Be sure to congratulate the chef the next time you’re at Hugo’s. According the the Beard Foundation’s Twitter feed, Chef Rob Evans just won this year’s James Beard award for Best Chef: Northeast. Evans has been a nominee in this category for three years running.
Category: General News
Indie Biz Awards 2009
Voting in Buy Local’s 2nd Annual Indie Biz Awards poll has begun. Dozen’s of restaurants are nominated Flavor of Portland category and many food business appear in the other seven Indie Biz categories including Portland Food Map which is a nominee in the category for businesses without a store front.
Bar Lola in Travel+Leisure
According to this month’s Travel+Leisure, small is the new big. “If any trend has defined the recent trajectory of travel…it is the cult of the very small.” Portland’s East End restaurant, Bar Lola, made the short list of restaurants in the Guide to Small Places that accompanied the article.
Port City Life
The new print issue of Port City Life includes a profile of Paciarino along with co-owner Fabiana DeSavino’s tiramasu recipe, a look at local food distribution networks, and an article about Local Sprouts, Portland’s community supported kitchen.
Maine Cheese
The Portland Daily Sun ran an article this weekend about Maine-based cheese production and the Maine Cheese Guild.
The group provides education around cheesemaking and is trying to encourage new cheesemakers. “We aren’t making enough cheese to meet demand,” noted current guild president Eric Rector, “we still need more cheesemakers making high quality cheese to meet demand before we start marketing outside the state.”
Eve's at the Garden
Eve’s at the Garden has hired an Executive Chef , Earl Anthony Morse, to fill the gap left by Jeff Landry’s departure. According to the press release, Morse’s job history includes time spent at Le Cirque in Las Vegas, Van Dender in Belgium, Four Seasons in Boston, and Agaria and PS7’s in Washington, DC. Morse’s last position was as the Chef de Cuisine at the White Barn Inn.
Food+Farm+Compost
According to today’s Press Herald, Greg Williams and Brett Richardson have won the 2009 USM Student Business Plan Competition for their Organic Alchemy Composting proposal. Their business plan proposes turning food waste collected from local restaurants into organic compost.
Also, the Food and Health section has a report on the Food+Farm program taking place in early May.
Phoenix Readership Poll Results
The Portland Phoenix 2009 Reader’s Choice Awards results are now out. There are dozens of food related categories ranging from Bagel to Wine List and everything in between (Bakery, Beer Selection, Barbecue, etc). Portland Food Map won in the Best Food Blog category. Thanks so much to all of you who voted for the site!
Pending Food Legistlation
There’s an article in today’s Press Herald on the four bills pending in the legislature that are focused on genetically modified crops in Maine.
Nobody knows just how many acres of genetically altered crops are grown every year in Maine.
A bill being proposed by Rep. Benjamin Pratt, D-Eddington, would change that.
“We need to know what we are dealing with,” Pratt said.
Online Wine Sales
The state legislature is weighing three separate proposals to enable Mainers to buy wine over the Internet.
The third measure, proposed by Rep. Melissa Walsh Innes, D-Yarmouth, is modeled after similar legislation in 35 other states. It would establish just one permit for wine producers wishing to ship directly to Maine consumers, but not require Mainers to register themselves with state government in order to make the Internet wine purchases.