The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has launched a database to help diners find restaurants that serve humanely raised meat and dairy products that have not been factory farmed, a practice that has been linked to environmental issues. The database contains more than 150 restaurants in 15 U.S. cities.
To build the database, WSPA selected the cities by region, metro population and popularity as a tourist and business travel destination. Experts examined restaurant menus to identify meat, dairy and egg products that come from a higher level of animal welfare than products from factory farms. The cities included in the database are:
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Charleston, S.C.
- Chicago
- Cleveland
- Dallas
- Los Angeles
- Minneapolis
- New York City
- Philadelphia
- Portland, Ore.
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
For more information, visit www.wspa-usa.org.
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At the fifth annual Oregon Truffle Festival, French truffle researcher and truffle farmer Pierre Sourzat and Spanish truffle researchers Carlos Colinas and Christine Fischer will lead two-day seminars during the three-day festival Jan. 29 to 31, 2010, at the Valley River Inn in Eugene, Ore.
The three experts will lead the Truffle Cultivation Seminar, an introductory course on truffle cultivation followed by a truffle hunt; and the Truffle Growers' Forum, a gathering to discuss current events and developments in the international truffle industry. Other educational seminars include the Grand Truffle Dinner, featuring local black and white truffles; and Truffle Dog Training, where attendees will introduce their dogs to the aroma of truffles and teach them to hunt for Oregon’s native truffles.
For more information, visit www.oregontrufflefestival.com.
To celebrate Valley Fig Growers' 50th anniversary, the grower-owned cooperative is sponsoring a contest to find out fig enthusiasts' favorite recipes, products and anecdotes. Contestants can submit entries for the "Fabulous at 50" contest via e-mail, at info@valleyfig.com until Jan. 31, 2010.
Entries will be judged based on relevance to figs, writing quality, creativity, taste and appearance. The grand prize is $250 cash, a fig gift pack, a copy of the Fig Heaven cookbook and a bottle of fig balsamic vinegar. For more information, visit www.valleyfig.com.
Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, a five-unit Florida restaurant chain, partnered with Share Florida, a nonprofit organization that offers savings on food packages for those in need, to provide meals for Dade and Broward county families in need during the Thanksgiving season.
Lime donated more than $4,000 to Share Florida, which provided meals to more than 150 families. In addition, Lime's corporate team and franchisees gathered on Nov. 21 at 5 a.m.to help Share volunteers give the families their Thanksgiving meals at host locations near each of Lime's restaurants. Each family received the following: one 10-to-14 lb. turkey, pumpkin pie, stuffing mix, turkey gravy mix, cranberry sauce, buttermilk biscuit mix and assorted fresh fruits and vegetables.
During the past year, Lime has raised and donated more than $25,000 to local and national charities. For more information, visit www.limefreshmexicangrill.com.
Celebrity chef and restaurateur Michael Symon and freelance journalist and writer Michael Ruhlman will join Tellman Knudson, who is running barefoot from New York to Los Angeles to raise money for homeless teens, at a press conference in Cleveland on Nov. 24. Knudson, also known as the Barefoot Philanthropist, is running 3,200 miles to raise $100,000 for homeless outreach programs like Bellefaire JCB. He began his run Sept. 9 in New York City and is 540 miles into the trek.
"I am happy to support Tellman and his extraordinary endeavor," said Symon in a press statement. "I can’t imagine the pain and suffering of running barefoot on pavement for even one mile, much less the 500 that he has already run. It is a tremendous commitment and a great personal sacrifice."
The meet-and-greet event begins at 11 a.m. at the Bellefaire JCB Center in Shaker Heights, Ohio. For more information or to donate, visit www.runtellmanrun.com or www.tellman.org.
The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) is seeking general contributions from foodservice industry members to its Scholarship Program. The NRAEF Scholarship Program funds scholarships for high school and college students.
For more information or to donate, visit www.nraef.org/giving/scholarships.
First-year GRCC culinary-arts students flank APPCA's Candy Wallace (holding her Leadership Award) and chef-instructor Audrey Heckwolf, who will teach the new personal/private-chef elective that launches at The Secchia Institute in Grand Rapids in January 2010.
Candy Wallace, founder and executive director of the American Personal & Private Chef Association (APPCA), was honored by The Secchia Institute for Culinary Education at Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), Grand Rapids, Mich., with the culinary-arts program's 2009 Leadership Award on Nov. 9.
The award, which acknowledges Wallace's pioneering contributions to identifying, building and promoting the emerging career paths of personal and private chef, was founded by GRCC's Hospitality Education Department in 1990 as the Distinguished Fellow Award. Past recipients include television cooking personalities and authors Martin Yan and Graham Kerr as well as foodservice-industry luminaries and celebrity chefs from abroad.
Wallace founded the American Personal Chef Association in 1996 as the first significant national effort to recognize the impact of personal chefs on Americans' evolving lifestyles and to provide career and management training to those who aspire to become personal chefs with their own businesses. She forged the positioning of personal chefs as culinary professionals, culminating in 2002 with a formal partnership with the American Culinary Federation to award certification to qualified personal chefs. The following year, she was honored with the International Association of Culinary Professionals' Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2006, Wallace earned additional industry accolades by formally acknowledging the contributions of private chefs to American society and addressing their specific professional needs by restructuring her organization to become the American Personal & Private Chef Association.
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Chef's Stirrings is the official blog of Chef Magazine, the industry publication for restaurant and foodservice professionals. The blog offers culinary news and online exclusives from the editors ofChef.
