Taste of Elegance/Profiles Party

June 14-15
I was selected to be a media judge at this year’s Taste of Elegance— the National Pork Board’s chef’s competition, being held in Baltimore at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel. So I spent three hours in the afternoon sequestered with four other judges from various media outlets around the country (including local blogger Holly Barzyk). We dutifully proceeded to taste 18 different dishes. The good news: our choice of winner chef Adam Wells-Morgan agreed with the chefs’ panel judges as well. The bad news: overuse of three tired trends— pork belly, sous vide preparation and micro-greens. Probably six of the chefs used pork belly in their dishes— wasn’t that 2008’s big (and over-rated trend?) The awards dinner/party was held in the evening, and we had a lively table, including Scooter Holt, Tiffany Zappulla, Tracy Kwaitkowsky, Diane Macklin and Celeste Corsaro. Also spotted at the party: Lisa Shenkle and chef Jerry Edwards, one of the competing chefs. Afterward, we all trooped over to the popular new Vino Rosina for a nightcap.

Tuesday night, I attended Profiles PR’s Big Buzz Bash, held at Milan in Little Italy. The bash attracted lots of faces from Baltimore’s media and food communities: Richard Sher, Sloane Brown, Rhea Feikin, Cindy Plackmeyer, Lars Rusins, Sascha Wohlhandler and Faith Deutschle, among others. Great food— fresh bruschetta, flatbreads, crab balls and chilled wines made the evening on the outdoor terrace truly a pleasant event.