Last week I attended a FoodBuzz publishers dinner at Michel Richard’s James Beard winning Central in Washington, DC. Together with eight other DC bloggers, we enjoyed good wine, food, and conversation about food, of course.

We started with the much lauded gougeres. While they were enjoyable, I was wishing for a slightly more pronounced explosion of cheese upon biting in. This may just reflect my personal cheese addiction, though.

As an entree, I had the braised beef cheeks with tagliatelle and carrot puree. The carrot was topped with crispy carrot ribbons, a nifty contrast in texture. The beef cheeks were rich, falling apart tender and flavorful. I sampled another person’s brussels sprouts, which were sweet and creamy and appropriately loaded with bacon, of course.

For dessert, I took the advice of our waiter and ordered Michel Richard’s chocolate bar, a rich chocolate bar paired with decadent hazelnut ice cream and caramel sauce. Truly not to be missed. Overall, I thought the food was outstanding. Sort of like the comfort food your mom would have made, if your mom were a classically trained French chef.

Thank you, FoodBuzz! And thank you to Olga (Mango and Tomato) and Rivka (Not Derby Pie) for organizing the dinner. Photos thanks to Anna of Meals from the Girl in the Little Black Dress. And also attending were Lauren from Capital Cooking Show, Quinn from Daily Moderation, Maddy from Cook Like Mad, Matt from Foodphoria, and Taresa from Cook and Book. Check out their blogs for more pictures and reviews.

Around Town: Looking for a good meal next week? Open Table’s Appetite Stimulus Plan offers $24 lunches and $35 dinners at participating restaurants Nov. 17-21. Capital Spice created a terrific Google map of participating DC restaurants, to help you map out which ones you can comfortably hit up on your lunch hour. (This deal is being offered in all of Open Table’s cities, including NY, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco.)

It is probably fairly obvious that this blog and my cooking are heavily influenced by Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and Alice Waters’ inspirational career. I loved The Real Dirt on Farmer John and King Corn, so naturally I jumped at the chance to review a new food film, Food Fight, directed by Chris Taylor.

This documentary narrates the history of America’s warped industrial food system, with its roots in warfare technology and obsession with convenience over flavor. Through conversations with Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, and others, it traces the gustatory revolution quietly launched by Waters in Berkeley, California, more than thirty years ago. It follows her dedication to reclaim our food sources, celebrating flavor and the experience of eating really good food, through the creation of an organic, local food chain and the continuing challenges of making healthy, safe food affordable and accessible to all. Milwaukee, Wisc., food hero Will Allen, of Growing Power, is profiled explaining his work to bring fresh food to the inner city. Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program presents a solution to the growing problem of childhood obesity.

The film relates the uphill battle Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) faced trying to reduce subsidies to mega agribusiness to instead fund nutrition and local food programs, and the non-coincidental link between opposing members of the Agriculture Committee and the billions of dollars in subsidies that go to their districts, and to their campaign funds. Lest all this seem discouraging, the film wraps up with a call to “vote with your fork,” by making conscientious decisions about what you consume daily. Until Alice Waters is serving arugula grown on the White House lawn to DC’s public school children, there is much to be done.

Watch the trailer on YouTube:

Southern California readers can catch the FREE Hollywood screening of Food Fight this Saturday, November 8, 3:15pm at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. Anyone else should join the Facebook group to be alerted of screenings scheduled in your area, and visit the website to learn more. Enjoy!