chez pim

happy holidays!

Menu for Hope extended through the weekend

Menu for Hope raffle is extended through the weekend. It looks like there are a bunch people who made mistakes in their raffle bids and donation forms so I am going to give until the end of this weekend to correct everything.

When the great folks at Firstgiving get into their office at 9am EST, someone there is going to close the donation page and then send me the spreadsheet of the donors and their raffle bids for our drawing. That will be the hard stop for the campaign right there.

So, there's a bit of time left if you want to donate and get more raffle tickets you missed the first time. If you have any problem at all with the donation, please email support@firstgiving.com and they will be happy to help you.

Meanwhile, you probably see that you can keep up with how much we've raised with the neat little widget just to the right of this post. That came courtesy of Derek Slager, who also helped me figure out the odds on our tip sheet. Thanks Derek!

Seventy-eight thousand dollars!!

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.

Will we make $80K, you think? A bit more time to go....

$73K!!

....and counting! Have you given to Menu for Hope yet? If not, now would be the time!

Check out Menu for Hope tip sheet on what prizes have the best chances!

Menu for Hope Tip Sheet

(Raffle is extended through the weekend.)

Friday is the final day of our Menu for Hope 4. We beat our last year's record with a whole day more to go, and now let's see how far we can really run!

To nudge you over to our donation page to finally give and make your raffle choices, I've decided to give in to popular demands and show you the odds for each prize. Consider this a tip sheet before you bet on the races. ;-)

I'm not going to give you exact odds, mind you, because those numbers will be inaccurate as soon as I publish this post. What I can do is to break the prizes down to a few categories, as follow..

Great odds
These are great prizes that for some reason or another have been overlooked. Some of these have odds as great as 1 in 2 chances of winning. Get your raffle tickets in for these prizes if you really want to win.

Good odds
These are great prizes that have a number of bidders, but are still pretty good odds to win. Time for you to throw your hat in the ring!

Long shots
These are popular prizes that have got a lot of raffle bids already. Chances are you're not going to win, but that doesn't mean you can't take your chances at them!

Hail-Mary shots
These are prizes that are extremely hot, and so the odds of you winning are tiny. But the prizes are so great - some of them once in a lifetime chances - that you might as well throw a raffle ticket in and pray for your life! Who knows, it only takes one ticket to win!

Are you behind on your Christmas shopping list? Give them hope!

We are getting so close to 50K I can smell it! It's pretty clear now that we will beat our last year's record before the campaign ends at the end of the week, but by how much, that's for YOU to decide.

We have so many great prizes on our Menu for Hope this year that some of them haven't enjoyed as much attention as they deserve. That means, my friends, you've got really good odds at getting those wonderful prizes with your $10 raffle ticket.

Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? If you're running behind, why not consider getting some on your list Menu for Hope raffle tickets instead of a present? They can feel good about helping the hungry, and they might even win something. It's great all around.

My Europe host Fanny at Foodbeam has put up a list of her favorite prizes on her blog, while Adam over in New York showed you the under-appreciated prizes his East Coast list. Jeanne and Johanna in London also has one. Check them out.

*New: also some good odds from our Canadian host Jennifer at Domestic Goddess.

Here are a few lovely ones that are still waiting for you!

More pictures from Lesotho

Bokang Khatala

Bokang Khatala lives with her husband and six children in the village of Malimong Tebellong in Lesotho. She is 44 years old and has lived in Malimong all my life. Her family used to be very poor and always hungry until she started conservation farming. Now she produces enough food for her family and even some extra to sell. This year she used the money she made to pay for her children's school fees.

More pictures from Lesotho

Maleetoane Khali

Maleetoane Khali working in her field. She follows conservation farming techniques that help to preserve moisture in the soil, stop the soil from being eroded and produce bigger yields - all without need for tractors or oxen, which very few people have access to.

She is a 52-year-old farmer in the village of Tebellong-Ha-Abisae near Qachaís Nek in Lesotho. She has a husband and 8 children. Beore she started conservation farming, it was very hard to live. There was real hunger up here in Tebellong. The harvests were very small and people were starving. Her family was so hungry. They had to borrow from neighbours. Her children did not go to school because they were too hungry.

But the situation is completely different now. Since she started conservation farming, they have had ok harvests because the soil is much better now and keeps moisture for much longer. This year they had a good harvest even though there was a drought. She sold some maize to WFP and used the money to pay her childrenís school fees and also to buy some important household items like soap.

A meal of your life and theirs, a great new prize from Menu for Hope 4

How can you have a meal of your life in Paris and help children in Lesotho have a meal that might save theirs? Donate $10 to Menu for Hope and try your luck at our most exciting new prize: lunch for two at the Michelin three-star l'Arpège! (Prize code: EU40)

You heard it right my friends, l'Arpège. This prize came courtesy of the chef, Alain Passard, himself. The lucky winner (and a luckier guest) will be treated to a sumptuous lunch of Alain's fabulous creations.

