Bethesda Woman Wins National Cooking Contest
A Bethesda woman won a trip to France for a creative dish in a national restaurant chain’s recipe contest.
Laurie Webber won La Madeleine Country French Cafe’s “Recipe to Paris” contest with her Tomato Basil Mini Pochettes, puff pastry filled with cheese and the restaurant’s Tomato Basil soup. The contest required participants to create an original recipe using the soup.
There were about 5,000 votes on the more than 200 recipes in the three-week contest.
Webber learned of the contest at the downtown Bethesda La Madeleine at 7607 Old Georgetown Road. She tested out the pochettes on friends and family members, then started asking people for votes once she found out she was a finalist. Her daughters named the dish.
Webber will get a week-long trip to France that will include tours of Paris and vineyards and fruit orchards in the Loire Valley.
During the contest, the Dallas-based chain donated $1 to the Children’s Hunger Fund for each jar of Tomato Basil that was purchased. They will donate $11,514.
Photo from La Madeleine via Facebook
Bethesda-Chevy Chase Team Wins Physics Olympics
A team of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School physics students won a contest of physics-related challenges called the Physics Olympics last weekend at the University of Maryland.
The B-CC team, led by physics teacher Matt Jacobs, had to accomplish a number of tasks including the “Egg Drop,” “Balloon Car,” “Laser Bulleye,” “Projectile Contest,” as well as two mystery projects.
The Egg Drop for example required teams to prep an egg containment chamber that would preserve the egg’s unbroken state during and after being dropped from the roof of the University of Maryland’s Physics Building onto the cement at ground level.
The teams were maxed out at 12 students each and the event was judged based on scores in all the events.
Photo via Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Town of Chevy Chase Fourth Annual Bake-Off
Bring your appetite and your sweet tooth if you plan on eating at the Fourth Annual Town of Chevy Chase Bake-Off, set for 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Sunday April 14 at the Town Hall (4301 Willow Lane).
All are welcome to the event, which this year will feature sweet treats such as puddings, pastries candies and chocolates. Nina Deva, owner of Fraiche Cupcakery in Wildwood Shopping Center (10219 Old Georgetown Rd.), will serve as the judge.
Bakes should bring enough for at least eight servings. The winner will receive a gift card to Fraiche Cupcakery.
All bakers and eaters must RSVP to the Town Office at 301-654-7144 or at townoffice@townofchevychase.org.
Photo via Central Farm Markets
Morning Notes
Average Property Owner Would Pay $80 More In Taxes With Proposed Budget — County Executive Isiah Leggett’s recommended FY 14 budget would include a property tax increase from 99.1 cents per $100 of assessed value to to a little more than $1 per $100 of assessed value. [The Gazette]
Food, Wine & Co. Owners Bringing Taqueria To Cabin John — The owners of downtown Bethesda favorite Food, Wine & Co. (7272 Wisconsin Ave.) are bringing their Fish Taco casual seafood eatery to 7945 MacArthur Blvd. near Carderock Springs. [Bethesda Magazine]
Town of Chevy Chase Green Home Tour Set For Sunday — The second Town of Chevy Chase Green Home Tour is set for this Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and will let participants see how some residents have incorporated geothermal power, solar panels and other green strategies into their homes. Sign up with the Town Office by emailing townoffice@townofchevychase.org.
Jaleo Takes “Martini Madness” Prize — Jaleo’s “Clouds over the Cosmo” martini was voted as the best in a competition of Bethesda Row restaurants. [Bethesda Row via Facebook]
Flickr photo by ehpien
Van Hollen Partnering Up For Congressional Art Competition
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D) today opened the annual art competition for high school artists in his Eighth Congressional District. The winner gets his or her entry displayed in the U.S. Capitol building for a year. Runners-up will see their work displayed in Van Hollen’s offices.
This year, Van Hollen’s office is teaming up with the new Capitol Arts Network/Washington School of Photography in Rockville’s Twinbrook neighborhood.
You might remember the Washington School of Photography (WSP) from its nearly 40 years in downtown Bethesda. It recently moved up Rockville Pike after development forced it out of its longtime home on Rugby Avenue.
A juried selection of submitted work in the competition will be on display at WSP’s new home (12276 Wilkins Ave.), which it shares with the Capitol Arts Network. The Capital Arts Network is taking the lead in the partnership with Van Hollen’s office.
To participate, students must complete an entry form. The information can be found on Van Hollen’s website.
Entries can be delivered to three locations throughout the district, including CAN/WSP on Friday, April 19 between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. or Saturday, April 20 between 10 a.m. and noon.
