HVC columnist is Beard nominee!

Wow! We have two Hudson Valley nominees for the James Beard Foundation Book Award/beverage -- and one is by Hudson Valley Connoisseur magazine's wines writer, Michael Arthur Weiss! Congratulations to Michael, who writes an entertaining and educational column about world wine in every issue of HVC!

The second nominee with local ties is Michael Harney of Millerton's Harney & Sons Fine Tea.

What a prestigious honor for both men! The winners will be named on May 4 at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall in New York City.

Here are the nominees for beverage book:

The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea
by Michael Harney with Emily Kaiser
(The Penguin Press)

The Wines of Burgundy
by Clive Coates
(University of California Press)

WineWise: Your Complete Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Enjoying Wine
by Steven Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, and Michael A. Weiss, The Culinary Institute of America
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)

Also, nominated under the International category, is Southeast Asian Flavors: Adventures in Cooking the Foods of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, & Singapore by Robert Danhi, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and former faculty member there.

Star chef in Hyde Park

Chef Ferrán Adrià came to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park yesterday, for a rare cooking demo for the culinary college's students. I'd seen the famed Spanish chef at Slow Food's international conference, Terre Madre, in Turin, Italy a few years ago. There, in a hall filled with chefs, food producers and foodies from all over the world, he really did get the "rock star" reception. (I wrote about a local connection to that event in a past blog post.) His CIA appearance created similar excitement.

At the CIA yesterday, he was accompanied by another famed Spanish chef, José Andrés (Cafe Atlantico, Jaleo, Zaytinya, Minibar by Jose Andres, Oyamel restaurants.) You can read more about the visit in the Poughkeepsie Journal article.

Many connections here: Andrés trained at Adrià's world-renowned restaurant El Bulli in Spain. Andrés also appeared on an episode of Iron Chef America where CIA President Tim Ryan served as a judge, and Andrés chaired "Spain and the World Table," the prestigious Worlds of Flavor international food conference held in 2006 at the Culinary's Greystone campus in California's Napa Valley. I wrote about that way back when, in this blog post. Yup, it's about gerbil meatballs too. ;-)

Art inspired by food

This sounds yummy!

The exhibit, Art Inspired by Food, a juried regional art show focused on art work inspired by the theme of food, opens Friday (March 13) at the Muroff Kotler Visual Arts Gallery, Vanderlyn Hall, on SUNY Ulster's Stone Ridge campus. The exhibit was judged by Mary Anne Erickson, collagist, painter and co-owner of Woodstock’s Blue Mountain Bistro and Bistro on the Go.

It runs through March 17. Gallery hours are Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and by appointment. The gallery is closed on college holidays.

Honor for HVC magazine's wines columnist

Michael Weiss, Hudson Valley Connoisseur magazine wines columnist, has received the 2009 Distinguished Service Award from the Italian Trade Commission. He shares the honor with fellow Culinary Institute of America Wine Studies Professor Steven Kolpan and Karen MacNeil, chair of the CIA's Professional Wine Studies Program at its California campus. (Weiss, at left in photo, and Kolpan, at right, teach at the CIA's Hyde Park campus.)

Congrats to all, who were honored at the Italian Trade Commission’s Vino 2009 conference "in recognition of noteworthy support of the Wines of Italy in America” and for their “commitment to advancing the understanding, appreciation and sales of Italian wines in the United States."

Hudson River stations inspire artist

For a modern take on the Hudson River as artistic inspiration, there is "A Journey Along the Hudson River Line” -- Frédéric Lére's oil paintings of the 31 train stations along the MTA and Amtrak Hudson River lines. The exhibit will be on display at RiverWinds Gallery at 172 Main Street in Beacon from March 14 though April 6. The artist’s reception will be held during Beacon’s Second Saturday, March 14, from 5-8 p.m.


Here is more about it from the gallery:

Frédéric’s oil paintings are an artistic catalog of the 31 train stations along the MTA and Amtrak Hudson River lines. Each stop on the MTA and Amtrak Hudson River lines is painted, keeping train station and river in sight if possible. Each one is framed in wood, pasted with a collage of train schedules revealing the name of each station in white highlights.

At the beginning of the 19th Century, the first school of American landscape painters explored the dramatic wilderness of the Hudson River. In their footsteps, New York City-based artist Frédéric Lère boarded the train in the summer of 2007 and 2008 to rediscover the Hudson Valley with easel, canvas and oil paint.

Always keeping train stations and river in sight, he found wilderness very close to the city, in places such as Breakneck Ridge or Manitou, as students and science teachers were foraging ponds next to his easel to find rare species of mud minnows. In many stations he also faced the discouraging development of suburbia with its sprawling acres of parking lots. But many treasures could also be found: a church in Cold Spring filled with live music and passionate people, a boat launch in Beacon, or a farmer’s market. In every station, Frédéric met humanity, curiosity and sometimes camaraderie of fellow painters.

Train stations along the Hudson lines played a pivotal role in the development of townships in the valley; they were the pride of the community and built to last, just like banks or churches. A few did not survive the modernization trend of the Seventies. Today, they are rediscovered, protected, and restored, -- although not always as train stations, -- as is the Hudson Valley itself.

Frédéric Lére, after Beaux-Arts studies as well as studies in stone carving and comics in France, arrived in New York in 1984 to specialize in mural painting. He met painter Mark Beard and worked with him on theater sets and decorative painting jobs in New York, as well as in Europe. His friendship with Mark continues today. They are working on murals in New York, Los Angeles, London and Tokyo. In Miami, he met another work partner, Pierre Marcel. Together, they have realized murals in Florida, Russia, France, even cruise-ships.

Gallery hours are Wednesdays through Mondays, noon to 6 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Second Saturdays. Direction at the Web site or by calling 845-838-2880.