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Alice Waters

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C-CAP CREATES AN INDEPENDENT FUTURE

July 4, 2012

Students benefit from annual culinary fundraiser and see a bright opportunity ahead in kitchens
By Francine Cohen

Photo by Jerry Ruotolo

On this Independence Day 2012 we want to share with you a heartwarming story of independence creating a bright future for our industry, as seen through the lens of the C-CAP benefit which took place a few months ago. This year’s annual gala, the most successful in C-CAP’s history, raised over $900,000, thereby creating real opportunities for a whole new crop of budding chefs.

The annual C-CAP (www.ccapinc.org) gala at Pier Sixty (www.piersixty.com) was the back drop for more than 800 guests who enjoyed an evening of signature dishes presented by 38 of New York’s top chefs with wine donated by The Charmer Sunbelt Group (www.charmer-sunbelt.com). Over 60 New York City C-CAP high school culinary students and graduates assisted the chefs of these renowned restaurants. “This walk-around tasting event raised funds to support C-CAP’s mission of providing scholarships, education, and career opportunities in the culinary arts to underserved youth who are interested in pursuing careers in the restaurant and foodservice industry,” says C-CAP’s president, Susan Robbins. “For more than 20 years, we have been breaking the cycle of poverty for hundreds of qualified students across the country. We continue to manage the largest independent scholarship program and have awarded over $34 million in scholarships.”

Dreams of working in restaurant kitchens come to life for so many disadvantaged youths thanks to Careers for Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP). Started 22 years ago by Richard Grausman as a small local non-profit, C-CAP has grown into a major nationwide program providing support for thousands of youths wishing to enter into the exciting field of the Culinary Arts. Last year alone, C-CAP impacted the lives of over 12,000 students in 164 schools through training, career service and scholarships.

The scholarship pool grew deeper at the 2012 gala which honored Michael McCarty, Proprietor of Michael’s NY (www.michaelsnewyork.com) and Michael’s Santa Monica (www.michaelssantamonica.com). “This year, C-CAP was thrilled to honor restaurateur, art collector, entrepreneur, vintner, and Continue Reading…

Brain Food

BRAIN FOOD: “THE MAN WHO CHANGED THE WAY WE EAT”

May 31, 2012

By Thomas McNamee
Story by Mort Hochstein

It was a surprise to me when, recently, I mentioned Craig Claiborne to a knowledgeable friend and he did not recognize the name. In the sixties and seventies, Claiborne dominated the Manhattan food scene and had a nationwide and international influence as restaurant critic and food editor of the New York Times. Quiet and retiring, he was a powerhouse who wrote two dozen books and fathered restaurant criticism as we know it today.

In those years, I produced Claiborne’s appearances on the Today program and occasionally accompanied him when he reviewed restaurants. On one memorable occasion in the mid-sixties, I worked with him as he gave sushi its first major showcase on television. I thought I knew the man. How wrong I was.

A stunning new biography, The Man Who Changed The Way We Eat, portrays Claiborne’s contribution to gastronomy, in the palaces of haute cuisine and in the kitchens of cooks, great and humble. Author Thomas McNamee celebrates the mild mannered Southern gentleman who propelled the food revolution of the last century and we learn almost more than some might care to know about his troubled private life.

McNamee, who also gave us Alice Waters and Chez Panisse, traces Claiborne’s culinary career from his childhood in the kitchen of a renowned Mississippi Delta boarding house where his mother, Miss Kathleen, served the hush puppies and country ham of the region, but also offered sophisticated Creole cuisine which she had learned in New Orleans. He traces another food influence, Claiborne’s navy stint in World War Two, service under fire on the cruiser Augusta in the Mediterranean and eight months based in Morocco and Algeria where he discovered French bistro cooking along with the tagines and spices of North Africa.

After military service, Claiborne studied classical French cuisine and hospitality at the famed Swiss hotel school in Lausanne and returned to the States after two years to begin a campaign that would take him to the New York Times. He worked as a publicist—unhappily-, tended bar and was a receptionist at Gourmet, writing and editing without a byline. He also wrote freelance and his articles brought him in 1957 to the attention of the editor of the Times’ women’s pages, who took a chance on an unseasoned writer, but not before passing him on to Turner Catledge, her managing editor. Catledge, like Claiborne, had attended Mississippi State College and that, Claiborne noted in a memoir, helped clinch the deal.

But nothing happened accidentally with Claiborne. He knew that he’d have to interview with the tough, but folksy editor, and came in ready to play the ‘ol’ boy’ routine with Catledge. The two Mississippians palavered Delta fashion; reminiscing about school days down south and Claiborne was on the first step to inciting a food revolution.

Once on staff, Claiborne slogged his way through assignments, most not related to restaurant reviews. Cannily, when he did review restaurants, he invited senior editors and their wives to join him; on the company, of course. His goal was to make them court him and he dreamed up pleasurable assignments to make research enjoyable. He avoided restaurant reviews as much as possible because Continue Reading…