When Kathleen Blake got the call to cook at the famed James Beard House in New York City, she thought they had the wrong person.
“I actually said, ‘Is this a joke?’”
Blake, chef/owner of award-winning Rusty Spoon on Church Street, is a leading proponent of the farm-to-table movement and a “Best Chef: South” semifinalist. She was taken aback by the chance to cook at an event held in January in partnership with Women Chefs & Restaurateurs, which offers culinary scholarships to women across the country.
“It was so much fun, just a bunch of girls getting together,” Blake says. “It sounds like a cliché, but it really is different when women are working together in a kitchen.”
The dinner was billed as “Pioneers and Legends,” and the lineup epitomized both. Elizabeth Falkner, known for TV appearances on Top Chef and Iron Chef America; James Beard Award winners Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Spicer and Emily Luchetti; and Jamie Leeds of Washington, D.C.’s acclaimed Hank’s Oyster Bar turned out dishes with a world’s worth of influences. New Zealand venison ravioli, Alaskan halibut carpaccio with coconut–chili broth, and duck breast from Louisiana were just a few parts of the seven-course extravaganza. Blake’s savory creation used Nantucket Bay scallops and smoked pig cheek to great effect.
The appreciative sold-out crowd made it clear that choosing Blake was no joke.