Take it from me, if you won this prize, make sure you plan your visit when the weather is nice. Have a meal of your life, and cross the street to the Rodin garden for a little rest en plein air to relive the joy of that wonderful meal and even feel a bit smug about how much good you've done humanity with it!

What other meals of your life can you have while helping us help others? There's the dinner for two at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York (UE01), or Manresa in California (UW10), or have Heston cook his historic British menu for you at the Hinds Head in Bray (UK33)? Or what about that chef's table at Attica in Melbourne (AP27)? Or the Sportsman in Seasalter, Kent (UK39)?

If it's dining companion you're looking for, what about joining two famous food critics, Jay Rayner in London (UK34) or Stephen Downes in Melbourne (AP15) on a review gig?

Whichever dining experience your choose, you're helping us support Menu for Hope! Thank you so much.

You can also see the full list of Menu for Hope prizes or browse by region: US, East Coast; US, West Coast; US, anywhere in between; United Kingdom; Europe; Canada; Asia Pacific/Australia/New Zealand, or browse the wine prizes at Vinography, our special wine blog host.

35K and just a few more days to go

Have you got your raffle tickets to support Menu for Hope yet? We are now at $35K and just a little less than a week to go. Last year's total was $60K and with your help we can beat it!

We've got so many great prizes that are still waiting for more raffle tickets. Odds are still pretty good for a review dinner with Jay Rayner in London and also with Stephen Downes in Melbourne. What about a day stage with Nuno Mendes at Bacchus in London? Or what about tasting menu cooked by Stephen Harris at the Sportsman in Kent, plus, he'll take you on a tour of markets and farms that supply the restaurant.

Alder, our wine blog host, has got a list of prizes that also have pretty good odds at winning, most of which are newly added, like a whole case of twisted wines from Twisted Oak, or a half case of lovely Austrian wines, or perhaps a year subscription to two fantastic wine publications, The World of Fine Wine and The Fine Wine Review? Check out Vinography, our wine host for Menu for Hope for more.

Down under in Australia, Helen of Grab Your Fork, our Asia Pacific host posted updates on how her prizes are going, so check out your odds if you're over on that side of the world. There are a bunch of new fabulous prizes from Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia, which would be great if you're planning on heading out that way any time next year.

Dispatch from Lesotho

Tebellong, Lesotho - 10 December 2007 - by Richard Lee

Despite the worst drought in 30 years, farmers in Lesotho have produced enough food to feed themselves and their families - and sell the World Food Programme what's left over. WFP spokesperson Richard Lee visited a group of farmers who are looking forward to a brighter future thanks to WFP purchasing their food.

For the first time in her life, 52-year-old Maleetoane Khali has money. Not a lot but enough to send her older children to school and to buy previously unaffordable necessities like soap and salt. More importantly, the money has made her believe that she can permanently pull her family out of poverty and hunger. The source of her new found ‘wealth’ is the World Food Programme (WFP).

But Khali is not a beneficiary. Nor did she receive a hand-out. Instead, she was paid a fair price for the surplus crops she produced – part of a historic deal that saw WFP buy maize from small-scale farmers in Lesotho for the very first time.

Read the full story at the WFP site.

How do you say Lesotho?

Join Menu for Hope today!

Alinea and Bits, (three) more prizes you won't want to miss

Here are two three more prizes I'm adding today that you really don't want to miss.

UC30: A unique package from Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas of Alinea, including two early proofs - framing quality prints - of the Alinea book's recipe pages, one copy of signed, limited edition book (on release in Fall '08), and early access to the Alinea Mosaic site in May '08

Over 1 year in the making, the Alinea book will contain over 100 dishes with hundreds of recipes, over 500 photographs shot on site, and essays by such illustrious names as Jeffrey Steingarten, Michael Ruhlman, Mark McClusky, and Michael Nagrant. Graphic design and layout of the book are now in their final stages. The book will be released by 10 Speed Press in the Fall of 2008.

This package (UC30) includes two early proofs of recipe pages from the book signed by chef Grant Achatz, designer Martin Kastner, and photographer Lara Kastner, which will likely NOT be used in the final book and so will be one-off prints from the early design work. The lucky winner will also recieve a signed, limited edition copy of the Alinea book to be shipped in the Fall of 2008, plus early access to the Alinea Mosaic web site which will launch in May.

UW37: Chris Cosentino will take you to lunch on delectable bits at his favorite secret offal restaurant in San Francisco, plus a Lips and Assholes t-shirt.

