Last week, I had the privilege and honor of judging the 2010 Culinary Challenge to benefit the  Tri-C Hospitality Management Program with Michael Ruhlman and Doug Trattner. I honestly don’t know who was more excited – all the young chefs or myself, sitting between these two!

The event was held in the new Tri-C Hospitality Center at Public Square which took over the first floor of the May Co. building. If you have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and go tour the center. This is truly an impressive space, complete with state-of-the-art kitchens (even chef Karen Small oohed and aahed over the appliances and other offerings), classrooms and more. I was inspired walking around and even joked that I wanted to enroll tomorrow (only to learn later that you can actually just take a variety of cooking classes versus earning a degree).

Obviously, there’s a lot happening within our city and the food scene continues to explode. Chefs and others in the food scene want to be a part of the excitement and this center right in the heart of downtown is exactly what Cleveland needs. And as I walked around and talked to these incredibly enthusiastic chefs, it was clear that they had no intentions of leaving Cleveland post graduation.

And helping them stay here is chef Brandt Evans who is opening Pura Vida directly next store. Though his restaurant is not part of Tri-C, there are a lot of synergies that he explained to me as he gave us a tour of the future space (more on this in a later post). But Evans did say (with a lot of passion and determination) that we need to work with and turn them over to other area restaurants and grow these students to ultimately keep them local because, as he explained, that is half the battle

While I was impressed with many items throughout the evening, of course it was the actual judging that was my favorite part (minus eating in front of a crowd). And can you think of better company to spend an evening noshing with than my two fellow judges? The 45-minute culinary challenge paired student chefs with area mentors, including chefs Doug Katz, Karen Small, Andy Dombrowski and Jonathan Bennett, who shared that he’s in the process of opening another restaurant, conveniently located next to Moxie and Red – and unAmericanized Italian eatery to be called Rosso (red in Italian). The four teams each had to prepare a dish where the feature ingredient was duck. We judged each dish on a variety of things, most importantly being taste, presentation and use of local ingredients.

In all honestly, I would have gladly paid money for any of these dishes. And am actually a bit sad that I can’t. Talk about future talent. We all thoroughly enjoyed each team’s dish – a very impressive group indeed. I realize it sounds cliché, but every team deserved to win. These were some seriously good eats we were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to sample. The future chefs behind these savory duck dishes were:

Amanda Siegfried / Krista Gagyi / A.J. Kosik / Jonathon Bennett, mentor chef

James Williams / Kelly Sparks / Steven Kubit / Andy Dombrowski, mentor chef

Kelly Wilcox-Baird / Victoria Grace Bigler / Maryanne Hagans / Doug Katz, mentor chef

Tracy Sullivan / Peggy Cruz / Thomas Hathaway / Karen Small, mentor chef

.

The winning menu (Team Katz): Two-Buck Chuck Duck- Crispy duck breast stuffed with Chevre, Spinach and Cream Cheese. Resting on a bed of oven roasted seasoned Parsnips and Carrots, browned Thyme Gnocchi and topped with Spinach sautéed with Duck Fat and Shallots. Accented with Charles Shaw Shiraz Wine and Cranberry reduction sauce.

The challenge itself was hosted by Positively Cleveland in an effort to generate financial support for its Spirit of Cleveland, which engages in the creation, coordination, development and operation of a job service training curriculum and program for the hospitality and tourism industries.

For a second year, Positively Cleveland partnered with Cuyahoga Community College to host The Cleveland Culinary Challenge.  Created in 2009, the proceeds help support a paid work experience program for Tri-C’s Hospitality Management students.

Once again, a mighty congratulations future chefs! You have a hungry city awaiting your graduation and future employment at one of our many wonderful local restaurants.

(Thanks to Positively Cleveland for sharing images and especially chef Doug Katz for inviting me to judge.)

My week started by spending an evening with a bunch of really witty and engaging  Cleveland bloggers by way of a shopping spree at NEXT in Beachwood Place (I didn’t shop, sigh. Instead, I played the part of social media maven and organized this soiree. I sometimes do some PR/social media freelancing for friends, etc). They had fun shopping; I had fun catching up with some old friends and meeting a few new ones, too.

The next night, I went to bed a very happy woman followed by a fabulous dinner on E 4th courtesy of  The Greenhouse Tavern and Lola. My company is hiring for several positions (at one point we had 15 open spots; not sure where we currently stand). The one candidate we are really interested in is a fellow foodie. A very serious foodie at that. He and his family would be moving to Cleveland from Denver so he wanted to get a sense of the food community here. I can appreciate this.  It’s a tough job, but I mustered up the energy, along with Jamie (we work together for those that don’t know) and ate our way through a Wednesday night. We had apps at GHT and finished the meal at Lola. Highlights include the beef tartare at The Greenhouse (I could eat this daily; and our guest commented that it’s some of the best tartare he’s had), plus the beet and pear salad at Lola for me (such a simple dish but perhaps giving the beets at Lolita – my current favorite – a run for its money). Our guest enjoyed the braised Berkshire “bacon” and scallops and was quite impressed – especially with the belly. The table also enjoyed crispy bone marrow with six accompaniments courtesy of the kitchen (cilantro salsa and lemon my favorite).

The best part about this night (aside from the obvious) — the city was packed. It was a snowy Wednesday evening and all the restaurants were filled with  people out and about enjoying a great February night in Cleveland.

The following day, Cleveland Foodie won a bronze for its new logo at the annual ADDY awards (advertising industry thing). Jamie designed it for me last year. To me, it won  gold. The new ad is currently on our Facebook page)

Yesterday morning, we spent the day being inspired and moved via TEDxCLE at the Capitol Theater. We listened to a group of interesting, passionate and smart individuals share their vision and what specifically they are doing to affect positive change on our city.  It was the first independently organized TED event for Cleveland and I hope it’s the first of many. The organizers, Hallie and Eric, should be very proud of themselves. They did an amazing job and I’m beyond happy that I was in the audience – and will be each year they hold this.

