Month: February 2012

Announcing Dames Who Read

1 Comment

We have Dames Who Drink, so how about Dames Who Read?

We all have our favorite food-themed books and are usually looking for more. Here are three current favorites. You are invited to read them and discuss them with other Reading Dames over the next year.

This is NOT a traditional book club. No pressure to finish the book, no big reports due. Just a fun reason for some of us to get together and chat about what we are reading. Our host chefs will be there to add their comments too.

Since we are, after all, Les Dames d’Escoffier, it’s only fitting that we start with a book about the great chef’s life. WHITE TRUFFLES IN WINTER by N. M. Kelby is an historical novel filled with kitchen intrigue. Whet your appetite while reading about the origins of some familiar recipes credited to Chef Escoffier and get into the historical kitchen and the chef’s motivation as the recipes are being created.

Later, we will move to another cuisine with THE LAST CHINESE CHEF a novel by Nicole Mones, author of “Lost in Translation”. The book follows the dedication, frustration, focus and tradition of one young Chinese chef hoping to win a cooking competition and is as spellbinding as King of Pastry.

And to round out the first season of books, we will get into our own American History by reading THOMAS JEFFERSON’S CRÈME BRÛLÉE by Thomas Craughwell. Go with the President to France and bring back with him his food and wine discoveries which later became American favorites.

We will meet in a restaurant appropriate to the book for a glass of wine and small tastes of items referenced in the books. Cost of $29 (bring cash please for anything other than what is included). Participants may want to stay for dutch-treat dinner following the discussion; we will make those reservations so be sure to indicate on your rsvp if you intend to stay.

To see the details of our first meeting, click here: WHITE TRUFFLES IN WINTER.

Following a Scholarship Winner!

1 Comment

Erin Winston Silva, a 2011 Les Dames Chicago scholarship winner is featured in The Pioneer Local. She and her husband Jonadab Silva recently opened Hota in Evanston, a fine dining establishment. They met a few years ago when the restaurant was Jacky’s on Prairie.

Read more about her journey and her recipe for Dulce de Leche and Chocolate Mousse Tart.

 

 

Nutrition Literacy Program Making a Difference

Leave a comment

Mitch Day, Program Director at the McCormick Boys & Girls Club shared a thank you note from the children at the club to members of Les Dames d’Escoffier Chicago. He told the board that in his ten years at the club this is the program of which he is most proud. And the notes on the giant card from the children and staff members at the club confirmed the sentiment.

This program that was initiated by Les Dames Chicago is featured prominently on the club’s website and has gained attention from other Boys & Girls Clubs around the city and internationally as a model. It promotes healthy life style and shines a light on career exploration in food and nutrition from the members of Les Dames who generously share their time teaching and working in the garden.
Mitch shared the beauty of the way this program teaches math, science and reading in a way that is fun and very “un-school-like.” The kids learn cooking as a basic life skill and bring the learning home. They are introduced to healthy foods that they have never experienced and more often than not find that they really enjoy them. The bounty from the garden is often so plentiful that vegetables in season can be brought home.

It is enormously rewarding for our members who participate to hear that comments they simply make in passing have such an impact on the children and their families. One classic remark was from one of the program participants who said she taught her mother how to make the great bean and kale soup they learned to make at the club.

If you would like to get involved in the program by teaching a class, helping in the garden or supporting some of the field trips, please contact program chair Jean True at jt@truecuisine.com