Smoked French Garlic - Baby Purple Artichokes - Ojai Pixie Tangerines - Cool & Calm Jalapeno Chiles - Mixed Baby Eggplant - Vine Sweet Strawberry Tomatoes - Aomori Apples - and many new Organic items!  Visit www.melissas.com for more info and to sign up for our e-newsletter "Melissa's in Minutes". 

 

 

It is time to submit your application and writing samples for the 2008 M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing. The award is given every two years at the LDEI Annual Conference in October. Enter by April 30, 2008, to win the top prize of $1,000 and a trip to Hawaii in LDEI's M.F.K. Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing. Click the Awards button on the left side of your screen and scroll down to the MFK Fisher Award section. There you will find the official application and appendix.

There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the 2008 LDEI annual conference in Hawaii. The Hawaii chapter has developed a blog that is filled with useful information about the conference and the island destination. The link is on the left-hand side of the home page.

Also on the left side of the home page you will find a link to the LDEI Quarterly archives. Issues of the magazine, in PDF format, are stored here for reference.

The LDEI Web Committee is meeting on February 8th to discuss further enhancements to the site.

Les Dames d'Escoffier International (LDEI), a philanthropic organization of leading women in the culinary field, has presented its prestigious Grande Dame Award to Alice Waters, owner of the renowned Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California and an award-winning cookbook author. The award, which honors the lifetime achievement and contribution of an LDEI member to the culinary industry, is bestowed bi-annually and was presented at a breakfast at the Green City Market in Chicago on Oct. 6. A video of the presentation was released at the LDEI annual conference in Dallas on Oct. 19. The video may be viewed at www.ldei.org.

"With LDEI's emphasis on our Green Tables Initiative, it is fitting to present Alice Waters with the 2007 Les Dames d'Escoffier International Grande Dame Award," says Toria Emas, immediate past president of LDEI. "She works tirelessly to connect locally grown product with mainstream America. From her Chez Panisse philosophy to her work within the California School system. Alice Waters holds fast to her ideals and enriches all who meet her."

Alice Waters has been a dominant force in the food world since 1971, when she opened her eatery. Her food philosophy was unique at the More time: to serve only the highest quality product and only when in season. This meant buying from local purveyors, and so began a change in the way that restaurateurs and the public procure food. In part, due to her efforts farmers markets have been appearing across America.

But Waters' vision goes beyond her own restaurant. In 1994 she collaborated with a Berkeley Middle School and began planning The Edible Schoolyard. Through vision and determination, The Edible Schoolyard has become a great success, with students participating in all aspects of the seed-to-table experience, giving the students a full understanding and appreciation of the cycle of food production.

Waters also is the writer of eight cookbooks and is much honored with various conservation awards and honorary degrees as well as a lifetime achievement award from the James Beard Foundation. In addition, she helped conceive The Yale Sustainable Food Project and is a board member of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and Vice President of Slow Food International.

For over thirty years, Alice Waters has been leading the way for Americans to recognize the value of living "green." She taught us to demand fresh, well-grown produce and meats from well-tended flocks.

"LDEI is delighted to count Alice Waters among its Grande Dames," says LDEI president, Katherine Newell Smith. "The award, first presented in 1993, has gone to culinary luminaries Marion Cunningham, Anne Willan, Madeleine Kamman, Edna Lewis, Jerry Anne DiVecchio, Abigail Kirsch, Rosemary Kowalski and Marcella Hazan. There is no doubt that Alice Waters belongs among this import group of women who have been so influential and contributed so much."