Category: General News

The James Beard Foundation has announced the semifinalist for this year’s awards competition. Portland has three entries on the list:

• Sam Hayward from Fore Street for Outstanding Chef
• Fore Street for Outstanding Restaurant
• Krista Kern Desjarlais from Bresca for Best Chef in the North East. The Press Herald checked in with Krista for her reaction: “I just went online and looked not even an hour ago, and almost had the baby right there,” she said, still a little breathless with the news. “It’s incredibly cool, and a total surprise.”

Several other Maine chefs are also semifinalist in the Best Chef North East category:

• Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier from Arrows in Ogunquit
• Brian Hill from Francine Bistro in Camden
• Penelle Chase, Phoebe Chase, Megan Chase and Ted Lafage from Chase’s Daily in Belfast

Final nominees for the 2010 awards will be announced March 22nd, and the winners will be announced on May 3, 2010 at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

Two members of the Portland food community are moving on to new horizons. Anna Maria Tocci who, together with Kim Anderson founded the North Star Music Cafe, is retiring from the business to pursue a career as a “breath work facilitator”. Also in transition is Jennifer Betancourt, founder of the Silvery Moon Creamery, who according to a post on Edible Obsessions, has “quietly walked away from the cheesevat that she manned for the past seven years”.
Both women have had a significant impact on the Portland food scene and I’m sure they’ll be missed.

Tuesday’s Portland Daily Sun includes a report on the unprecedented outcome of the recent Cajun Cookin’ Challenge: a tie between Silly’s and Bayou Kitchen. The owners of the two establishments are pondering a second cook-off to determine the winner.

Silander said he wants to offer a challenge to Silly’s for a friendly cookoff to settle the matter.

“It’s a really busy month for me next month, but I’ll think about doing a callout and see if Silly’s wants to do something as far as a challenge goes. What I would try to do would be sell tickets, have say 25 or 30 people, five judges, maybe somebody from Louisiana … and all the proceeds would go to the Katrina Fund,” he said.

Wednesday’s Portland Daily Sun reports on the Wayside Soup Kitchen’s plans to “transition away from the traditional soup kitchen model and into a neighborhood-based meals programming“.

Today’s Press Herald promotes the positive health benefits of vegan chocolates. The article includes a list of local establishments where you can find dairy-free food of the gods.

Researchers say chocolate gives us a heart-healthy antioxidant boost, but only if we enjoy it without a side order of dairy. With Valentine’s Day on Sunday, the heart-shaped boxes will be flying off the shelves, but for those of us who want to cater to our loved ones’ tickers (and not just their sweet tooth), we’ll be seeking out chocolates made without milk.

Today’s paper also reports on the results of a study on worker pay in Maine’s restaurant industry.

Using a sampling base of 525 surveyed workers – 1.1 percent of the Maine restaurant work force – the study found that in 2008, 16.3 percent earned a living wage, defined as $17 or more an hour. The largest group – 59.7 percent – fell into the “low wages” category, defined as $8.46 to $16.99 an hour.

The study found that 20.9 percent of restaurant workers earned between $7.25 and $8.45 an hour – a rate that puts them below the poverty line – and 3 percent made less than the then-minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.

Also in this week’s Maine Sunday Telegram is an article about a Maine-based producer of organic elderberry syrup.

Eight years after she and her husband, Phil, moved from Portland to the farm, Johnston has not only nabbed several state and federal grants to develop elderberry production, but she also is producing an organic elderberry syrup that is flying off the shelves of local health and natural food stores.

Here are some more Portland meal deals:

• Evangeline – choose a first, main and dessert or cheese from Evangeline’s regular menu and pay just $30; Tuesday – Thursday, now through the start of Restaurant Week on March 1.
• Three Dollar Deweys – $2 pints and other items all month in celebration of the 30th anniversary.
• Fishermen’s Grill – seafood platter for 2 “with haddock, clams, shrimp and scallops”, $18.95.

The Portland Phoenix has moved on to Step 2 their 2010 Best of Portland readership poll:

• Step 1, readers wrote in to nominate candidates that are a good fit in any or all of the dozens of categories
• Step 2, based on the nominations, the Phoenix has now published a list of the top nominees from each category for us all to vote on.

Portland Food Map is a nominee this year for Best Food Blog along with Appetite Portland, Portland Food Coma, Portland Psst! and The Blueberry Files.
There are also more than 100 other categories and about a third of them fall in the food and drink section (Bagels, Bars, Barbecue, Beer Selection, Brewpubs, Brunch, etc). If that sounds a little overwhelming, don’t worry you don’t have to make a choice in each one to cast a ballot.
A list of the 2009 winners is available online as a reference.