Over the doldrums: the James Beard Foundation charts an optimistic new course, and we all drank to that (with some incredible wines).
Where’s Charley?
The James Beard Foundation, though located on West 12 th Street in Manhattan, has had a connection with the East End for many years through its annual Chefs & Champagne benefit. Last Saturday night the foodies and the epicures among us, the connoisseurs and gastronomes and true believers, the hundreds of residents and visitors who care about food and wine and just plain gratification and having fun, showed up for this festive evening.
The food was terrific, with tasting plates from top chefs in New York, the East End and other parts of the country. For some of us, the wine was equally important. Chefs & Champagne offered choices that were both predictable (in the sense we have seen them at the event in the past) and wonderful. The champagne is Charles Heidsieck and the still wines are Wolffer Estate.
Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve champagne is flavorful and crisp, and matches well with many of the fish or shellfish dishes you find at a food tasting. What sets Charles Heidsieck apart from other producers is actually a form of disclosure. The label on their non vintage champagnes lists the components, both the reserve wines and the base vintage, as well as dates telling us how long the wine was aged. Reading that label depends on how wonky you want to be. But even if you’re no techie, you can rely on Charles Heidsieck for some very good buys in champagne.
All of us who live here know Wolffer Estate wines and their whole range of wine was served at the event, including the top of the line 2002 Premier Cru merlot. It’s a superb wine, a clear indication that Long Island is capable of playing in the big leagues of wine production. Deep, concentrated, and layered, this is an opulent wine in a classic European style. It sells for hefty $125, but it delivers an intense wine experience that you just don’t find very often.
People were calling this year’s Chefs & Champagne the two Charlies for Charles Heidseick and for Charlie Trotter, this year’s honoree. Mr. Trotter was one of the country’s first celebrity chefs and still is in the forefront of creative cooking. About twenty years ago he started the famed Chicago restaurant that bears his name, and took American cuisine in new, thoughtful, and innovative directions. He also took some heat in politics in recent years as a leader in the movement to ban foie gras in restaurants based on objections to animal cruelty.
The Beard Foundation took some heat as well for mismanagement about two years ago, but fortunately they seem well past the darkest days. The impeccable credentials of the people who stepped in to lead—executive director Susan Ungaro, formerly editor-in- chief of Family Circle, and board of trustees chairman, Dorothy Cann Hamilton, founder of the French Culinary Institute—have given the foundation renewed credibility and vigor. The chefs, restaurants and wine producers of America, with an important stake in having such an organization, have lined up solidly behind the foundation. This year’s Chefs & Champagne, which took place on the grounds of the Wolffer Estate Vineyards, was therefore not just another benefit, but a celebration of the restored strength of the James Beard Foundation.
