Forest Feast in the City!

The Forest Feast heads to the city for an evening! San Francisco is just 45 minutes from our little cabin in the woods. My husband and I attended a benefit for the San Francisco chapter of Meals on Wheels last weekend which was a delicious showcase of the Bay Area’s best chefs. The mission of Meals on Wheels is “to provide isolated homebound seniors in San Francisco with nutritious meals, daily human contact and supportive services to prevent their premature institutionalization.” Above are photos of the following chefs and restaurants: A16, Beretta, 15 Romolo, John Gasparini Cocktails, Waterbar, E&O Kitchen, Scott Beattie Cocktails, Etoile, Meritage at the Claremont, Cesare Casella, Brandon Jew of Bar Agricole, Martin Brock of Gary Danko, Baker and Banker, Central Kitchen, and Mourad Lahlou of Aziza. For a full list of participating chefs, click here.

All photos and illustration copyright © Erin Gleeson for The Forest Feast

Passover Seder in the Woods

Spring has sprung in the woods! Passover is this week and to kick it off, we hosted a first-night Seder.  We spent 2 days cooking all the traditional Jewish dishes: Matzah ball soup, Haroset (a paste of dried fruit and nuts), Farfel (quiche-like squares), Tzimmes (a sweet potato carrot dish), plus a roasted chicken with rosemary and lemon. The seder plate has items that represent different parts of the meal and the Passover story of slavery and freedom, including a hard boiled egg, horseradish, parsley, matzah, a shank bone and the modern addition of an orange. In this story of Exodus, when the Jews fled Egypt, they didn’t have time for their bread to rise, so this week we eat matzah instead of bread as a reminder that there are still people today who seek freedom. Chag Sameach and Happy Passover!

Photos and illustration by Erin Gleeson

Photography Show at ICC

I am happy to announce that I just put up a solo show of my photography at the International Culinary Center, home of the French Culinary Institute, in SoHo, NYC. It will be up through March 2012 and showcases dishes by several different chefs including Alex Espiritu (of Valrhona), Dan Kluger (of ABC Kitchen, NYC), Daniel Humm (of Eleven Madison Park), Elizabeth Falkner (of Orson in SF), Francois Payard, Johnny Iuzzini (Jean George, NYC), The Voltaggio Brothers (of Top Chef), and Kevin Sbraga (of Top Chef), among others. Images of dishes above, from top are by Pichet Ong, The Voltaggio Brothers and Johnny Iuzzini.

Brooklyn Art Exhibit

I am very excited to announce that the two Forest Feast images above, plus a still life I did on Passover Seder have been chosen to be part of an exhibition going up in January in Brooklyn, NY at the Powerhouse Area as part of the NY Photo Festival. If anyone is around, please stop by the opening on Jan. 6th at 6pm!