Savored Memorable Dinners

DEC ‘16: Laura, David, & I enjoyed dinner at #11 of the Top 50 Restaurants in the World: Stone Barns at Blue Hill, just 10 minutes from Mom’s house. It was a spectacular 26 course farm-to-table dinner that followed Chef Dan Barber’s philosophy described in his book The Third Plate. To caption my Facebook photos, I audio recorded our servers’ descriptions of each course along with our comments; on tasting every almost every course, we simply gushed “So Delicious!” What a treat!



DEC ‘16: Celebrated 20 years of support of the Friends of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve for this magnificent nature preserve next to Blue Hill at Stone Barns. So happy that Laura & David came down from Massachusetts to join Mom’s other guests: Miranda & Hamburg Tang, (with portrait of her father’s friend Laurance Rockefeller), Tom & Pat Shiah, and Julia Chu & Michael Tong for a spectacular evening at the Rockefeller Playhouse on the family estate, where we were greeted by Friends President Clare Pierson (Nelson’s granddaughter) and comedian Robert Klein (local resident). Glad to see David Rockefeller there too, aged 101.



JUN: Mom & I invited Michael & Winnie Feng and Chester Mah to join us at the annual Gordon Parks Foundation dinner at Cipriani 42nd St. where we were seated with Gene Young (Gordon’s former wife and Foundation Board member) and her sister Shirley. One of the best organized benefit dinners I’ve ever attended, the lavish evening, packed with glitterati (including Stephen Colbert and civil rights pioneer Congressman John Lewis), fine food and drink, meaningful awards, and inspiring stories of artists aided by the Foundation’s grants.



SEP: The 10th Annual Slow Foods Columbus Shake the Hand that Feeds You dinner, on the Produce Terminal loading dock. Fellow foodies feasted on fabulous farm-to-table food prepared by some of the area’s most talented chefs. Bethia Woolf with Matt Heaggans. TJ Gibbs’ pizzas. Darista Hummusiya’s braised brisket. Thanking Tony Layne for his Tur’Ketta. Dinner was capped by Jeni’s Sundae Board for dessert.



Throughout the year, Mom & I kept going back to two simple family-owned Chinese restaurants for delicious and healthy food. Chinese Beef Noodle Soup on the Ohio State campus for the best handmade Shandong noodles and dumplings. Asian Taste in New Albany for Cantonese & Shanghai comfort food, especially perfectly cooked vegetables, traditional tofu dishes, and sesame balls for dessert!