Outstanding in the Field: R4S’s Earth Day Dinner

Shawn Chippendale
4.17
4.17

Ahead of Earth Day, which is on Monday, Gracie Cavnar’s Recipe for Success organization hosted two events celebrating Mother Earth and all she bestows upon Houston.


The free Earth Day Family Festival was held on the grounds of Hope Farms, and welcomed more than 300 guests for kid-friendly cooking and gardening classes, demonstrations involving the animals on the farm, arts and crafts activities and more.

And the next night — after a Texas-size storm blew through, yielding a gusty but pleasant evening — Cavnar opened the gates to Hope Farms once more for a fabulous foodie affair that would help underwrite the festival. With the help of Your Butler’s Pantry, she set a long, rustic table with textured place-settings for her Chefs in the Field event. Plates prepared by Jeff Auld of On The Kirb, Roost’s Kevin Naderi, and Common Bond’s Rakesh Nayak only added to the beauty.

The meal began with a salad of beets and carrots, pulled from Hope Farms and topped with crumbles of dehydrated goat’s milk and fig-balsamic and olive-oil dressing. The main dish — duck breast and veggies atop a slathering of smoked yogurt with demi glace and olive oil — was followed by an almond cake from Common Bond, which was perfectly paired with Treat Oak Red Handed Bourbon.

Recipe for Success will follow up this month’s Chefs in the Field with its annual 10-course Delicious Alchemy banquet dinner in May, sponsored by Brunello Cucinelli, and another Field event in June.

Daniel and Melanie Ringold
Dispatches
Fall Philanthropy Report: Children’s Assessment Center Touts ‘Healing’ for Child Abuse Victims

What is your mission? The Children’s Assessment Center (The CAC) provides healing services to over 6,300 child sexual abuse victims and their families each year. We offer forensic interviewing, family advocacy, mental health services, medical care, and court services at no cost. We facilitate community outreach and prevention training to raise awareness about child abuse in our community and how to keep children safe. Last year, we provided prevention training to over 35,000 community members, including 23,500 children in schools.

Keep Reading Show less

ON JAN. 3, 2025, I observed a big personal anniversary. As of that day, it’d been 20 years since I first moved to Houston — from the Big Apple media circus, by way of my home state of Louisiana — and began working as an editor in the lifestyle-magazine biz here. It’s been two full decades, which is hard to believe! I like to joke that I’m far too young and good-looking to have done anything for two decades. But here we are.

Keep Reading Show less

Christopher Salazar stars as troubled-genius chef in the Alley's 'Seared'.

ONE OF HOUSTON'S favorite theater makers — Alley Associate Artistic Director Brandon Weinbrenner — has gotten some delicious news about his latest show. The run of his Seared, a sometimes-funny and sometimes-intense tale of life in the kitchen at a suddenly hot New York restaurant by playright Theresa Rebeck, has been extended beyond its original schedule and will now be up through March 9.

Keep Reading Show less
Food+Travel