Why all this negative talk about im-peach-ment? This soft, juicy, single-seeded fruit, with its yellow flesh and downy, red-tinted, golden skin provides an im-portant, im-pressive, and im-peccable culinary experience. When the peach is ripe, summer is here. I wait im-patiently for the Red Havens from Wenatchee to hit the market stands. Only then can I im-pulsively gorge on the rich, im-possibly lush flesh, it's sauterne-like syrup running im-prudently off my elbows. The summer peach im-perils white linen, im-passions the senses, and im-prints an indelible mark on my taste memory.
Maybe we need an im-primatur from Jon Rowley, the im-presario of peach public relations, in order to defend the honor of the peach to the im-ploding 105th Congress. Without the peach, we are im-poverished. It may be im-politic to say this, but the peach has been im-properly im-pugned. I im-pel you to stand up for the im-periled peach. I im-plore you to throw open your windows and yell as loud as possible, "We are all im-perfect! Long live the peach!"
Ever wonder what a 17th century palatial feast would look like? Now's your chance to see one. For three years I have been trying to articulate what Jackie and I were visualizing when working on the Palace Kitchen design. From the bewildered looks on people's faces, I could see that they weren't getting it. In January of '98, we began searching for an artist who could describe on canvas what was in my mind's eye. Yvonne Banks of Art Consultant Services put us in touch with Fremont-based Jennifer Carrasco.
The criterion; a 30 feet long, 8 feet high, gilded gold frame and a realistic depiction of an employee dining room in the basement of a palace after a grand feast. We were interested in seeing a painting full of stories, characters and nuance; a painting so detailed that two hours into your dinner, you'd still find something new. When presented with the challenge, Jennifer was at first a little daunted, but quickly set to work.
After nine long months of waiting, we nervously watched the painting's installation, never having seen the finished piece all put together as it would finally be in the restaurant. Like magic, a Flemish-style painting of a palace kitchen banquet appeared, set in France around 1650–1750. As Jennifer describes it herself, "I looked at a variety of sources from Chardin to La Tour to painters outside of the country. Rembrandt, Brueghel, Carravagio and Velasquez, Veronese and Rubens for ideas on color, composition, costume and customs. I took a lot of liberties with what I found."
What I found was a way to describe our vision for the Palace Kitchen without saying a word. Success. Stop by and let me know what you think. Or come to our 17th century celebration dinner on February 23rd - details inside.
Unbelievable, but here we are planning another Taste of the Nation. Mark your calendars for Sunday, April 25th. This is our twelfth year chairing this incredible event. If you all remember, the tickets to last year's event sold out months in advance. This was both a blessing and a curse. It was great to see the event reach this level of popularity. But I also received many phone calls from long time supporters who hadn't purchased their tickets early enough. This is not to say we don't still need your help in making this event successful. So please do us all a favor and call Janet at Food Lifeline at (206) 545-6600 and get your tickets before they are gone.
Tom.