If you're a fan of The Next Iron Chef, or Chris's lovely restaurant Incanto, or his blog Offal Good, you might want to get a few raffle tickets for this special prize. With a bit of luck, you'll get to hang out with Chris over lunch of bits and bobs at his favorite offal restaurant in San Francisco. He'll even give you one of his super fabulous Lips and Assholes t-shirt in the size guaranteed to fit your very own bits.

And, speaking of bits, I hope you guys noticed that the prize Michael Ruhlman so kindly offered for Menu for Hope 4 on his blog is not just a personally signed copy of his book, the Elements of Cooking - which alone would have been a great prize - but he also added a special deal, for the lucky winner who could and would get themselves to Cleveland, to share a meal of pigs' ears and Great Lakes dortmunder at Lolita! Michae's prize code is UE43.

Go on. Donate and get a few tickets for these chances of a lifetime!

Two more prizes from Europe and the UK

I've got two more prizes I really want to tell you about, especially for those in the UK and Europe. These are two special culinary experiences that have been generously offered as raffle prizes for our Menu for Hope. I'm sure they will get a whole bunch of you donating - or donating again - to our campaign to try your luck at them.

UK39: Dinner at the Sportsman, Seasalter, Kent, and a tour of local farms supplying the restaurant with the chef, Stephen Harris.

You couldn't possibly fashion yourself a proper British foodie if you hadn't heard of chef Stephen Harris and his cult restaurant The Sportsman. This is a cook so fanatic with great local ingredients that he not only forages, cures meat, churns butter, but even makes his own salt. For Menu for Hope, Stephen offers to cook one lucky winner of the Menu for Hope raffle (and his or her lucky guest) a special tasting menu. And to make your trek up to Seasalter even more special, he will show you around the local farms and markets where he sources his amazing ingredients.

EU32: Two all-pass tickets to Madrid Fusion in January 2008
(Only for this particular prize, the winners will be informed right after Christmas because the conference will take place January 21-24.)

Madrid Fusion, one of the biggest and most important avant-garde gastronomic conferences in the world, offers two tickets, combined value over 1,200 euros, with all access pass to demonstrations, subject presentations, conference booklet, and tastings at the exhibition zone. On the conference's roster this year include Ferran Adria, Andoni Aduriz, Quique Dacosta, Jean-Frainçois Piège, the Roca brothers, and more. These tickets only cover access to the conference itself, no transport or accommodation - you'll have to do that bit on your own!

Menu for Hope Prizes from Chez Pim

Alright, after spending days putting together a list of everyone else's prizes, now I have time to do my own prizes justice. I've got a whole bunch, and I'm not giving all away yet, mind you. There are a few good tricks up my sleeves yet. I have to keep you guys on your toes now, haven't I?

Ok, so let's see what I managed to ask -that is to say beg- my generous friends and acquaintances to agree to do for Menu for Hope.

Prizes in the US:

UW10: Dinner for two with wine pairing included at Manresa, plus a personal tour of the Manresa Biodynamic Garden.
If you are a Chez Pim reader you surely have heard of Manresa, yes? David - as in Kinch, the chef - has not only generously offered the dinner once again, and even cajoled Jeff Bareillles the sommelier to promise smashing wine pairings to match his delicious menu, but he is going even further. He will also take the winner and a guest on a personal tour of the Manresa biodynamic garden, also known as Love Apple Farm in the Santa Cruz mountains. You can meet Cynthia Sandberg, our wonderful farmer, and see where the amazing produce that supply the (Michelin 2 star!) kitchen at Manresa comes from.

UW11: A chance to have lunch with Harold McGee, the author of the classic tome On Food and Cooking. Last year, Harold agreed to have tea with a lucky winner of Menu for Hope III raffle. Apparently the experience must have been relatively painless, since Harold not only agreed to do it again, he let me sell him for anything I want! Luckily for him, I can be nice - though it is an effort - so, instead of making him do all sorts of interesting things that came to mind - and that would have sold thousands worth of tickets - I'm only offering him to you as a perfect lunch companion. This lunch will have to be claimed somewhere in the Bay Area, of course. No, there's no plane ticket in the prize, you'll have to get yourself here.

Prizes in the UK:

UK33: A unique historic British menu for two at the Hinds Head from Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck. Heston will also meet the winner and present autographed copies of all his three books.

The more public side of Heston Blumenthal is the pre-eminent chef-scientist at the Michelin three-star restaurant The Fat Duck, while the side lesser known is the passionate researcher and restorer of historic British dishes. The lucky winner of this prize (and a guest) will dine on a menu that is literally a representation of British cuisine from the 17th and 18th century. Heston promises that they will be outstanding, and some of them will never have been tested before!

