All-star dinner fetes Beard programs

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Anyone who loves to eat in Portland may be obsessed with the sweet-sticky fish sauce chicken wings at Departure, or the rooftop views and cocktails at this quintessential Portland restaurant, atop The Nines hotel downtown.

Departure Chef Gregory Gourdet (who has 31,000 Instagram followers), is hosting one of the biggest culinary events in Portland’s history.

The now-sold-out Oct. 5 event is called “Roots: An Evening Celebrating Portland and the James Beard Foundation,” a cocktail reception followed by a 12-course dinner crafted by 13 of Portland’s most celebrated chefs.

“Definitely, this is like the all-star dinner of all all-star dinners,” Gourdet told the Tribune this month. “I’m pretty excited.”

All proceeds from the $295-per-person event will go to directly support two causes that are close to Gourdet’s heart as a chef and food justice advocate: The James Beard Foundation Impact Programs, giving chefs tools to become champions of food policies; and The Portland Farmers Market fund, which allows underserved community members access to fresh market produce.

The list of participating chefs came together through his own friendships in Portland’s tight-knit community of James Beard Award-recognized chefs, says Gourdet — one of dozens of Portland chefs who are just wrapping up their participation in Feast Portland, the city’s biggest food and drink festival this past weekend.

Included in the “Roots” lineup: Ken Forkish of Ken’s Artisan Bakery and Ken’s Artisan Pizza; Justin Woodward of Castagna and OK Omens; Katy Millard of Coquine; Greg Denton and Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton of Ox and Bistro Agnes; Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place, Imperial, Headwaters and The Crown; Naomi Pomeroy of Beast and Expatriate; Andy Ricker of Pok Pok and Pok Pok Wing; Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, Little Bird and Canard; Greg Higgins of Higgins Restaurant; Kim Boyce of Bakeshop; and Kristen Murray of Maurice.

Also dishing up one of the 12 courses will be Gourdet, the New York City-born chef who first came to Portland in 2008, opened Departure in 2010 and was twice named a semifinalist in the Best Chefs in America category, in 2015 and 2018.

The growing recognition of this expanding network of passionate of chef advocates, Gourdet says, “is something that really makes us stand out — this community we have … It’s a testament of how great the culinary scene here is. We’re not just a flash-in-the-pan food city; I think we’re here forever.”

He says the impetus for the dinner came from a three-day summit in Georgia he attended with other chefs and advocates earlier this year to learn about the upcoming re-authorization of the Farm Bill.

Oregon Sen. Earl Blumenauer has been working to engage a variety of stakeholders — farmers, ranchers, chefs and other food advocates — to inform the next Farm Bill so that it is equitable for all, not just specialized interests and big agribusinesses.

The bill is currently under debate in a U.S. House committee, stirring controversy over proposed changes that include restricting eligibility of SNAP recipients by about 2 million people, reducing its power to fight hunger.

“It was really a tremendous learning experience,” Gourdet says of the summit. Inspired by that weekend, he returned to Portland determined to use his voice and his platform to help the cause in tandem with a related cause — equitable access to fresh and nutritious foods through the Portland Farmers Market Fund.

To honor the theme of the event — the roots of the bountiful Pacific Northwest — Gourdet has asked each chef to prepare a dish that represents them, with at least 90 percent of their dishes utilizing Oregon ingredients. “We don’t need anyone else,” he says. “We have all the talent we need to make this dinner absolutely amazing.”

Every 15 minutes a new course will be served. Many of those ingredients and pairings will come from the partners and sponsors, including Smith Teamaker, Migration Brewing, Stoller Family Estate, Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, Heart Coffee, Hood River Distilling, Charlie’s Produce, Nicky USA, Pacific Seafood and Hama Hama Oysters.

Gourdet will make a Thai-inspired bison curry, with meat from Portland-based distributor Nicky USA.

Gourdet just returned from Haiti to connect with his cultural roots, which has also influenced his repertoire. A self-proclaimed health freak and avid runner, Gourdet cooks for nourishment and largely shapes Departure’s menu in a vegan style.

On the heels of “Roots,” on Oct. 18, he’ll host Departure’s eighth annual vegan dinner, which he says involves “pulling things out of the garden, pickling and preserving.”

The garden he refers to is the rooftop garden at The Nines, which accompanies the hydroponic and aquaponic garden in the basement of the hotel — which are used for fresh ingredients at Departure as well as Urban Farmer, on the building’s eighth floor.

Through Sage Restaurant Group, both restaurants are known for their sustainable practices — recycling, composting and minimizing their food waste through practices such as dehydrating their pepper scraps and fermenting their pineapple trip to turn into ice for dessert. “We all have a huge carbon footprint,” Gourdet says. “There’s always more to do.”

“Roots” is sold out, but to learn more about the cause, visit http://www.rootsjbfpdx.com.

@jenmomanderson