{"id":1757,"date":"2005-04-08T20:50:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-08T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2005\/04\/08\/feel-good-farestart"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:25","slug":"feel-good-farestart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2005\/04\/feel-good-farestart\/","title":{"rendered":"Feel-good FareStart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Back in September\u2014a lifetime ago in blog years, it seems\u2014I wrote about a Seattle nonprofit called FareStart and its weekly Guest Chef Nights<\/strong><\/a>, in which local chefs work with FareStart<\/a>\u2019s students to produce impressive three-course meals. Last night I had the pleasure of attending my second Guest Chef Night\u2014this time in the company of fellow food blogger B (of Culinary Fool<\/a>), B\u2019s friend E, and my ever-faithful Keaton<\/a>\u2014and once again, I can\u2019t keep it to myself. Everything about FareStart just feels so good<\/em> that it would be a crime not to share. Consider this a public service announcement.<\/p>\n Our evening began with a tour of the bustling kitchen, where the students were hard at work in their chef\u2019s whites, plating salads and hefting deep pans of chive gnocchi. A year ago, FareStart launched its \u201cFutures Rising\u201d capital campaign<\/a> to raise money for improved facilities, and the kitchen presents a convincing case: though of moderate size, it is no-frills and in need of a facelift, not the sort of space one would expect to find churning out a remarkable 2,500<\/em> meals per day<\/strong> (which it does, between the restaurant, catering services, and contracts with area shelters). We found the evening\u2019s guest chef, Dave Miller of the Jolly Roger Taproom at Maritime Pacific Brewery<\/a>, busily plating pork tenderloin, with a student at each elbow and a squeeze bottle in each hand<\/strong>. He gave us a quick tour of the evening\u2019s eclectic map-hopping menu, its dishes linked by the presence of a Maritime Pacific beer in each, and we hurried back to the equally bustling dining room to get started.<\/p>\n With only a few minor quibbles, it was a very good meal. For our entr\u00e9e, we moved to the Southwest with lime-seared pork tenderloin, a roasted-corn masa cake wrapped in a green pasilla chile, sweet shoestring onion rings, and a trio of beer-based sauces: Salmon Bay E.S.B. piri-piri, Bosun\u2019s Black Porter salsa negra, and Islander Pale Ale chimichurri.<\/p>\n It was a big, busy plate, but the pork was barely pink and perfectly done, and the masa cake was reminiscent of a stripped-down tamale,<\/strong> deeply flavored with corn. And the shoestring onions stole the show: this time, a dose of sweetness was most welcome.<\/p>\n Keaton and I, doing double-time for vegetarians everywhere (including ourselves, circa a few years ago), also sampled the vegetable entr\u00e9e, squash-and-broccoli-rabe fritters with tomato-ginger jam and chive gnocchi. The fritters were rustic springtime comfort food<\/strong>\u2014a union of crispy, buttery crust and green-tasting, creamy interior.<\/p>\n Things got very exciting when dessert arrived, straddling an imaginary border between New Mexico and Georgia. An roasted-peach brown-butter cake<\/strong> with buttermilk-habanero ice cream and Bosun\u2019s Black Porter molasses,<\/p>\n it was soon dubbed \u201cthe flying pie\u201d by E, after both Keaton and B accidentally shot various parts of theirs skidding across the table. That\u2019s not to say that it wasn\u2019t tasty; it was simply very architectural and a bit tough to pin down, literally and figuratively. The thin brown-butter cake was moist and rich, a wonderful foil to the sweet-tart lightly cooked peaches<\/strong>, but the habanero ice cream was a point of contention, bracingly spicy and a bit on the icy side. I choose to blame it on the freezers in the current kitchen\u2014with new facilities (ahem!<\/em>),<\/em> I\u2019m sure that future ice creams will be nothing short of luscious.<\/p>\n So I can\u2019t keep it to myself. The place was buzzing with energy, and so were we. I hope you’ll consider supporting FareStart and its students, whether it be by joining a few friends for dinner on Guest Chef Night ($19.95! Three courses!<\/strong>); volunteering as servers; making a simple donation; or perhaps even attending this weekend\u2019s Taste Washington<\/a> or next month\u2019s Taste of the Nation<\/a>, two local food-and-wine events whose proceeds benefit FareStart. Back in September\u2014a lifetime ago in blog years, it seems\u2014I wrote about a Seattle nonprofit called FareStart and its weekly Guest Chef Nights, in which local chefs work with FareStart\u2019s students to produce impressive three-course meals. Last night I had the pleasure of attending my second Guest Chef Night\u2014this time in the company of fellow food blogger B (of Culinary Fool), B\u2019s friend E, and my ever-faithful Keaton\u2014and once again, I can\u2019t keep it to myself. Everything about FareStart just feels so good that it would be a crime not to share. Consider this a public service announcement. Our evening began with a tour of the bustling kitchen, where the students were hard at work in their chef\u2019s whites, plating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
We began somewhere between Japan and California, with a salad of organic field greens with a ginger and alt ale dressing, scattered hazelnuts, and miso-seared halibut cheeks. I have a weakness for halibut cheeks<\/strong> and their surprising richness, and these generous chunks were delicate and delicious, even if their miso glaze was a bit too sweet for my taste. [Please note the superhuman restraint required to avoid\u2014or maybe not\u2014using the term \u201csweet cheeks<\/strong>.\u201d]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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And I hope you won\u2019t keep it to yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"