Weekly Roundup: Roll Out The Red Carpet Edition

March 26, 2010 at 6:30 am · Filed under DC ·Tagged dc pastry chefs, dc restaurant scene, james beard awards, RAMMY awards, weekly roundup

These salty chocolate thumbprints will be making an apperance at the Food Bloggers Bake Sale for Haiti this Sunday!

I felt like I was reading about Hollywood and not the DC food scene this week. Nominees for The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s RAMMY awards and the James Beard Awards were announced this week. Well, okay, that’s only two awards. But still – there was lots of internet buzz this week about the DC nominees. In fact, several of the Beard and RAMMY nominees have been interviewed on this very blog – David Guas’ cookbook, Dam Good Sweet, was nominated for a Beard Award, and Pastry Chefs Travis Olson, Anthony Chavez and Josh Short received RAMMY nods.

Before you get all distracted with thoughts of sparkly dressed and red carpets, I want to put in a final plug for the Bake Sale for Haiti that’s happening this Sunday at Zorba’s (1612 20th Street NW) from 9-11. All proceeds will go to benefit Doctor’s Without Borders Haiti relief efforts, and many local food bloggers will be showcasing their best baking talents. Speaking of which, I’ll totally be spending tomorrow making lemon cupcakes and salty chocolate thumbprint cookies for the bake sale. So don’t be shy! Come out and get the baked goods you’ve been craving.

Okay, roundup time. Recipes I want to try, from this week’s Internet offerings:

• Bacon cornbread. Bacon. Cornbread. I don’t need to say anything more. From Biscuits and Such.

• Russian cabbage crescent rolls (I will eat anything if it is rolled up in biscuit dough) from Mango and Tomato.

• Ice cream sandwiches with chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon ice cream from Pete Bakes!

• Trash Bars from A Measured Memory. Dear God – they’re stuffed with everything one could want in a bar cookie – rice chex, muddy buddy’s, chocolate chips, peanut butter, and marshmallows. Oh, and butter. Don’t forget the butter.

And in other news:

• Metrocurean rounds up all the DC peeps who were nominated for James Beard Awards, where DC made a strong showing. As I mentioned above, Pastry Chef Amanda Cook of City Zen received a nod, as did DamGoodSweet, the cookbook by DC Pastry Chef David Guas. And City Paper food writer Tim Carman was nominated for his piece about restaurateur Andy Shallal’s disastrous top-chef style competition to hire the new chef at Eatonville.

• The RAMMY nominees were announced on Tuesday, and Young and Hungry has the roundup. For you pastry fans, the Pastry Chef nominees are Anthony Chavez of 2941, Amanda Cook of CityZen, Josh Short of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group, Fabrice Bendano of Adour, and Travis Olson of 1789.

• Whoo hoo! The food blogger bake sale for Haiti made it to the Young and Hungry blog!

• Florida Girl in DC ponders what to make at the Food Blogger Bake Sale. I’m glad that someone else thought about this as much as I did! I willingly admit to having bake sale anxiety.

• A new wine bar opening up on 14th street sparks a blog war with U Street Girl. The blogger removed a comment from her initial post about the restaurant’s opening date after the restaurant owner threatened her with legal action because he found the comment to be libelous. Wow. Well, now I really don’t want to go there, and I love a good wine bar.

• 14th and You (“New wine bar for 14th and Florida promises small plates, short fuse“) and We Love DC (“Local Business Owner Strong-Arming Bloggers?“) comment on U Street Girl’s situation.

• No, I couldn’t attend Le Grand Prix de la Baguette de Tradition Française de la Ville de Paris – Paris’ annual contest for the best bread in the city. But you can get an inside look at the competition – one of the judges was an American living in Paris, and wrote about the experience on her blog. Found via Chewswise.

• Did you read that uber-snobby New York Times blog post about “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do?” Well, Endless Simmer responds with a list of “100 Things Restaurant Patrons Should Never Do.” Excellent piece, guys.

• Gradually Greener takes a look at some unexpected RAMMY award categories – the best neighborhood gathering place, hottest bar scene, and restaurant power spot. I can’t quite believe these are award categories, but they’re very interesting to think about.

• Rather liked this post from The Lancelot Sturgeons about finally getting to that point where you have enough pantry items improvise a gourmet weeknight meal. Haven’t we all experienced that moment when you realize you can actually make a nice meal from random things stuffed into your fridge and pantry? It’s a good feeling.

Happy Friday!

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