Italy at Your Table meets Sunday Night Suppers Charity Event

Italy at Your Table meets Sunday Night Suppers Charity Eventby Filippo BartolottaI was meant to meet with Dalya Luttwak - http://www.dalyaluttwak.com - the famous artist, in the early afternoon arriving to Washington from NYC for the big Charity event Sunday night Suppers.Dalya has been working for years digging out thesplendorof the roots world. Maybe that is way her soul and spirit and karma shines so much! Working with the hidden part of ourself, one has to confront with all that matters.As Dalya puts it: in the poem euroThe Book of Questions,euro Pablo Neruda asks, euroWhy do the trees conceal the splendor of their roots?euro So there Dalya comes with giant steel root art work. Her work is very inspiring and can take you to a very deep level of meditation as you watch.So you can understand I was keen to meet my host, but I was instead picked up by Jan Bhurgman at Van-nesse train station to go a check all the wines arrived at Culvert Wines for Italy at Your Table. The change of plan was very well accepted thoughJan is the chef who together with the video-maker Robert Morrison I have spent the whole week in Washington making the impossibleeuropossible.Jan picked Barbara and me up in mid-afternoon and on my car seat I found a hot yummy plate of Squash and Black Cabbage Chicken salad. Not a bad start, thank you so much Jan for looking after me sooooooooo sweetly..We go traight to Culvert Wines www.calvertwoodley.com. Ed, the owner and William his assistant, helped us so much to get all the wines from Italy ready for the event. The made magics clearing a lot of bottles from customs and stocking everything up for us.This US tour it isneurot just business for me as I am meeting so many great Americans with such a proactive and positve energy that is making me into an even better personJ)))))Anyway Dalya has been our host for a whole week and I wanted to go say hello, take a shower, etc. Washignton though has been just crazy with little or no time to do even the basics!So in the end we go to our home at midnight or so. I was expecting Dalya to be rightfully mad, but she wasneurot. We landed on her mazing porch with all our luggage, she opend the door to her marvellous wooden house and a big smile says: welcome. She shows our bedrooms and I understand immediatly that she is going to be one of the best host Ieuroll ever meet again!We finally take a rest. Dalyaeuros home is silent, comfy and cosy. The morning I manage to go for a run in Chevy Chase woods and I am in peace with the world.As I get back I made myself a full-monty Dalyaeuros breakfas: organic yogurt with cereals, honey and fresh berries. Some coff hot shower and Robert is knocking at the door. Iteuros 0830.The next follwoing days have been all like this. Early wake up, Robert pick up and fast to Joan Nathaneuros home: the headquarter of Sunday Suppers.Joaneuros house is a beautiful home with a huge open space kitchen where millions of people gather around to cook for everyone while everyone is working hecticly to make the Charity event take off.I was so thrilled to meet up with Joan Nathan and I though I would have sat down for an intellectualcoffeewith the author of 30 cookbooks, but instead I found a revolution and super-quick-fast-lane-hyper-active make it happen person.For the first 24 h I felt like a post-it board with 1000 post-it that she put on me. I managed to have 1 min and 9 seconds of total attention from her and then the ball started rolling and I became part of the wonderful world of Joan Nathan: thank you Joan, honestly.To give you an idea, Joan has managed to put together 15 houses that hosted 15 great American chefs to raise roughly $150.000. Everyone attend this dinners.My role has been to pair all the 15 menus with the Italian Wines which signed up for Italy at Your Table. For the full list of wine makers go check: ITALY AT YOUR TABLE FOR THE SUNDAY SUPPERS IN WASHINGTONDC.This has been an amazing challenge for me as I had to pair all MY Vernaccias, Barolo, Brunello, Chianti Classico, Amarones, Campania, Sparklings, Sagrantinos, Barbarescos and SuperTuscans not just to 15 menus, but to 15 different cuisines: from Mexican with Julian Medina of Toloache in NYCtothe French Gabrielle Kreuther from THE MODERN in NYC; from the authentic Italian of Nicholas Stefanelli of Bibiana DC to the Chinese-Vietnamise Charles Phan of Slanted Doors SFC to the one and unique Alice Waters!I had to taste everything with most chef, often with open confrontations which ended up with amazing results!The first night -when kidnapped by Jan- I did an extensive wine presentation with all the labels at Rob Wilder's home (CEO of Thinkfoodgroop -www.thinkfoodgroup.com of Jos Andrs). This was set up by Alice Waters assistant Sarah Weiner. She justthroughthe idea there and we made it in to a very cosy family dinneratmosphere, with the Wilder's and their kids cooking for everybody at the end of the tasting.Thank you Rob for opening your house and have us for dinner with your family!The morning after we had to sort all the wines out and deliver them to the 15 homes. This job was done by the angel work of Anders Hyde and his volunteers who did all the leg work for the Sunday Night Suppers.I gotta to go to get my kids at school as I am late, but right after this I'll get right into the Dinners, the White House talks, and then Kansas City and the Berkshires...I am so late with my update, but life is taking over at the moment.Speak to you soon.
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