2013’s Honorees at SHARE’s 10th Anniversary A Second Helping of Life: Dr. Stephanie V. Blank of NYU Langone Medical Center, Nancy Bader & Michael Leventhal, and Ruth Reichl (with Chef Anita Lo of Annisa, on left)
This past Monday was SHARE: A Second Helping of Life 10th Anniversary that brought together the top female chefs in New York City with our favorite celebrities for a fabulous tasting to benefit SHARE that took place at Chelsea Pier’s Pier 60.
SHARE is a nonprofit organization based in New York City, aims to shed light and foster a compassionate community with the help of volunteers who staff phone lines and offer individualized support for women battling breast and ovarian cancers. The friendly, reassuring voices answering calls from patients, families and friends are often those of survivors themselves, which makes them keenly experienced in navigating the uncertainty that lies ahead. Each year, female chefs from around the city gather to raise money to further SHARE’s mission of care at A Second Helping of Life, a walk-around tasting event showcasing their deliciously inspired eats and drinks.
Chefs Amanda Freitag, Anita Lo, and nearly five dozen guest and sous chefs, plus executive chefs emeritae, dished up signature offerings to more than 1,000 attendees.
Here’s some of my favorite dishes of the night:
Grilled quail on seeded toast with warm parsley vinaigrette
Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of Prune (one of my favorite brunch spots in the Lower East Side) was working hard to keep up with the demand of what I thought was the most vibrantly flavored dishes served that night (and I did I came back for seconds!). The perfectly seared and seasoned, medium-rare quail was fantastic with the brash, acidic, herbaceous parsley vinaigrette. The thin, originally crisp toast that’s sitting on the bottom of the bird absorbed all of that wonderful juices and sauce that I don’t mind eating that slice of now soft, borderline mushy bread. I’m still dreaming of having it again.
Shredded lamb shank on lemon chili kadaif, preserved lemon paprika yogurt by Chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta & Taïm
Chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta and Taïm (both of her restaurants are my favorite for a delicious falafel sandwich and sabich and flavorful fare with a Mediterranean twist) served this beautiful dish that looked like a yellow bird’s nest filled with slices of lamb. The dish had great crunchy textures from the kadaif and the tender lamb with the tart, spicy yogurt sauce made it absolutely delicious.
Chef Sara Jenkins slicing up her large porchetta and my porchetta sandwich
Chef Sarah Jenkins of Porchetta and Porsena was slicing and chopping contently of her huge crunchy porchetta. You can never go wrong with that wonderfully crispy, crunchy porcine sandwich with small bits of luscious fat.
7-Hour braised lamb shoulder in a brioche bun with espelette hot pepper aioli by Ariane Daguin of D’artagnan
The other deservedly popular offering of the night was by Ariane Daguin of D’Artagnan serving up a sandwich composed of a brioche bun smeared with espelette hot pepper aioli and stuffed with meltingly tender seven-hour braised lamb shoulder. This sandwich tasted soulful partially because of the gravy that lamb was rolled in had a tinge of star anise, five-spice flavor that reminds me of my mother’s Chinese-style stews. It was sublime.
Spiced caramel copetta with stewed figs on the bottom by Meredith Kurtzman of Otto
In spite of having so many wonderful desserts to choose from, my favorite was by Meredith Kurtzman of Otto as herself and her team made spiced caramel copetta with stewed figs à la minute. The warm stewed figs that sat on the bottom of the mug slowly melted the not too sweet caramel scoop of gelato, whipped cream and the drizzle of spiced caramel and sprinkling of roasted chopped walnuts were an ode to autumn.
To view more photos of this event, please view the slideshow below (or CLICK HERE for my photo set):
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Information:
SHARE: A Second Helping of Life Benefit
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