“Savoring the Lesser Cuts” at Lidia’s

When: Friday, March 16

Where: Lidia’s Pittsburgh, Smallman Street

Time: 6:30 pm

Cost: Dinner $50, Optional Wine Pairing $25
Wines may also be purchased by the glass or by the bottle.

Reservations: Directly to Lidia’s. Tel: 412-552-0150
Indicate that you wish to be seated with Slow Food.

Speakers: Chef/Author Lidia Bastianich; Patrick Martins, founder and former director of Slow Food USA, now heading Heritage Foods USA. Mark Newman, an eloquent Missouri pork farmer supplying Heritage Foods with old-fashioned Berkshire Pork (aka Karobuta). Local meat suppliers: Ron Gargasz, Deanna McMaken and David Heilman.

“We should use all the eatable parts when sacrificing an animal for our nourishment. As a chef I get much more pleasure and flavor in cooking secondary cuts of meat. It also makes me feel very good in doing my share to protect the enviroment.” --Lidia Bastianich

The Menu:
Heritage Pork Belly with Frisee and Apple Salad

Braised Pork Rib Ravioli with Rosemary and Butter Sauce

Gnocchi Dressed with Braised Oxtail Ragu

Crispy Chicken Livers and Sweetbread Nuggets, with Crispy Onions on Polenta Gratin

Beef Cheeks, Slow Braised in Barolo Wine and Venetian Spices Served with Seasonal Vegetables Farrotto

Roasted Pears and Grapes served warm over Vanilla Ice Cream

Biscotti Misti

Benefit: Slow Food Nation
Lidia Bastianich is a bedrock believer in preserving and supporting authentic local food and foodways.

She will donate $10 from each dinner to benefit Slow Food Nation, Slow Food USA’s first national celebration of regional American food, May 1-4, 2008, in San Francisco.

A marketplace of over 200 farmers and artisans will showcase the range of traditional American foods. Anchoring the event’s planning are Slow Food's Alice Waters and Michael Pollan.

Events will educate through taste, talks, forums and films, teaching people the importance of preserving traditional foods and production techniques and alerting them to the broader implications of their eating choices.

Pollan said, “The notion that pleasure and politics exist in the same room can be hard to swallow. Slow Food Nation will be an opportunity to shine light on the food and policy questions Slow Food is grappling with and to re-introduce terms like eco-gastronomy and the notion of consumers as co-producers (of good regional food).”

The event will be a mini-version of Italy's Salone del Gusto, a global artisan food exposition, held by Slow Food International in Turin, every two years.

WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM HERITAGE FOODS:
The dinner is also made possible by the support of Heritage Foods USA, dedicated to preserving family farms and the diverse foods they raise. Heritage Foods USA was founded in 2001 as the marketing arm of Slow Food USA. Now independent, it works with over 30 family farms helping them get their product to market. Their products are available online at www.heritagefoodsusa.com

Lidia Bastianich teams up with Slow Food founder Patrick Martins and area meat suppliers for special tasting menu.
By Virginia Phillips.

Patrick Martins, founder and ex-director of Slow Food USA will be guest speaker with Lidia Bastianich at a special dinner at Lidia's Pittsburgh March 16. The menu has been crafted by Bastianich to put the spotlight on the less glamorous cuts of meat.

Best known as the man who put heritage turkeys back on the American map and menu, Martins' mission in Pittsburgh is to help Bastianich showcase the old-fashioned and healthful flavor to be found in colorful old breeds like Spotted Berkshire and Red Wattle hogs that have been raised carefully outdoors on family farms.

Martins now heads Heritage Foods USA, a for profit company based in Manhattan that works to support crucial genetic biodiversity in endangered breed beef, pork, lamb, poultry and bison, and other food products including native grains.

The company supplies heritage breed meat and poultry from small farms across the United States to restaurants like Alice Waters' Chez Panisse and to all the eating establishments owned by Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich.

Bastianich's "Savoring the Lesser Cuts" menu offers a practical and delicious lesson in support of artisan-scale meat producers everywhere who can't make a living selling just steaks and chops.

By having people taste glorious dishes coming from less favored, less costly options such as chicken livers, hog belly and oxtail, chefs like Bastianich make it easier for farmers to sell the whole animal. They may also inspire home cooks to saute some chicken livers or to simmer an oxtail stew.

Lidia puts it straight: "As a chef I get much more pleasure and flavor in cooking secondary cuts of meat. It also makes me feel very good in doing my share to protect the environment. We should use all the eatable parts when sacrificing an animal for our nourishment."

In fact three local farmers will attend the dinner and will supply cuts to help Bastianich make her point.

Organic beef farmers Ron Gargasz of Volant, Pa, and Deanna McMaken, of Waynesburg, Ohio, are supplying oxtail. David Heilman of Butler is supplying organic pork bellies. Another guest will be Mark Newman, a Missouri pork farmer who supplies Heritage Foods with Berkshire pork, (aka Karobuta). Newman will announce his recent Certified Humane award.