Just because something is good for you doesn’t mean it’s what you want to see on your plate at a big, fancy gala. Tickets are $175 and up? There’d better be Caesar salad, a beef filet doused with bearnaise sauce and a rich chocolate mousse for dessert.
Unless, that is, we’re talking about the menu that master chef Adrian Heuer put together for the big do the Denver Museum of Nature & Science had Friday night to mark the opening of its amazing new exhibition, “Expedition Health.”
Correctly assuming that it wouldn’t be cool to send out artery-clogging entrees doused with butter or swimming in cream sauces, Heuer sat down with chair-couples Sondra and Dr. Richard Talley and Susan and Eric Sipf to design a feast filled with healthy choices that were attractively presented — and tasty too.
Salads of steamed baby beets and carrots were served with nonfat soy and lemongrass dressing while the entree — grilled chicken and seared salmon — was accompanied by steamed asparagus and a mash of vitamin-rich butternut squash and plantains. Even the desserts were “safe” — individual lemon custards made from soy milk, tofu and fresh blueberries, and chocolate souffles created with such good-for-you ingredients as unsweetened cocoa, hazelnuts, cinnamon and raspberries.
And if everything looked too good to be true, the museum’s curator of human health, Bridget Coughlin, eased any doubts by ending her remarks not with a cheery bon appetit, but by encouraging the 500-some guests to go ahead and “Enjoy your antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. And don’t forget, wine and dark chocolates are superfoods.”
“Expedition Health,” now open to the public on a reservations-recommended basis, includes activities, experiments, live demonstrations and multimedia presentations that give visitors an insight into how their bodies are constantly functioning and changing.
Kaiser Permanente was the gala’s presenting sponsor, and Colorado division president Donna Lynne was there to join museum president George Sparks, chairman of the board Peter Dea and a host of staff and trustees in sharing their excitement for an exhibition over two years in the making, one that is regarded as a national model.
Expedition Health is the successor to the museum’s Hall of Life, which enjoyed a 20-year run. Sue Palmer and Jim Goddard were Hall of Life’s key administrators and were there to congratulate Coughlin and members of her Expedition Health team: Nancy Gire, Mary Hacking, Gannon Kashiwa, Frances Kruger, Bryce Snellgrove and Nancy Walsh.
Gala co-chair Sondra Talley also was involved with Hall of Life and was happy to see such fellow volunteers as Mary Jane Newens, Lynne Cundy and Patti Brown there to help launch the new venture.
Others checking it out were David Livingston, chairman of the Colorado Health Foundation board, and his wife, Michelle; University of Colorado Denver Chancellor M. Roy Wilson and his wife, Suzanne; University Hospital chief Bruce Schroffel and his wife, Lorrie; Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis; Tom and Sally Kaesemeyer of the Gates Foundation; Boettcher Foundation chief Tim Schultz; Lee and Delores Schlessman, whose family foundation funded the exhibit’s Measure Up component; Vickie and Jack Box, Mary Jean and Jim Nussbaum; J Madden and Linda Poletti; John and Ginny Freyer; Ollie and Lindsey Hickel; Harry Lewis; Judi and Joe Wagner; Ann and Hal Logan; Cynthia and Philippe Dunoyer; and Barbara Welles.
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com; also,
