What’s going on with Les Dames d’Escoffier in Monterey
What a group! Our Tribute to Mary Chamberlin on Monday, March 16th was wonderful!
It was a beautiful day and great to be among many friends in the culinary world. Mary would have loved it. Bert Cutino kicked off the establishment of our new scholarship with a personal contribution of $1,000, followed by Tene Shake representing The Disciples of Escoffier who presented us with a check for $500.
Dame Crystal Birkemeier added another $1,000 by bidding on the lunch at The French Laundry. And then our loyal dames and ticket holders added more checks to the collection. At our last Board Meeting we confirmed adding $10,000 to our scholarship fund. This is a great tribute to Mary.
Of interest, we asked our guests to vote on which of Mary’s four soups they enjoyed the most. Thirty- six people voted with the Summer Gazpacho clearly the favorite at 16 votes. The Carrot-Ginger Bisque came in second with 10 votes, followed by the Leek and Potato at 7 votes. The Crab and Brie was last with only 3 votes. The soups were prepared by Dames Wendy Brodie, Sarda Desmond, Analuisa Bejar, Dorothy Maras, who by the way, did a wonderful job as event coordinator, and Cheryle Pisto. Dames Charlotte Muia, Sharon Runde, Edeen Hill, Carolyn Walter, Nance Danner and Tamie Aceves provided the desserts and hors d’oeuvres. Dames Roxanne Langer, Tamara Carver and Eleni Papadakis curated the wines. Dame Tamie Aceves’s new venue Lovers Point Events is beautiful and was the perfect place for our afternoon event. She has re-established and transformed her La Crème much to the joy of early morning walkers and runners passing by and needing a pick-up coffee and pantry. Next time you are in Pacific Grove, stop by and say hello.
Next up is our Garage Sale on Saturday, April 18th at Dame Charlotte Muia’s home
Now is the time to go through your kitchen and set aside all those gadgets and pots and pans that you really don’t use. You can contact Charlotte to arrange to drop things off. Her house is located at 144 West Carmel Valley Road. Anyone who wants to volunteer to sort, price and organize let her know. She is eagerly awaiting help, call her at 831-521-4598. The sale will be from 9am to 3pm, tell your friends and plan to stop. Keep your eyes open for great finds while supporting a wonderful cause.
Engage with our community on MEarth Day
May 9th is MEarth Day at Dame Katie Reneker’s Hilton Bialek Habitat and we are a sponsor. We will be cooking wood-fired pizzas all day. This is our community engagement and green table project this year. Chef and Dame Sarda Desmond will lead pizza preparation and is seeking three or four dames to assist. E-mail her at Sardasfusioncatering@gmail.com to volunteer.
So much to talk about from the last few months
In case you missed some of our past events, we had a lovely Christmas Tea down the coast at my home in early December.
More recently, we had a wonderful Tour of Rancho Cielo and then gathered for a delicious dinner in their dining room cooked by the Drummond Culinary Academy students. What has developed in the last 25 years on that campus is truly remarkable and Les Dames can take pride in the fact that we have been supporting them since the beginning. In fact, we gave a scholarship to one of the culinary students who went on to graduate from one of the Escoffier schools and later worked for Thomas Keller.
A hearty group drove out to The Monterey County Food Bank and helped pack food for distribution for the holidays. Dame Toun Ray gave us a tour of the facilities followed by a light lunch.
New Members
Please welcome Sabrene Sims, Jenn Charbonnet, Yaza Shafai, Christine Winge and Elsa Rivera who have joined in the last three months. These five new members bring great expertise to our organization so reach out and introduce yourself at our next event. You can meet them by checking out their profiles on our Website.
Check out our website and share your events!
Please note our new Website is up and running. Go to Lesdamesmonterey.org and check it out. Scholarship applicants and potential new members can now apply online. However, to make this site hum we need each member to complete their profile. Please go to the membership tab, click on “log- on,” create your own personal password and then edit your profile. You will see your name under the directory with your e-mail.
Krista Langer, Dame Roxanne Langer’s daughter is managing our Facebook page and will gladly post any event you are connected with. Just e-mail Krista (KLanger50 @gmail.com) and she will format and post your info including photos. Check out our Facebook link (from the Website) to see more.
Great new partnership
Thanks to Dame Aga Simpson, we have also partnered with Edible Monterey Bay magazine to help us get our story out into the community and promote our philanthropic and scholarship activities. Dame Analuisa Bejar wrote a wonderful story about us – “ Les Dames d’Escoffier Boosts Young Pros (and Has a Lot of Fun)” which ran in the Edible newsletter on March 6th. A copy is posted on our Website under “News.”
Coming up soon
In June we’re planning a Pop-Up at Amapola Kitchen Wine Merchant, Dame Crystal Birkemeier’s Restaurant in Salinas so keep an eye out for further details. In August we will hold our Annual Meeting and Induction of new members.
I’m off to the National Conference in Las Vegas this week where I will catch up on news from our National Headquarters and meet with other chapters. We already have a great relationship with the San Francisco, Sonoma and Sacramento chapters sharing news.
Keep in touch. Tell us what you are doing in the community. Let’s keep supporting each other!
Warmly,
Rachel Mueller, President