More than 20 area chefs and restaurants cook up a storm for worthy causes.
By: Aleen Crispino
As many people know, the Princeton area is endowed with an array of fine restaurants. What some may not know about is the community spirit and generosity that motivated more than 20 area chefs and food establishment owners to join Share Our Strength’s Taste of Princeton fund-raiser Monday at the Doral Forrestal Hotel and Spa in Plainsboro.
The food- and wine-tasting event, which included lively jazz played by the John Bianculli Group and silent and live auctions, netted $52,000. Seventy percent of the proceeds will benefit four local hunger relief and anti-poverty groups HomeFront, Isles, Mercer Street Friends Food Cooperative and Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.
"We’ve been involved with this event for the seven years we’ve been open," said Jim Weaver, chef and owner of Tre Piani in Princeton Forrestal Village. "This year we hosted a bunch of meetings and helped where we could."
His tastiest contribution was a timbale of risotto with smoked chicken, asparagus and morel mushrooms in a sauce with fresh sweet peas and black truffles.
"We are a long-term beneficiary of this event and we’re very grateful for the dollars raised, which go to the day-to-day operations of the food bank," said Phyllis Stoolmacher, director of the Mercer Street Friends Food Cooperative, located on Brunswick Avenue in Lawrence. The co-op is a regional distribution center for 50 to 60 hunger relief charities throughout Mercer County, she explained.
Peter Wise, director of Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, was also grateful for the fund-raiser, part of the Taste of the Nation effort sponsored by Share Our Strength, a national nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to mobilize local businesses and volunteers to stage food-tasting events to fight hunger.
"We really appreciate what they’re doing," he said. "I’m serving 3,000 meals a week with the soup kitchen last year we served 160,000 meals. Those numbers have been going up steadily each year. In 1999, we served less than 100,000. I think there’s basically a greater need."
Mr. Wise cited the growing immigrant and Latino populations in Trenton and the high cost of living in New Jersey as contributing to the increasing need for the soup kitchen. He is in favor of the recent state law raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15 an hour, explaining that many who come to the soup kitchen do not have money left from their paychecks for food after paying their bills.
Catharine Vaucher, vice president of resource development for Isles, described how the nonprofit organization develops community gardens to help families produce food.
"We have 43 community gardens in Trenton," she said. "We provide nutritional education and environmental education about how to prevent asthma and lead poisoning. We also do field trips for kids to natural settings in the community."
Event co-chairs Kathleen Fitzgibbon and Emil Efthimides were enthusiastic about their involvement with Taste of Princeton, which contributes 100 percent of the money raised to hunger relief and anti-poverty groups 70 percent locally, 20 percent to food banks and soup kitchens around the country and 10 percent to international hunger and poverty relief groups.
"The people down here are so generous," said Ms. Fitzgibbon, a South Brunswick resident who has been on the steering committee for several years.
"I’ve been co-chairing for four years," said Mr. Efthimides, a Lawrence resident. "It’s really very much a local, grass-roots event. We start in the fall to set the location and date. This is the third year that the Doral Forrestal has donated the space we can’t thank them enough.
"We have about 10 people on the committee, but we have enough to do for 20 people we could use the help," he said, inviting others to join next year’s effort.
Food and beverages were displayed artfully on tables in several rooms. Guests could circle from room to room and sample everything that appealed to them.
The Grape Escape of Dayton served cabernet sauvignon made on site from Chilean grapes. Attractive women in black gowns dispensed apple martinis under a sign with the Jack Daniels logo from liquor distributor Brown-Forman.
Bob Mehnert, executive chef at the Nassau Inn in Princeton, and his culinary staff served chive crepes filled with pork and duck confit, with a peppercorn-crusted duck breast, applewood-smoked bacon and lingonberry sauce.
Chef Bobby Trigg of Princeton’s The Ferry House and staff were kept busy handing out 250 crème brulées, having already distributed 400 plates of chilled shrimp with mandarin orange, avocado salsa and red beets, along with crab marinated in Tuaca (a vanilla-ginger-and-orange Italian liqueur featured by Brown-Forman).
"I tried just about everything except the desserts, which I try to stay away from," said Jackie Mignott of Plainsboro. "I did try the crème brulée from the Ferry House I loved it. I also like anything from The Frog and the Peach," she added, referring to the restaurant in New Brunswick.
"I follow along behind her to find out what’s good," said Gary Pitchford. "She’s a connoisseur and she loves to cook."
The pleasure of combining fun with knowing you are helping a good cause was easily observed. It brought to mind a quote by Ms. Vaucher describing the Isles community gardens of Trenton, explaining that it was about something more than the food.
"It’s community building," she said, "neighbors getting together."
To volunteer for next year’s Taste of Princeton fund-raiser, call (609) 924-FOOD, leave a message and someone will return your call.

