One of the perks of food blogging is getting to eat lots of good food. One of the perks of being a FoodBuzz Featured Publisher is getting invited to food events.
On Tuesday the California Strawberry Commission put on a “Top Berry” luncheon at the Culinary Loft in SoHo with “C.J” from Top Chef season 3. While I have to admit I’ve never actually watched the show (I’m not much of a TV guy), he was smiley and affable and seemed like a nice guy.
We started off with a plate of strawberries accompanied by powdered dashi, roasted radicchio, balsamic vinegar, jalepenos, and salt. The idea was to pair the berries with umami, bitter, sour, spice and salt to see what combos worked and what didn’t. Although it sounds pretty weird, I actually liked how it tasted dipped in dashi powder. It smoothed over some of the astringency and really rounded out the flavour of the strawberry (look for something featuring strawberries and dashi here soon).
For the main course we had some amazing lamb chops with hazelnuts, fresh strawberries, and a strawberry gastrique. Beyond the fact that the flavours worked well together, the lamb they used was nicely marbled and incredibly moist (way to pay attention to the details). For that matter, the entire event was well organized with lots of little touches that made it more personal than your average industry event.
They brought out two strawberry farmers from California, who both seemed genuinely passionate about what they do, talking about the focus on small family farms in California despite a global trend towards massive corporate farming. Another interesting tidbit was that there are many cultivars of strawberries being grown in CA, some of which are proprietary to a brand (which explains why I’ve always been a big fan of Well-Pict Berries, they have their own cultivar).
As we were headed out the door, we were handed signed copies of the Top Chef Cookbook, which was a sweet end to a sweet event. A quick flip through the book reveals bios of the contestants and episode recaps from seasons 1-3 along with recipes of the dishes the contestants made.
Some strawberry facts:
- Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, rivaling a glass of orange juice while much less caloric.
- Strawberries are loaded with cancer preventing compounds including quercetin, a phytonutrient that’s shown a propensity to destroy cancer cells.
- An average strawberry has 200 seeds
- 85% of the strawberries in the US come from California
Here are some strawberry recipes I’ve posted in the past. I’m off to Montreal for a long weekend, but I promise I’ll post some fresh strawberry recipes when I get back.
Danish Braid with Spicy Strawberries and Lillet
Strawberry Buttermilkshake
Strawberry Rhubarb Crostata with Lavender Crust
Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
P.S. One last cool thing about these events is meeting people in the biz. I had the pleasure of sitting at a table with a few folks from various magazines as well as Nichelle from Cupcakes Take the Cake.
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