UK34: Companion spot on a review dinner with Jay Rayner of the Observer and the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog.
Jay said "This meal will be a London review. so no point bidding if they ain't nearby or planning to be there. (note from me: Menu for Hope won't fly you over either so you're on your own there.) And secondly, I do not guarantee that the cost of the meal I take them on will in any way match the amount they spent on raffle tickets. Somebody here in London recently bid £500 for my company which is a ludicrous sum. Do I now have to be £500 funny? Oh, and it will be at a time convenient to us both but within the next, say, six months. how does that sound?" Brilliant, I said!

Prizes in Europe:

EU31: A tour of elBulli kitchen laboratory at the new Alícia Institute. If it all goes on schedule, by next year, most of the experimental work that has been done at the elBulli Taller in downtown Barcelona will be moved to the new gastronomy research center Alícia, near Barcelona. The lucky winner of this prize will get a tour of the center, hopefully at least part of the time accompanied by Ferran Adrià. Ferran's schedule is absolutely crazy, as you could imagine, so the winner of this prize will have to be a bit flexible. We'll try our best to work out a schedule that is good for everyone concerned.

And as a thoughtful addition, my good friend Mariano of the Adventures of the Silly Disciple blog will offer his services as a special Ferran translator, that is, if the winner is not fluent in Spanish or Catalan themselves. This is a chance of a lifetime!

Menu for Hope 4

If you want to browse the list and see the odds at winning each prize,
please go directly to the Menu for Hope Tip Sheet.

What is Menu for Hope?

It's that time of year again, when food bloggers from all over the world join together, taking leave from our usual frivolity. Throughout the year, we celebrate food as a source of joy, but for two weeks every December, we ask you, our readers, to help us support those who are not so lucky, to whom food is not a mere indulgence but a matter of survival. This Menu for Hope is our small way to help. Please join us.

What is Menu for Hope?
Who benefits from Menu for Hope 4?
What percentage of the funds actually goes to those we help?
How can you help?
Who administers the raffle drawings and when will the results be announced?

What is Menu for Hope?

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event in support of the UN World Food Programme. Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired me to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US$60,925.12 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes. For every US$10, the donor receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice. This year, the prizes include once in a lifetime experiences such as touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià , dining on a historic British meal prepared by Heston Blumenthal, or joining Harold McGee on a lunch date to satisfy a lifetime's worth of cooking curiosity. You can also tag along with your favorite blogger on a tour of their favorite markets, restaurants, or even receive a care package fashioned especially for you from your favorite bloggers themselves. All you need is $10 and a bit of luck.

We may never eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, but why should that stop us from trying?

Who benefits from Menu for Hope 4?

This year for the 4th annual Menu for Hope, we are again supporting the UN World Food Programme. WFP is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good.

With a special permission from the WFP, the funds raised by Menu for Hope 4 will be earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa. We chose to support the school lunch program because providing food for the children not only keeps them alive, but helps them stay in school so that they learn the skills to feed themselves in the future.

We chose to support the program in Lesotho because it is a model program in local procurement - buying food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. Instead of shipping surplus corn across the ocean, the WFP is buying directly from local subsistent farmers who practice conservation farming methods in Lesotho to feed the children there.

We feed the kids, keep them in school, and support their parents and community farming. This sustainable approach to aid is something we believe in and strongly support.

Faces from Lesotho

Food & Wine's Tahoe weekend: "le back-story"

Have you seen this month's Food&Wine yet? I wrote a piece for them, a very bloggy piece about our weekend in Tahoe earlier this year. It might have been bloggier than this blog even - quite a feat I'm telling you.

The only thing different in the Food&Wine story is it wasn't real. Ha! Busted! Well, no, not really. It's not what you think. We actually do cook this way on vacation, if you didn't believe me you could check out my Flickr photoset from our trip to Mougins a while back. Yes we *are* that crazy about food.

Vienna Vegetable Orchestra

You've got to be an incurable curmudgeon if this video didn't put a smile on your face. It's from the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, an entire orchestra playing musical instruments made from vegetables. How very crunchy!

Great find on eBay: vintage art deco Hobart meat slicer

My friend Robert pointed out this amazing find on eBay this morning, and I just had to share it with you. There's a vintage Hobart meat slicer on the auction block. It's vintage Art Deco design is that rare combination of form and function. Like the Richard Sapper cafétière I wrote about last week, this Art Deco gem proudly belongs to a number of museum design collections.

Since I've been on a Gift Guide kick for the holiday season, this slicer would make a great gift for a discerning art collector/foodie in your life. And, just to make it a truly perfect and complete package, tuck in a copy of Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie. They can try their hands at making their own sausages and cured meats and use this beautiful machine to slice and serve.

Bidding stands at only $152 right now, a great deal if I've ever seen one. The auction will end December 11 on this page on eBay. Good luck!

P.S. Just in case someone wonders, I have nothing to do with this item or this auctioneer on eBay whatsoever. I just saw a good deal and wanted to point it out to you people! I don't have room for it in my overflowing kitchen, but one of my readers might in theirs.