Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Oh What A Night

Allergenistas from New Jersey to California (yes, we have gone national!) gathered together at Lincoln Park hotspot Perennial to feast on a menu free of over 30 different allergens and included a vegetarian to boot.

The Perennial team handled everything with ease and confidence, and the food, oh my! Everything started with chicken lollipops in an orange glaze with cabbage and carrot slaw, the sweet glaze paired with the tartness of the slaw, just heavenly. Perennial used a dedicated fryer to make the texture of the chicken a nice crisp and also avoid cross contamination.

Next up was a perfect blend of sweet, tart and savory tastes with the frisee salad accompanied with sautéed mushrooms and fresh spring asparagus. The mushrooms in this dish added a savory taste to the light frisee and fresh asparagus with the dressing bringing all the flavors together.

On to the main event, braised and grilled pork belly served with roasted potatoes and cauliflower and grilled chicken with fresh carrots and spring peas. The pork belly was so succulent and had a little crisp to it as the kitchen finished it off on the grill to get the combination of textures, YUM!

How on earth do you top that? Easy, dessert from SWIRLZ cupcakes, the chocolate Armenia Cherry Cupcakes were all the rave.

One of my favorite things about the Safe & Sound dinner is that we always have a few people that don’t have allergies. I love to ask them what they thought, did they miss anything? Well, they didn’t miss a thing! Last night we also had the pleasure of having Maggie Shea of Chef Magazine at the dinner, she is doing a story on dining safely in restaurants. Chef Magazine is a trade publication for the culinary industry and dinners like the Safe & Sounds are helping bring more information to chefs to help them address our needs. I couldn’t be happier to help Maggie get information she needs for her story. This is a great step for us all!

What’s up next for the Safe & Sound Dinners? Lettuce wait and see! Details to come in the next few weeks…

1 comment:

Colette said...

Looks like a totally awesome feast!