Daily Hampshire Gazette
Monday, April 10, 2006
LARRY PARNASS Staff Writer

Iron Cook hasn't lost its mettle

NORTHAMPTON _ Even before pans got hot at this weekend's Iron Cook benefit, organizers had declared the fourth yearly food-themed fundraiser would be dessert.

Feeling that such events can run their course, they envisioned Saturday's culinary heroics by celebrity chef Bobby Flay as the Iron Cook's last course, or postprandial quaff.

Today, the people at the nonprofit Friends of Children, which benefits from the Saturday spectacle at the Calvin Theatre, are reminded of the dangers of saying "never again."

The affair is expected to bring in more than $30,000 _ putting it in the company of the most-successful Iron Cook events run by the group. Jane Lyons, executive director of Friends of Children, says she and her team are keeping their options open, even though this event was to have been the last. They are pursuing other ideas for fundraisers, Lyons said, but aren't ready to declare the Iron Cook run complete. "The community response has been verwhelmingly wonderful," Lyons said today. "It's a big act to follow that we've created for ourselves." "We're still flying high," she said.

Between 1,300 and 1,400 people attended Saturday's fundraiser, in which Flay _ a TV celebrity and Manhattan restaurateur _ went up against the cooking skills of three Valley chefs: Michael Babb of Judie's Restaurant in
Amherst; Anthony Bishop of Brasserie 40A/Mulino's Trattoria in Northampton; and Jake Perkins of Eastside Grill in Northampton.

Flay is the author of many cookbooks and is a food correspondent for "The Early Show" on CBS.

The event was supervised by Lou and Leslie Ekus, who run Holy Smokes BBQ and the Whole Hog House restaurant in Hatfield. On Saturday afternoon, the couple donated use of their restaurant for a benefit buffet. "I can't say enough about Lou and Leslie Ekus," Lyons said. "If people saw the production, they know how polished and professional it is. They're incredibly generous people."

She also credited Flay with coming early and exhibiting an excitement for the group's mission "He really, really understands the mission of Friends of Children," Lyons said.

The expected net of more than $30,000 is more than double the results from at least one other year, Lyons said.

In addition to aiding the group's balance sheet, the high visibility of the Iron Cook event appears to be helping get word out about its mission, Lyons said. "We've already gotten email from people who understand why there is Friends of Children."

The money raised is used to underwrite programs that seek to make life better for young people across western Massachusetts.

The group's best-known effort may be the CASA program. In it, volunteers act as guardians ad litem in the juvenile court system, where they act as advocates for children's interests in court proceedings. Friends of Children, located at 320 Riverside Drive, also runs an Adolescent Advocacy Mentoring Project, which lends support to young people in foster care who, when they hit the age of 18, lose a care-giving system. Its Foster Dignity Project, run largely by teenage volunteers, raises money for foster children who lack the means to engage in extracurricular activities at their schools.

And the program's recently re-established Child Advocacy Program aids parents who believe their children are unfairly being denied services.

Margot Cleary
Hampshire Life
Daily Hampshire Gazette
Friday, March 10, 2006

Iron Cook benefit coming up

The Friends of Children Iron Cook benefit is back, this year with a big name on the New York restaurant scene, Bobby Flay. The event - the fourth and final installment in FOC's Iron Cook fundraisers - is set for April 8 at 7 p.m. at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton.

Flay will take on a cook-off challenge from one of three local chefs who will be on hand for the evening - Michael Babb of Judie's Restaurant in Amherst, Anthony Bishop of Brasserie 40A/Mulino's Trattoria in Northampton and Jake Perkins of Eastside Grill, also in Northampton.

Flay, a Manhattan restaurateur and author of numerous cookbooks, made his television debut on the Food Network in 1996, and has hosted "BBQ With Bobby Flay," "Boy Meets Grill" and "FoodNation With Bobby Flay." He is also a food correspondent for "The Early Show" on CBS.

Reserved-seat tickets for the event are $25. Premium seating, which includes a cookbook by Flay, is $75. Tickets are available at Northampton Box Office, or by calling 586-8686 or (800) THE-TICK.

Earlier that day, Flay will be on hand for a buffet lunch at Holy Smokes BBQ and Whole Hog House in Hatfield. Tickets for that event are $125, and only 48 are being sold.

Both events benefit Friends of Children, an advocacy agency that has served nearly 7,600 children and family members in western Massachusetts.

FORKING OVER CASH FOR A CAUSE

How chefs bring in big bucks for local charities

When he saw the auctioneer working hard to generate generous bids on some high-end cookware at the Iron Cook fundraising event in Northampton this spring, celebrity guest chef Bob Blumer had an idea. He began auctioning off the food he was cooking ' and encouraging the local chefs in the competition to do the same.

Immediately the audience of potential bidders perked up. Chef Seth Crawford of Holy Smokes in Hatfield agreed to Blumer's proposal that he offer personal chef service. With a final selling price of about $850, Crawford's dinner party for eight, to take place in the winning bidder's home, quickly became the biggest moneymaker at the event. Personal chef dinner parties are popular auction items because they're unique, says Michele Marotta of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), a South Deerfield nonprofit organization dedicated to sustaining agriculture in western Massachusetts. At CISA's annual food tasting and art auction benefit, "Eat the View," last September, four local cooks ' two couples ' offered a dinner party in one of their own homes [see accompanying story]. "There's just something special about going into somebody's home," says Marotta, who is development director for CISA. "It's fun to see them at work."

