Noreen Kinney honored by International Culinary Academy

Noreen Kinney, founder of the Cordon d’Or Gold Ribbon International Culinary Academy Awards, received honorary lifetime membership in the American Culinary Federation at ACF’s 2009 National Convention at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center. The distinction was announced by ACF’s outgoing president, John Kinsella on July 11 to more than 1,100 culinary professionals assembled for the organization’s annual meeting that concluded last night.

In receiving the rare honor from ACF, Kinney join the ranks of culinary luminaries who have been likewise honored, among them Graham Kerr, Paul Prudhomme, Charlie Trotter, Martin Yan and the late James Beard and Julia Child.

Kinney established Cordon d'Or Gold Ribbon in Europe in 1985 for use in her culinary-arts activities. In 1990, she initiated plans for the International Culinary Academy Awards program. After relocating her family to Florida in 1995, Kinney launched her program. Kinney was honored by ACF for this achievement, but also for her career in Ireland, during which she pioneered the New Irish Cuisine movement that began in 1960.

Gone fishin'

Not exactly. But spending today and tomorrow at the American Culinary Federation Convention in Orlando. Will probably blog from there if I see anything exciting.

Parkshore Grill to do benefit dinner for Gateway Organic Garden

Not sure if people saw this, but Tyson Grant, chef at Parkshore Grill (and soon to open 400 Beach Seafood & Tap House), says they're doing a benefit wine dinner for the Gateway Organic Garden at Parkshore Grill on July 22, featuring Murphy Goode Winery. Check out the menu and details here. 300 Beach Drive NE, St. Petersburg; (727) 896-9463.

Toasted Pheasant starts cooking classes

Monday, July 13 marks the first in a series of cooking demonstrations at Toasted Pheasant (14445 N. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa). Sit back and relax with a glass of wine while they prepare your meal and you learn a little something. Dinner, wine and demo $27. Not a bad deal for a meal and evening of entertainment. For more information, call (813) 265-6700

Chefs James Canter and Richard Bottini throw a benefit for Seminole Heights Community Garden

Yeesh, that was a long title. Maybe just "I Heart James Canter and Richard Bottini." The latter is the chef/owner of Tampa's Six Tables and the former is the chef of the soon-to-be Tampa Gastropub. Together these two friends are putting together a dinner Saturday (July 11) to benefit the fledgling Seminole Heights Community Garden. There will be two seatings at Six Tables, 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., with dinner reservations made by calling (813) 207-0527. The dinner is $100 per person, inclusive of tax and gratuity.

Here's a menu preview: After an amuse bouche, enjoy a Myakka River sturgeon confit with celery shoots, black olive puree and a malt vinegar gastric, paired with a bit of bubbly. Then there's a salad of grilled dandelion greens with candied vidalia onions, Zellwood corn pate and lemon coulis, this course paired with an herbal sauvignon blanc. From here it's a hanger steak with slow-roasted heirloom tomatoes, baby arugula and a red wine-shallot butter, served wtih a malbec, merlot or tempranillo. For dessert, it's a mamey mousse with vanilla-papaya cream, served with a glass of white port or muscat. Much of the produce from the dinner will be sourced locally. For more information, go here. Six Tables is located at 4267 Henderson Blvd., Tampa.

Mise en Place owner wins lifetime achievement award

eWomenNetwork of Tampa/St. Petersburg has announced Maryann Ferenc as the Women in Business Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Ferenc has served as coproprietor for Mise en Place since its opening in 1986. In addition to her work at Mise en Place, Ferenc works with other organizations throughout the bay area, including Taste of the Nation Tampa Bay, Taste of NFL and the Tampa Independent Business Alliance. Ferenc serves on Creative Tampa Bay’s 2009-10 advisory board and is incoming chair for Board of Tampa Bay and Company. Ferenc also served as chair of the board of directors for nine years at America’s Second Harvest, formerly the Divine Providence Food Bank.

“I am honored to receive this award because it’s important, not only as a woman, but as an independent business owner to use my personal resources and connections to give back to the community,” Ferenc said.  “It is an extremely rewarding feeling to connect with the community by assisting others.”

eWomenNetwork presented the award on June 18 in recognition for Ferenc’s personal achievements and contributions made to the community as a whole and specifically the efforts made towards the betterment of businesswomen in the Tampa Bay area.

The Renaissance Vinoy offers "vintage price"

The Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club in St. Petersburg has just launched a new “classic dining” menu in Marchand’s through November 1. It's a three-course meal offered for $19.25 per person (plus tax and gratuity) to celebrate the year the original Vinoy Park Hotel opened in 1925. It's good nightly from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and every guest gets an old-timey souvenir menu. For more information, call (727) 894-1000.

Here's the menu: 

• Starter--white gazpacho or classic wedge 

• Choice of Entrée--free-range chicken breast, pork tenderloin, Atlantic salmon (all with choice of sauce: bordelaise, bernaise, citrus beurre blanc) 

• Choice of Side--asaragus with hollandaise, cauliflower gratin, butter whipped potato

• Dessert--key lime pie, tropical compote with whipped cream

Oscar Mayer dead

First the Slim Jim, and now this: Oscar G. Mayer, retired chairman of the intergalactically-famous meat processing company, has died at the age of 95. Let us now say a prayer:

Slim Jim in danger!!

Just when my day was going so swimmingly, The Man had to bring me down. Alright, she's not a man, but she is an editor. Anne Glover, I curse you for sending me this sorrowful tale.

The New York Post has reported that an explosion last month destroyed the only Slim Jim plant in the U.S. and owner ConAgra doesn't really have a game plan. So, there are panicked SJ devotees who are starting to hoard, building up huge stockpiles of everyone's favorite mechanically-separated-chicken snack. It used to be that the second ingredient was beef lips, which is really quite remarkable if you think about it. Like, why is that part worthy of being singled out, whereas, say, butt just gets a generic "beef" ingredient tag? Really, let's face it, there's jerky all over this land, but just one Slim Jim.

Best lunch ever. I mean it.

Oy vey, meshugenah. It's the richtiker chaifetz! Sorry, sometimes I lapse into goyisha Yiddish when I get excited. I went to Saigon Deli today for lunch, to research banh mi sandwiches for a story I'm working on. And I had the stinkin' best lunch I've had in ages. Eaten in car, making gobs of crumbs. It was as follows:

Baguette, very crispy, slathered with pate (tasted chicken livery, but could have been other kinds of liver), head cheese and ham, pile up with crisp and sweet and just slightly spicy daikon and carrot matchsticks and soft pickley cucumbers, lots of cilantro (and somehow the cilantro stems add to the beauty) and a tang of fish sauce and jalapeno. Warm. And wrapped in waxed paper.

Also, a to-go cup of Vietnamese coffee, very bitter, very sweet, lots of ice. And then a tiny tub of pudding that a fellow customer urged me to get. Yeesh, give that girl a fist bump. The pudding is called che bap, I think, and it has corn and tapioca and coconut milk and vanilla and little strands of chewy seaweed and some kind of little reddish beans. It's served kind of warm and kind of thin. A high degree of difficulty when eaten while driving ("I'm sorry, Officer, I spilled my che bap.").

Anyway, my faith in humanity is restored, the earth is spinning merrily on its axis and I'm dreaming about my next banh mi foray. I think tomorrow I'm free.

Saigon Deli, 3962 W Waters Ave (near Dale Mabry), Tampa; (813) 932-0300