Every discussion was enlightening, but for me, stand outs include: Terry Schwartz of Kent State and Pop Up City sharing ideas on how to fix broken cities; Aaron LeMieux of Tremont Electric discussing alternative energy and his personal energy generator (seriously – we’d buy stock right now if he was selling);  Michael Ruhlman talking about how people need to get back in the kitchen and cook and what type of positive impact this has on all of us; our friend Danielle DeBoe on how her passion led her to Room Service and how she is connecting with her community; and finally Patrick Perotti, a Cleveland lawyer that had many of us choking up over his stories of how he’s helping children keep their fight alive – specifically via class action lawsuits and how we all can help by simply signing this petition.

Images courtesy of  Kyle Roth. Check out all his images from the event via his Flickr page. And visit the  TEDxCLE site in a few days where all the videos from the day will be made available.

And my week isn’t over yet!  So Forbes, while  I have several suggestions as to what exactly you can do with your article and silly little title, you are entitled to your opinion (even if it’s not based fully in facts). And so am I. I am proud to call Cleveland home. I choose to live here. Just one question for you though. Why even bother to write this kind of article in  the first place, regardless of who’s in the top 5? I just don’t see the point. Instead of focusing on the negativity, why not spotlight all the positive changes taking place everyday in all types of cities?

On February 26, from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Capitol Theater, Cleveland will host its first independently organized TED event.  The purpose is to draw attention to the many positive changes taking place within our community and to spotlight some of the people responsible for that change. Topics include art, urban revitalization, health care.

One speaker in particular that Cleveland Foodie readers may be most interested in is Michael Ruhlman. Ruhlman’s topic, ‘The Cooking Animal’, will discuss how cooking has advanced mankind and makes and keeps us human. He’ll share his thoughts on how turning this needed ritual over to corporations puts us in danger.

Other speakers/topics  include my friend and favorite boutique owner, Danielle DeBoe, who will talk about turning a desire into a reality; Terry Schwarz / fixing broken cities; and Dana Myers / the future of the electronic vehicles (I’ve met him and a few years ago and even test drove his car when it was at the agency – very cool and very interesting). Visit here for a full list of speakers, topics and to learn more about this event.

Event organizers, Eric Kogelschatz (my coworker) and Hallie Bram single-handedly brought this to Cleveland. These two don’t just talk about improving our city, they work at it each day. Kudos to them for all their hard work and for putting together what will no doubt be an intriguing and insightful afternoon.

How would you change Cleveland? What is your idea, big or small, that you think could help improve any area of our city? What has inspired you when visiting another city that you felt could easily work here? We are all Clevelanders and are passionate about the place we call home. But it’s not perfect, and we all have thoughts as to what we’d like to see fixed, or wonder if only city leaders would do… Share your thoughts for a chance to win two tickets to this sold out event. A winner will be  picked end of day Thursday. Good luck and hopefully I’ll see you there.

Food, Inc. was one I actually wanted to see in the theater but never did. So much like every other great movie that has come out this past year, I’m several months behind everyone else in seeing it and months past all the great conversations and chatter about said movie.

This week Food, Inc. finally made its way to my mailbox. I was about 75% familiar with most of the discussion that shaped this movie. For as pro local as we are while dining out, it’s the same when we grocery shop, or as much as we can. And now that I’m a parent and responsible for someone else, we are even bigger freaks about what we buy at the grocery store, what we feed her and understanding its roots. I even made all her baby food (actually, this was ridiculously easy and not nearly as time consuming as I initially thought.).

I think Michael Ruhlman’s post  perfectly sums up my feelings on the movie. Like Ruhlman, I cried too. Especially for Barbara Kowalcyk, a mom turned food safety advocate after she lost her 2 1/2 year old son Kevin to E coli. I can’t even begin to imagine that kind of pain, and pray to God I never have to. But to lose someone over something like eating a hamburger in this country – I can’t even wrap my head around that.

To sum up Ruhlman’s post: “Food Inc. makes two points very well that are worth repeating and then I’ll shut up.  One: wherever and whenever, try to know or find out the source of your food.  And two: every time you buy food, it’s a vote for more of that food; if it’s excellent, you’re asking for more; if it’s shitty food, you’re asking for more.”

Whenever we bump into him or his wife, Liz, they treat us as if we’ve known them forever. They are genuine, funny and the perfect representation for our city. I’m thankful that authoring this blog has given me the opportunity to get know so many wonderful people, including the Symons.

As most of us know by now, chef Symon’s first cookbook, Live to Cook: Recipes and Techniques to Rock your Kitchen, comes out November 3. Courtesy of the publisher, I’ve been given two copies of the book, one for me and one to giveaway.

As soon as I opened the package, I started perusing the book and all its beautiful photography. I still haven’t put it down. It’s filled with dishes from Lola and Lolita as well as meals he makes with his family. And there are stories – lots of stories with history. And information, really good information that’s geared to make us all better in the kitchen. My husband and I plan to cook our way through every page of this book and hopefully become better homecooks because of it.

Symon’s cookbook is a true Cleveland representation with contributions from Heidi Robb and Michael and Donna Ruhlman. You can’t not be excited for Michael. We have all cheered him on, on both the local and national stage, and supported him since Lola first opened in 1997. He’s one of us.

If you’d like the other copy, just tell me your favorite part of the pig to cook with and why. I’ll pick a winner on Thursday. Happy reading and eating.