Van Hollen will host a reception to showcase the exhibit, honor all participants and announce the winners at WSP on Sunday, April 28 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
March Martini Madness Comes To Bethesda Row
The marketing people at Federal Realty’s Bethesda Row are bringing back March Martini Madness, a contest between 10 restaurants on the Row that will compete for the honor of best “Bethesda Row-tini.”
Each restaurant is offering happy hour prices on its special martini throughout the month and wine bar Vino Volo will take part with its own version, called “Malbec Madness.”
Participants can vote for their favorite martini on Facebook and sign up to win a dinner for 10 at one of the restaurants.
The restaurants and offerings are after the jump.
Flickr photo by wickenden
Roti Offering Free Lunch For A Year With Bethesda Opening
Roti Mediterranean Grill is expected to open at Westlake Village Center (10327 Westlake Dr.) soon and when it does, it will give away free lunch for a year.
All who enter can tell Roti why they deserve the prize and all will get a free falafel when the fast casual spot opens, likely next month. Ten will win a second place prize of free Roti for a month.
The falafel, kabob and salad restaurant is ramping up its presence in the Washington area and has already signed on to open a location in the Pike & Rose development in White Flint, set to open in 2014.
For more information and to enter, visit the contest website.
Bethesda Art Awards Accepting Entries
Organizers are accepting entries for The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards, the prestigious fine art show that includes a $10,000 prize to the best in show winner.
All original 2-D and 3-D paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, fiber arts, digital arts, mixed media and videos will be accepted. The work must have been completed within the last two years and by artists who live in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C.
A three-person jury, including Phillips Collection senior curator Dr. Vesela Sretenovic, will choose up to 10 finalists whose work will be displayed in Bethesda Urban Partnership’s Gallery B studio (7700 Wisconsin Ave.) starting in September 2013.
Last year, a Baltimore woman won top prize for her oil paintings, based on photographs of scale models of important historical sites around the world.
Bethesda Urban Partnership is accepting entries for the contest until April 1. For more information on the contest and how to apply, visit the event website.
The Trawick Prize also celebrated its tenth anniversary with a “Best of the Best” competition, which put to a vote all the Best in Show works of the event’s first 10 years.
Photo via Bethesda Urban Partnership
Food Initiative For Bethesda Homeless To Get National Recognition
Farm to Freezer, the Bethesda nonprofit that prepares and donates leftover Farmers Market goods for the homeless, won a national contest to speak at a conference on sustainable food programming.
The TEDxManhattan “Changing the Way We Eat” conference on Feb. 16 in New York will be viewed by like-minded nonprofits across the country and should afford Farm to Freezer some widespread recognition.
The program, organized and created by Cheryl Kollin, started this year with a network of volunteers who collected 300 to 400 pounds of donated produce from the Bethesda FRESHFARM farmers market each week. They would then use various Bethesda church commercial kitchens to either preserve the food or make it into useable products such as tomato sauce.
The food and the products were given to homelessness prevention nonprofit Bethesda Cares, which will have enough food to feed its homeless clients through winter, Kollin said.
Kollin hopes the program expands in 2013. The group received about 600 of the 2,000 votes on a number of programs up to speak at the event.
“I am thrilled announce that Farm to Freezer won the TEDxManhattan speaker challenge! Winning a speaking opportunity at TEDx will provide critical visibility and hopefully, lead to funding that will support this social enterprise,” Kollin wrote in an announcement.
She will present on Feb. 16 and will again organize a local viewing party in Bethesda at the offices of Bethesda Green.
Photo via TEDxManhattan
B-CC Teachers Grow Beards For Charity
Nearly 20 teachers at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School stopped shaving on Thanksgiving and paid $10 to enter the school’s beard-growing contest, proceeds of which will go to the Greentree Shelter at the National Center For Children and Families.
On Thursday, staff and students will vote on the best beard by casting ballots (each vote requires a $1 donation) during lunch.
This year, candidates were allowed to have student running mates, a strategy a few chose (presumably to up their chances).
The teachers and their beards are to the left.
The Greentree Shelter, at the NCCF’s Greentree Road facility, serves as a transitional home for homeless families, most of which are single mothers caring for children.
In November, philanthropist Jeffrey Slavin donated a two-story model lighthouse to the Center for use as a playhouse by children at the shelter.
Photo via Tim Gilmore
Unique Bethesda Food Donation Program Up For National Recognition
Farm to Freezer, a nonprofit that prepares and donates frozen food leftovers to homeless people in Bethesda, is up for a chance to speak at the TEDxManhattan event for “changing the way we eat,” in February.
After starting the effort this year, the group is one of five national finalists for the event that will be broadcast to local viewing parties of similar nonprofit groups and could open up some new opportunities.
