The women that rocked Cleveland

photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Here are some photos from our Share Our Strength dinner at Lola.  SOS is a organization the fights to put a end child hunger.  We do a annual dinner at the restaurant to help raise funds for this great cause.  This year we brought in over $74,000.00, which tops our old mark by over $20,000.00!!

The theme of this years dinner was Women of Food and Wine.  Our lineup was absolutely amazing as we had 8 of the top chefs in the country come help us out.  Each one of the dishes was fabulous and showed of the absolute aspiring talent that these 8 women have.

first course: tomato and feta salad; April Bloomfield, Spotted Pig, NYC

second course: french horn & fennel crudo with crispy pig ears; Koren Grieveson, Avec, Chicago

third course: roasted bone marrow with long beans, eel and apple butter; Michelle Bernstein, Michy's, Miami

fourth course: speck roasted halibut with pickled eggplant & tapenade; Karen Small, Flying Fig, Cleveland

fifth course: slow roasted salmon with heirloom tomatoes, Celina Tio, Julia(n), Charlotte

sixth course: wolf ranch quail with sweet corn and duck gizzard confit, Traci Des Jardins, Jardiniere, San Francisco

seventh course: stuffed spareribs with kohlrabi and peanut sauce, Anita Lo, Bar Q, NYC

eight course: peach tatin with peach granita & buttermilk panna cotta, Karen Demasco, Craft, NYC

We started them out with some great hors douevres from my team headed by Derek Clayton including foie gras tourchon with pickled cherries, lamb terrine with pepper relish and crispy pork belly with watermelon and our pastry chef Cory Barrett sent them home with some killer cookies and jellies.

I couldn't be more proud of how great our team at Lola performed and how wonderful all the chefs were to work with.  Its is events like this that reinforce my absolute love for this business and everything that its about.

Also this week Bar Cento was named best new restaurant by Northern Ohio Live..much love and congrats to Jon and Amelia...I feel like a proud papa....check out www.chefswidow.com for pics of Northern Ohio Live article on Bar Cento and some SOS latenight party pics.

Live to cook, MS

Comments

[NancyH]

LOVE Donna's photos! You have to enlarge them (click on them) to fully appreciate them.

Sounds like an awesome night - wish we could have been there. Well done Lola and Chefs!

[Chris Neill]

Wow that sounds fantastic. Sorry I missed it.. she may be no "Iron Chef" but I have a big, warm place in my heart for Karen Small and her food.

Did Jill Vedaa drop by or do any cooking? Inquiring west-coast minds want to know..

[michael]

I too think Karen is a amazing chef. She is like Clevelands own Alice Waters. Jill did not do anything with the dinner. She is a great young chef but we had such a big group of out of town chefs that we ranout of room!!...MS

[Juna]

Congratulation Chef and all the Chefs, and Lola crew.
Amazing success for a great couse. Great menu, even the hors douevres are making my mouth watery right now.
I wish I was there, maybe next time, right chef?
Awesome !!

[Neal L.]

Wow! That's quite a lineup. The food sounds absolutely fantastic. When you have kids especially, a cause like SOS gives that extra little tug on your heart strings. Nice one Chef.

[Antonio Hernandez]

Michael,
I was introduced to your restaurant from my favorite show Anthony Bourdains "No Reservations" I know I wont get the same treatment as Markey Ramon and Anthony Bourdain, as I will be visiting your town on a business trip the week of Aug. 17th thru 22nd. My first stop will be Lola to enjoy your contemporary cuisine and hopefully meet you.

Thank You

Antonio Hernandez

[Shelley]

Ooooh, too bad Donna didn't take pictures of the food, too. Or maybe she did and is keeping them all to herself? ;)

[Tom B]

You might be surpised, Antonio... Everyone gets treated pretty well at both of Michael's restaurants, and it's also pretty likely that you'll find him there (unless his business takes him elsewhere). Just say something to your waiter or flag him down - in my experience, he's the friendliest guy you'll find in the restaurant business and would love to say hello to someone who has traveled from a far. He's even pretty likely to oblige you in a photograph, if that's your thing.

[Tami]

Ok, first of all, I don't know how to properly greet you (how you would prefer) Chef, Chef Symon, Michael.......

Anyway, I had the pleasure to meet you once when you came into the restaurant I was working. Actually, I made your lunch and was so nervous to even come out and say hi, which I got the nerve to finally do so, but let alone actually have a conversation with you.

You are a true inspiration to me and am working hard on hopefully one day being able to work with you. (believe me, I'm trying hard to, but none of your people want to leave, giving me a chance to get in!)

Again, you're amazing!

xoxo
Tami

[Raymond]

My oh My oh My oh My oh My oh My oh My oh My!

What a wonderful tasty octet of dishes available for eating.

"crispy pig ears" sounds diabolically delicious.

A little food for knowledge on the power of eight:

"The octet rule says that atoms tend to gain, lose or share electrons so as to have eight electrons in their outer electron shell. ..."