Cooking for a Cause-East End House Fundraiser, Seaport Hotel-Waterfront Boston

http://www.eastendhouse.org/cooking-for-a-cause/2012/event

Cooking for a Cause was a beautiful event!

Held at the elegant Seaport Hotel on the Waterfront

March 30, 2012

to benefit The East End House who's mission includes:

 "...to provides nationally accredited childcare and after school programs, develop new programming to meet the unique needs of teens and middle school youth, offer senior outreach programs, provide emergency food assistance, and offer community and volunteer programs." 

It was inspirational to hear from past and present East End House beneficiaries and with Chef Jay Santos of Blue, Inc, serving as the Culinary Chair and MC of the Live Auction and Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli of Island Creek, as Wine Chair, it was bound to be a success!

My lovely friend & hair stylist (Jessenia Lockward of Salon Marc Harris, Newbury Street, Boston) was the perfect self-titled "assistant", handing out my blog business cards and taking photos!  I must thank her for her enthusiasm and friendship! 

A few of my samplings...

Aura Restaurant's Richard Rayment served a Honey-glazed Pork Belly over chipotle, jicama, and purple carrot slaw.  

 

I LOVE pork belly, but this small bite was in a class of its own!  Rich and sweet with a bit of spice (from the slaw), It was the perfect way to start this adventure (aside from the first pit stop at the open wine/beer bar, of course)!

dante served a pork meatball incorporating Vermont cheddar and maple that was fantastic...moist and seasoned well.  It was simple yet delectable!  The charming Chef Dante let me grab seconds!



The Hawthorne's mixologist Nicole Lebedevitch prepared a beautiful modified French 75 with Berkshire Mountain Distillers (a sponsor) gin, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, sparkling wine, and Earl grey tea (the twist). 

Eastern Standard's mixologist and bar manager Kevin Martin created a cocktail using Appleton Jamaican rum, lime Becherovka (a Czech liquer with a mysterious recipe to which, supposedly, only 2 people in the world are privy), and Bittermans velvet falernum! Loved it!

Craigie on Main served a very interesting dish of Beet pasta with boudin noir (blood sausage) ragout!
 I overcame my mild "beet-phobia" and dove into this magnificent dish with a bit of unnecessary but fun urging by the table's cheer section (I exaggerate). 
I was more apt to eat the blood sausage (which was not foreign to my palate).  Their cocktail was a refreshing pisco, rose jam, orange liquer, and lemon thyme herbal cocktail created by Ted Gallagher.

Post 390 prepared a spicy Seafood Tortilla Soup. Chef Eric Brennan warned me about the spice and rightly so, but the soup incorporated wonderful flavors! 

Seafood Tortilla Soup (BEFORE the base). Mussels, char-grilled jumbo shrimp, calamari, avocado...

AFTER the spicy base was added! The avocado was a perfect "cool down" component.

William Kovel's tuna.

Catalyst Restaurant prepared an aleppo-crusted tuna on a rice cake. It was topped with a mango compote.

J. Lohr Vineyard & Wines

I fell in love with their Merlot, though I am not usually into merlots.  Luckily, I was able to grab a few bottles from Bacco Wine & Cheese (St. James St,  Back Bay).  A few weeks after, I purchased their Cabernet from the Wine store @ Costco in Everett and was just as impressed!

 Deuxave's Chris Coombs presented a beautiful, light and airy duck liver mousse on a buttery crostini topped with rhubarb mostarda, tarragon, and pickled red onion!

Duck liver mousse

The dish was brilliant in both presentation and palatability.


 Harvest's Mary Dumont served a fresh Jonah Crab

Delicious crab salad.  The mint sprigs really added to the freshness of the dish which was also well-balanced with garlic.

 EVOO's Peter McCarthy served up a nice lobster, parsnip, and hedgehog mushroom bisque flavored with tarragon, butter, and leeks!

Lobster-parsnip bisque

Chris Weld with Berkshire Mountain Distillers made a fresh cocktail using Ripe cocktail mix and Berkshire Mountain Greylock gin...an easy enough cocktail to mix at home.

 



The highlight of my schmoozing for the evening was meeting The Masciarelli Wine Co. group.  The couple at this table were THE most entertaining!  It was like a party within a party as they drew us into their bubbly personalities!
I have been a fan of Masciarelli's Trebbiano d'abruzzo since a Back Bay wine tour I attended earlier in the winter which landed us at Bacco Wine & Cheese.  I became an instant fan and purchased a few bottles. 

On the evening of this event, I was also impressed with their rose, Rosato colline teatine (Montepulciano).










Zyr Russian Vodka was also a sponsor:

 

I look forward to attending East End House's 

10th Annual Cooking for a Cause Event!