New York – The Rolling Stones weren’t the only ones playing to a packed crowd of journalists and fans last week in New York.
The day after the band served up an impromptu jam at Lincoln Center on May 10, another quartet wowed ’em in the Big Apple, but this time it was Denver chefs cooking for nearly 100 food writers and foodies at the Beard House on West 12th Street in Greenwich Village.
The May 11 sold-out get-together at the home named for the legendary chef James Beard had a little more advance notice than the Stones gig, however. The dinner had been well-orchestrated by the Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau as a way to promote Denver as a dining destination.
The four chefs helping that idea along were Frank Bonanno of Mizuna and Luca
d’Italia, Jennifer Jasinski of Rioja, Bryan Moscatello of Adega Restaurant + Wine Bar and Matt Selby of Vesta Dipping Grill.
They sent out a six-course meal after a reception that had attendees buzzing over such snack tidbits as oxtail Rossini with foie gras tourchon and truffled potato chip and a Monte Cristo fashioned with chanterelles, Camembert and bresaola, all served with a Bouvet Brut sparkling wine.
To show that this was indeed all about Denver, the chefs showcased as many ingredients as possible from the area, including Colorado-raised lamb and Haystack Mountain cheeses. Other locals got in on the act to make the event happen – Frontier Airlines flew the chefs to New York and National Distributing and Kobrand donated the wines.
Highlights from the dinner included Moscatello’s cannelloni stuffed with crème fraîche-enhanced whipped potatoes, Bonanno’s lamb rib eye with goat cheese consommé, and the desserts made by Jasinski and Selby, one an almond-brittle phyllo Napoleon with homemade lavender ice cream and the other riesling-poached pineapple with rosemary whipped cream.
The bureau had invited national food and travel journalists who would benefit from getting to know some of Denver’s top chefs – and then pass that knowledge on.
Diners included Heidi Mitchell, senior editor for Travel & Leisure, Bret Thorn, food editor at Nation’s Restaurant News, and freelance food writer Eugenia Bone, author of the Colorado food memoir “At Mesa’s Edge,” along with writers and editors for trade publications in the fields of convention planning and industry analysis.
“We were really pleased with the turnout,” says Denver restaurant consultant John Imbergamo, who attended along with bureau communications director Rich Grant and Denver public relations specialist Nancy Rebek. “Certainly you wish that Bon Appétit and Saveur were there, but anymore those people won’t come unless it’s Thomas Keller or Charlie Trotter doing
the cooking.”
Of course, it wouldn’t have been a Beard dinner without something going wrong. The chefs had been told they had only two vegetarians in the group, but that night nine showed up, along with one woman who couldn’t eat anything containing dairy.
“You know this particular group of chefs and how they cook,” Imbergamo says. “Everything had butter or cream in it. So we took care of that as best we could, making her some special items that she seemed to love.”
In addition, the air conditioning downstairs malfunctioned, forcing the staff to crank it up so much to keep the chefs from melting in the notoriously tiny cooking area that the diners on the second floor were putting on coats during the meal.
“I’ve never been in a hotter kitchen,” Imbergamo says. “The chefs looked like they were cooking while they were showering.”
Which was ironic, considering that James Beard’s house is notable for the shower the famously corpulent chef had installed at the top of the stairs, just above the kitchen, where he used to hose himself down au naturel in full view of the neighbors through his greenhouse-like windows.
The Beard House is run by the James Beard Foundation, which invites chefs from all over the world to come and show off their talents to members, New York diners and anyone else who cares to pay the entrance fee, which ranges from $50 to $150. The chefs must pay their own travel, food and wine costs or get them donated.
The biggest benefit for the chefs is exposure.
Based on the comments by those who attended last week, that goal was achieved for Denver. “That was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten here,” said Rick Isaacson, a New Yorker who grew up in Denver and whose wife, Phyllis Isaacson, is a member of the James Beard Foundation’s staff. “And, trust me, I have to come to them all.”
Dining critic Kyle Wagner can be reached at 303-820-1958 or kwagner@denverpost.com.
