James Beard House

An inside look

Dinner for 80 at the James Beard House is not a light undertaking. There's an application process to complete and a hefty expense involved. The restaurant has to provide everything—cooking staff, wine, food (including items like flour), airfare, accommodations, staff meals, etc. Bragging rights are great and it's an experience most chefs dream about. But there has to be some pretty serious motivation to take this on.

Christina Longo (front), l-r Janene Varden, Jeffrey Dorgan, Scott Lents, Rhanda Rosselot, Bobby Moore

In this case, the original motivator was General Manager Steven Boswell (who recently took a job in California and is no longer at the Lodge). In the '70s, Steven attended the Culinary Institute of America. A decade later, he walked past the James Beard House and thought "Someday, I'll lead a team here." That dream never died and he instigated the trip for the Barking Frog team.

Bobby had his dream, too. He's wanted to go since the early '90s. At one point, he was set to go with another chef but the opening of another property got pushed to the same timeframe and he had to stay home. "Timing is everything," says Bobby. "This way, I went back under my own name and the rewards were much greater. But if Steven had tried to do this a year or two earlier, I wouldn't have been ready."

With paperwork done, they started work on the menu. It had to be ready by the end of January, four months ahead of the dinner. "It's tough to plan in the middle of winter for a May dinner," says Bobby. "This was a difficult year weather-wise and everything was pushed back 2-3 weeks. We ended up getting cherries from California because they weren't ready here. 95% of our product was sourced from Washington though. We got all our purveyors involved, including local foragers."

Wanting to push the envelope on this dinner, they came up with unusual items and pairings. Three of the wines are very new: the 2007 Eroica Riesling has not been released, the 2006 Syncline Pinot Noir was released in April, and the 2007 Nellie's Garden Dry Rosé served at the reception has not yet been released. The 2006 La Serene Syrah will be released this September.

Next, logistics had to be managed. The cost of shipping food to New York was exorbitant. In the end, each person carried a box of food. Marketing Manager Rhanda Rosselot was the "queen of logistics" according to Director of Sales and Marketing Janene Varden. Both Rhanda and Janene attended the dinner. "It's just a good thing the food wasn't with us," Rhanda laughs. "Our flight lasted 11 hours due to weather delays!" Morels were shipped, gravlax that hadn't finished curing was hand carried. Lamb was smoked in Seattle and finished in New York.

Another tough call is who gets to go? This team consisted of Pablo Kovazs, the first person Bobby cooked with; Joseph Margate, a chef who inspired Bobby; Scott Lents, Barking Frog chef de cuisine; Christina Longo, Barking Frog pastry chef; Micha Windham, a chef and Christina's husband; and Tommy Hudson, another cooking friend of Bobby's. Jeffrey Dorgan, Barking Frog manager and wine director was also part of the team. "I'm so happy we could put this team together. We got along great and together we knew we could do the best job ever," says Bobby.

The cooking team on the James Beard patio

"I was so nervous coming in, but once I was in my comfort zone, the kitchen, the adrenaline kicked in. Joseph had been before and he'd say ‘what about this?' to help us plan. He also reminded us that I would be in the dining room sometimes and couldn't do everything in the kitchen. Each person knew what they had to do," says Bobby. "People talk about the downsides of the House like the small kitchen and the fact that guests walk through it while you're working. That didn't bother us. We each had our own space, side-by-side. As people walked through, we talked with them. One woman told us it was her mom's birthday and we were able to put a candle on for her. The only bad part was when we were searing fish—it was really hot in there!"

Cooking in the James Beard kitchen

Shipped food and wine arrived in the separate prep kitchen the day before and day of the dinner. "I thought they'd do a lot of the prep work the day before," recalls Janene. "But they were so focused on everything being fresh that they prepped most of the meal the day of the dinner." The chefs worked from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Jeffrey also prepped before and after he got to New York. "I was ready for those people. I studied and made tasting notes to hand out. One man kept asking me where the grapes came from until I finally realized he meant the actual vines. That was the one question I wasn't ready for," he laughs. "At the dinner, people said they'd never had tasting notes before; they were really excited about the wine. This was a dream for me, too."

Jeffrey enjoying the moment

Everyone agrees that guests and journalists were very approachable. "People weren't intimidating like you might think," says Bobby. "They go there a lot, but they were excited. One man said he'd been coming to dinners there for 13 years and ours was his best meal. He even had us sign his menu." Journalists would say "I have 30 minutes" and then stay and talk for two hours. Bobby talked with high school students from Harlem who were really interested in recycling and making a difference. Their teacher came to the dinner.

"People were impressed that we'd put so much work into this meal beforehand," says Janene. Besides the media dinner we had at Barking Frog, the items were on the tasting menu all month. They had this down—it was a chance of a lifetime."

Bottom line, it was a lot of work, an incredible amount of fun and a dream come true.

Connie Adams/July 2008