"We've always auctioned off the cookware and the knives," says Jane Lyons, executive director of Friends of Children, the nonprofit child advocacy organization in Northampton which sponsored the Iron Cook event. But when the chefs started auctioning off other items "people started getting into it," she says.

"FOOD IS a wonderful conversation topic," says Rob Watson, owner of the Lone Wolf Cafe in Amherst. "Think about it ' When you have people over for dinner, where do they congregate? You can't get people out of the kitchen!" According to Watson, personal chef dinner parties offer more than an opportunity to get a close-up look at cooking a la the Food Network. They give guests the chance to ask professionals for advice. Watson says conversation topics include technical tips and food-pairing possibilities. Watson has donated several dinner parties as charity auction items over the years. For the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center's "Mardi Gras" gala and auction in February he offered this item, entitled "Ooh-la-la" in the evening's program:

"Laissez les bons temps rouler as France and America combine in Big Easy Style! This five-course, ten wine dinner for a total of eight lucky people in your home, donated by Rob Watson, award-winning chef/owner of Amherst's Lone Wolf Restaurant, and Spirit Haus of Amherst, combines the best pairing of carefully-selected French wines and champagne and their American counterparts with a specially conceived, New Orleans-style menu ranging from ooh-la-la oysters to a scrumptious dessert."

"You can't keep it unless you give it away," Watson says. Watson, Casey Douglass, chef/owner of Easthampton's Apollo Grill, and Nick Seamon, owner of the Black Sheep Deli in Amherst, all say personal chef dinner parties are a good way for them to build their businesses. The parties allow the chefs to establish a more intimate relationship with customers. Seamon says he considers putting food in somebody's mouth the best form of advertising. Since catering is already part of his business, he says a personal chef party is "a walk in the park and a change of pace. It's fun for us." THE DINNER parties aren't always easy for the chefs, though. "I'm not a fan of leaving the restaurant [to prepare food]," says Douglass. "I'm not set up for that." Because he doesn't have the containers and vehicles caterers use to transport food, gear and waste, "inevitably, something spills in your car, or you forget the one thing you really need and you have to go back for it."

In recent years, Douglass has offered private dinners at his restaurant along with what he calls a "quasi-lesson in cooking" to benefit the local chapter of the March of Dimes. Although his original item for last November's "Chefs for Healthy Babies" auction was a private dinner at the Apollo Grill, Douglass agreed to cook and serve the meal in the winning bidder's home instead. He says he honored the request in this case because the dinner, which he'd assigned a $500 value, sold for $1,100 ' a price, he says, that "went above and beyond" his xpectations.

One of the biggest challenges in preparing food in other people's houses is the clean-up, Douglass says. He recalls a homeowner who told him, "This garbage disposal is like a pig, it can handle anything!" But he soon learned the truth about the disposal, which he ended up having to repair as part of the gig that evening. "Not much fun," he recalls.

Finding time between chefs', hosts' and guests' schedules is another challenge. Scheduling difficulties have held up charity dinner parties by both Crawford and Douglass. Although they were purchased in March and November respectively, by this summer the parties had yet to take place. SO, YOU'VE bid on a personal chef and won a dinner party for eight in your home; who do you invite? Most likely, Douglass suspects, people you want to impress. But the guest list can sometimes be a moot point. At the CISA auction, people could bid on individual places at a dinner party. Justine Bertram, who with her husband, Harry, bid on and won two tickets to the party, says she was relieved not to have to worry about coming up with a guest list.

"It was nicer than having to supply 16 people. It was a good mix," Bertram says of the February dinner party in the chefs' home. Although she didn't know who else had placed winning bids, once Bertram and her husband arrived she realized that she already knew about half the other guests. The conversation that night centered on cooking, and on the firsthand farming experiences of the guests. Although Bertram didn't have much to add to that conversation as a self-described "city girl," she says she found it fascinating to listen. "EVERYTHING was just right," Bertram says of the food at the dinner party. One colorful item, a butternut squash soup garnished with a dollop of pureed tomatoes and red peppers in the center, was a standout for her. The main course included a grilled beef tenderloin with mushroom stuffing and a
port sauce.

And for dessert? Apple tarts prepared in puff pastry and served with ice cream topped off the night for Bertram and the other guests. In keeping with CISA's mission of sustaining agriculture in western Massachusetts, every dish was prepared with locally grown ingredients.

For Bertram, the $100 per person donation was worth it. "If you go out to dinner at all," she says, "this comes to just a little bit more than you would normally spend at a [high-end] restaurant."