Cheryl Kollin and Sue Kirk, executive director of the homeless prevention nonprofit Bethesda Cares, got together to create the program with a wide net of partners including area church commercial kitchens, Whole Foods grocery store and farmers who sell at the weekly Bethesda FRESHFARM farmers market.
Kirk told Kollin that Bethesda Cares had more fresh produce donated to them by farmers at the market then they could use without it wasting.
So she built a volunteer network that collected between 300 and 400 pounds of donated food a week and saved a portion of it in freezers either by making it into tomato sauces or by using other preservation methods.
After 20 weeks of the project, Farm to Freezer successfully gleaned 5,100 pounds of food from the market (much of it from Pennsylvania’s Spiral Path Farm) and left Bethesda Cares with 1,500 pounds of food in its freezer that will be used in hot meals served every day this winter to some of Bethesda’s more than 70 homeless people.
“It starts to connect all these various parts of what I call rebuilding our sustainable food systems,” said Kollin, who is a business consultant.
The farmers get tax deductions for donations, the homeless get food and the community gets informed about the homeless problem in Bethesda, Kollin said. The group also partnered with Montgomery County’s pre-release program. County prisoners months away from being released came to the market to help weigh and distribute items for preparation as a way to satisfy their community service requirements.
Kollin and Bethesda Green have hosted a local viewing party for the TEDxManhattan talks the past two years.
Now, Kollin has a chance to give it when it happens in February. She also hopes to bring back and perhaps widen the program next year.
For more information on Farm to Freezer and to vote, visit the website.
Photo via TEDxManhattan
BlackFinn Hosting Madden Tournament
BlackFinn (4901 Fairmont Ave.) is known as a football-watching destination on NFL Sundays, but tomorrow the game will be slightly different.
The Woodmont Triangle bar and restaurant is hosting a Madden 13 Tournament, where gamers will compete for a $200 cash prize and bragging rights over the popular NFL video game franchise.
In Town Gamers, a gaming events company, is organizing the tournament, which will start at 1 p.m. The entry fee is $20 and is capped at 32 contestants,
Madden NFL tournaments have grown in popularity as the 24-year-old EA Sports franchise has become one of the most popular of all time.
The rules for tomorrow’s tournament are many — single-elimination, random pairings, no updated rosters, four-minute quarters on All Madden skill level are just a few.
For more information, check out the event website.
Trawick Prize Announces ‘Best of the Best’
A Baltimore artist was named the “best of the best” by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District for her 2007 Trawick Prize winning work in a contest of the 10 award winners to celebrate the event’s 10th anniversary.
Jo Smail received a $10,000 prize for her work. Washington D.C. resident Mia Feuer won $1,000 and the People’s Choice Award for her 2011 Trawick Award winning sculpture work.
The People’s Choice Award was voted on through Bethesda Magazine.
The Trawick Prize, created by philanthropist Carol Trawick in 2003, has awarded more than $200,000 in prize money and served as the centerpiece event for the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, a division of the Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP).
The BUP hosts the annual event and displays the finalists in its Gallery B art studio (7700 Wisconsin Ave. Suite E). The work of the 10 winners will be on display through Dec. 1 and a public opening reception will be held this Friday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. as part of the Bethesda Art Walk.
The gallery will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m.
First Annual Bethesda Film Festival In The Works
The Bethesda Urban Partnership (BUP) is calling for entries into the first ever Bethesda Film Fest, which will feature five documentaries at Imagination Stage next spring.
BUP, the county-funded nonprofit in charge of marketing and maintaining downtown Bethesda, is looking for filmmakers from Maryland, Virginia and D.C. to submit their five- to 20-minute documentaries.
Those selected will get a chance to discuss their films when they are shown on March 23 at Imagination Stage.
Information on the event and how to submit a film is here. The Bethesda Art & Entertainment District Board will pick five films, with help from Angelica Das, associate director of the Center for Social Media at American University’s School of Communication, and David Stern, director of Digital Media at Imagination Stage.
DVD entries must be submitted by Dec. 10. Notification of selection will be sent in January and the panel will select one additional film by an under-18 filmmaker.
Filmmakers who make it into the festival will get a $150 prize.
Bethesda Row Arts Festival Photos
This weekend marked the 15th Annual Bethesda Row Arts Festival, a collection of more than 180 artists who displayed their sculptures, paintings, photography and other works of fine art on the streets of Bethesda Row.
The event attracted artists and vendors from up and down the East Coast and as far as Los Angeles and included 14 judged categories: ceramics, drawing/pastels, fiber, glass, graphics/printmaking, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media 2D, mixed media 3D, oil/acrylic painting, photography/digital art, sculpture, watercolor and wood.
