoon tours, and evening tours. On our first night there, we had dinner in our hotel’s dining room. There were trio violinists playing music around our table. The second course was just served, and found it was already time for our evening/night tour. I realized that we rush so much living in NY; we didn’t really know how to enjoy life any more. And we decided that when you are in Rome, do what the Romans do. My father-in-law said “chew your food 20 times before you swallow.” He lived to 102.
ReplyDelete"Chew 50 times before you swallow!" said Dr. Hiromi Shinya, Chief, Surgical Endoscopy Unit, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Hospital New York
ReplyDeleteThat was probably what my father-in-law said. Chew 50 or 70 times. The point is, I probably don't even chew 10 times; then chewing 20 times seem like a lot to me. My father-in-law had very good teeth.
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Thanks for a great writeup of the Veggie U. event. I wanted very much to go; perhaps next year.
ReplyDeleteAnd a quick heads-up for those interested in the Slow Food movement: There is a Columbus chapter, formed about a year and a half ago. Visit slowfoodcolumbus.org for more information.
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