Daily Hampshire Gazette
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

IRON COOK BENEFIT

Food Network personality and cookbook author Bob Blumer headlines tonight's third-annual Iron Cook benefit for Friends of Children. The event starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton. Blumer will challenge one of three local chefs who will be on hand for the evening: Seth Crawford of Holy Smokes in Hatfield, Chef Wayne of Big Mamou in Springfield and Casey Douglass of Apollo Grill in Easthampton. Blumer and the local chef he selects will pair off in "kitchen combat," preparing a full-course meal revolving around a secret ingredient in 60 minutes.

Blumer's career began in 1991 when he wrote and illustrated his first book, "The Surreal Gourmet: Real Food for Pretend Chefs." Blumer's most recent cookbook is "Off The Eaten Path: Inspired Recipes for Adventurous Cooks."

Tickets for the Iron Cook event are on sale through the Northampton Box Office in Thornes Marketplace, 586-8686 or 1(800) THE TICK. All seating is reserved. Tickets are $25, or $75 for premium seating that includes an autographed copy of one of Blumer's cookbooks.

Daily Hampshire Gazette
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
LARRY PARNASS Staff Writer

Event beefs up budget for Friends of Children, Iron Cook rattles pots and pans tonight

NORTHAMPTON _ For the third year, the drama of competitive cuisine will help finance a small nonprofit agency's quest to improve children's lives. Tonight, a famous chef, Bob Blumer, will match wits and egg whites with Valley restaurateurs at the "Iron Cook" benefit at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton.

If the Iron Cook proceeds match those of past years, Friends of Children will in one night net 20 percent of its annual $200,000 budget. While no one's tinkering with the recipe for this benefit, Executive Director Jane Lyons and the board of Friends of Children are seeking new
ways to help children in western Massachusetts. The agency is the only independent advocate for children in an area it calculates to extend through 3,000 square miles. Gene Friedlander, the president of its board, says the 15-year-old program hopes to expand its services in order to help more and more children.

"We're at the point where we're recognizing that more is needed," Friedlander said today. "Our goal is to remain small, but vital. One of the things that inspires me is that we do so much with so little." Since it began its child-advocacy work in 1990, following the closing of a state Office for Children unit in Northampton, Friends of Children has worked with 6,300 abused, neglected and special-needs children and their families, according to the agency's 2004 annual report. The advocacy group is best known for supplying court-appointed volunteer guardians to children whose lives have been disrupted by abuse and neglect.

But with recent shifts, it is branching out to help children whose problems do not yet involve the courts. "It does such good," said board member Mary Colwell of Northampton. "It takes care of children who fall through the cracks. They are there, catching them, when they fall."

In two weeks, the program will move from 10 Bright St. in Northampton to the Cutlery Building, in the city's Bay State neighborhood. Recent initiatives include the following: n It hired a children's advocate, Barbara Craig, to work on cases that do not involve Juvenile Court referrals. Craig runs a new Children's Advocacy Program.

So far, Craig is engaged with a half-dozen cases of children who need help obtaining educational, social work and mental health services. n A new mentoring program, funded in part by the Massachusetts Service Alliance, is matching trained volunteers with older adolescents who, as they pass the age of 18, fall out of step with existing support systems. At Friends of Children, Linda Patterson is the part-time coordinator of the Adolescent Advocacy Mentoring Project. The program has trained nine volunteer mentors to work with foster children up to the age of 22. "They don't have family and anchors," Lyons said of the young people the program seeks to help. "Their anchors have often been their social workers. Young people who 'age out' of foster care are often the ones in our jails and homeless shelters _ and are really lost."

A new program run by two young volunteers seeks to come up with spending money for children in foster care.

The goal of the program, the Individual Children's Activity Network, is to enable young people in foster care to join with peers in simple activities like school dances and arts and entertainment events. Katerina Leinhart, a 10th-grader at Northampton High School, is working
with fellow volunteer Rachel Wick on the project. The two also volunteer with the agency's Foster Dignity project, through which foster children are given luggage in which to carry their belongings.

The new project to provide spending money is an offshoot of Foster Dignity, Leinhart said.

"We think that being able to give kids the opportunity to cultivate their interests is invaluable to growing up," Leinhart said. "Getting the ICAN project off the ground .. is incredibly important to us.

Earlier crisis Three years ago, Friends of Children came close to shutting its Court Appointed Special Advocate program, after the state moved to cut funding. The CASA program, as it is known nationally, trains volunteers to serve as guardians in court matters involving children. Having weathered that crisis, the CASA program, overseen by Randee Laikind, has two dozen active volunteers. Lyons wants to expand the ranks of volunteer guardians to 35 to 40. "We need that many for the number of kids," she said. "We desperately need
volunteers."

Friends of Children hopes to hire a new part-time person to handle the recruitment and training of volunteers, freeing Laikind up to oversee work on cases referred by Juvenile Court Judge Lillian Miranda. "We're had hard times, when we've scrambled to stay afloat," Lyons said
of the CASA program.

Colwell, the board member, notes that local fundraising remains a key element of the agency's success. Of its $200,000 budget this year, about 35 percent comes from state funding.

"We have the state, but those expenses we can never count on," Colwell said.

For groups like hers, the funding crisis, says Lyons, "is never over. Every year's zero-based budgeting for us."

For information on Friends of Children programs, or to volunteer, call 586-0011.