Kitchen Stars
Women chefs take a bow as the Baltimore Foodies celebrate the crème de la crème of restaurant talent.
September 19, 2008
By Martha Thomas
Photography by Grace Gladhill
Jesse Sandlin (at left in photo), of Abacrombie Fine Food, prepared bone-in lamb shanks fit for the Flintstones at a recent Baltimore Foodies event. At right is pastry/dessert chef Jackie Torres.
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Some diners stared in disbelief and others laughed out loud when Jesse Sandlin’s main course was delivered to the tables. The Abacrombie Fine Food chef had prepared more than 60 bone-in lamb shanks with proportions befitting Fred Flintstone. Nobody complained about the lamb, mind you. It was fall-off-the-bone succulent, settled in a red wine reduction with creamy polenta and crisp brussels sprouts on the side. But only a handful of the Baltimore Foodies on hand managed to make a dent in the meal. The rest of us went home with meaty goodie bags.
The evening, billed as “A Celebration of Female Chefs,” was held at Abacrombie and was organized by the Baltimore Foodies to honor the crème de la crème of local restaurant talent. The popular dining group was formed four years ago. Today 350 people regularly attend Foodie events and 3,000 more receive mailings. Led by Lars Rusin, the group holds one or two “dinner parties” a month at a Baltimore restaurant.
The Abacrombie event was not a typical Foodie gathering, Rusin says. Co-sponsored by the wine distributor The Tasting Room, the event drew three times the usual attendance. And while the evening was all about the city’s female chefs, Cindy Wolf of The Charleston Group was nowhere in sight and Pierpoint’s Nancy Longo was there just as a guest.
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Sandlin wrestled a stereotype, bringing meat and potatoes to a whole new level. Her full-bodied meal reflected the “I don’t give a damn what the rest of the world is doing, I’m going to have fun” mentality that seems to inform the best of Baltimore’s arts and pop culture.
Jill Snyder of Red Maple presented lobster soup with green heirloom tomatoes and a deep broth. And Bettina Claire of Bicycle sealed the deal with a plate of “tea-inspired bites” — miniature desserts including a chai poached pear, chamomile crème brulée and chocolate truffle infused with jasmine tea.
The Foodies began when Rusin, a cheese distributor, and three of his buddies found themselves at a loss after the Ravens’ season ended. “We all had season tickets and had a great time getting together,” Rusin says. “We decided to keep hanging out by going to dinner.”
Rusin loves to dine out. Even more, he loves to chat with chefs. He’s fond of referring to the local bigwigs by their first names: Spike, Jason, Cindy. “Restaurants love me,” he says.
They should. Rusin holds the events mainly in small, independent restaurants and brings in a group of up to 20, usually on a Thursday night. Diners generally pay $89 (Foodie members pay $10 less) for a prix-fixe menu. The tab includes drinks, tax and tip. Rusin shaves off a bit for his advertising and website costs, but even he pays his own way. “The person who makes the most on the event is the restaurant owner,” he says.
Rusin introduces his acolytes to places they might not otherwise hear of. La Cazuela, a family-run Ecuadoran restaurant on Eastern Avenue, held a Foodie event in 2006. The restaurant put on a traditional four-course meal with plantains, marinated meats, hominy and spicy pork, all washed down with wine and Ecuadoran beer.
The only time Foodies frequent a corporate venue is to taste a special item. “Capital Grille has steak tartare on the menu,” says Rusin, who organized a sampling of the raw beef around a “two martini lunch.” (He says cheerfully, “We’re a very politically incorrect crowd.”)
Rusin elevated his non-PC cred last winter when he headed a group that lobbied the State Legislature to ensure that fois gras — goose liver — would remain on local menus despite an outcry against the practice of force-feeding the birds to make their livers rich and fatty. In February, the Foodies hosted a dinner at Salt, the Patterson Park restaurant known for its Kobe beef “slider,” which is topped with a dollop of fois gras.
Fois gras was also on the menu at the Abacrombie dinner, in the dessert slot. Seared in sugar and drizzled in a cherry preserve, with a mille-feuille pastry on the side, the confection created by Sarah Acconcia, Abacrombie’s pastry chef, was supremely indulgent.
Baltimore today is filled with restaurants: long, skinny ones in converted rowhouses; cavernous ones in gutted factories and foundries. Rusin is reluctant to name his favorite, but he and his wife celebrated their anniversary at Woodberry Kitchen (where, he says, “Spike was glad to see us”). Talking to Rusin makes you want to get out and explore.
To learn more about Baltimore Foodies: www.baltfoodies.com
