Sips & Suppers is an annual fundraising event in Washington, DC held to raise money for DC Central Kitchen and Martha’s Table. Both organizations have missions to eliminate hunger and poverty in Washington, DC, especially for children and families.

We love this event where various generous folks open their homes to guests and to well-known chefs who come in from all over the country to cook the meals. This year, we attended a dinner prepared by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse (www.chezpanisse.com). Alice pioneered what is known now as California cuisine, with its emphasis on locally sourced ingredients. As you can imagine, the dinner was a delectable meal that filled the senses.

We started out with various hors d’oeuvres, including slices of bread toasted in the hosts’ fireplace and topped with cheese or a tapenade, raw oysters, and Jose Andres’s Iberico ham.

The first official course was a saffron chicken consommé with herbs. The consommé was incredibly flavorful and the herbs nicely balanced out the richness of the broth with their astringency.

Next up was a shellfish salad with black truffle, preserved lemon, and garden lettuces. The shellfish consisted of incredibly succulent lobster and scallops. Now, anything topped with black truffle is bound to be delicious, but the freshness of the seafood made the salad even more special.

The entrée was Jamison Farm rack of lamb served with Moroccan spices, couscous, and roasted heirloom carrots. Alice and her staff had converted the hosts’ garden plot into a firepit to roast the rack of lamb. As a result, the lamb had a smoky flavor and a crust that was unbelievable.

The palate cleanser was a citrus and date salad. The date was so fresh and ripe that it tasted like candy.

Dessert was sweet semolina crêpes with honey ice cream. Alice brought the honey from Berkeley, and it had an incredibly delicate floral flavor. Yum!

The guests were also incredibly star-studded, even for Washington, DC. We had prominent journalists, former and current senior government officials, and leaders of other communities, all of whom were delightful and informal. The normal guests were a lot of fun to talk to, too!  (At least, I hope we were.)  🙂

In addition to Alice, the other chefs were David Tanis, Ignacios Mattos, Nico Monday, and Amelia Monday.

You can find out more about DC Central Kitchen (www.dccentralkitchen.org) and Martha’s Table (www.marthastable.org) at their websites.