As usual, reservations are required and must be made no later than Thursday, April 29th this month. To make a reservation contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com. We limit the number of diners to 60, including cooks.

Culinary Group dinners are open only to MSSF members in good standing and their guests.
The dinner price will be $16.00, $15.00 for students. Remember to bring your own tableware, beverage and an appetizer to share. Members are listed by city in the back of the membership roster should you(wisely)choose to carpool.

NOTE: We do not meet in June, July or August. There will be an MSSF picnic in August. Details are up-coming in the May newsletter and on the website. Our next Culinary Group dinner will be our yearly potluck, the most splendid potluck you can imagine, on September 7, 2010. We do not meet the first Monday that month, September 6, as it is Labor Day. So we are meeting Tuesday instead.

More Notes:

• We will have our grand raffle again; Curt’s back in town! Bring an interesting raffle item, preferably mushroom themed, and you will get 5 free raffle tickets.
• Please help clean up and put away chairs after the dinner.
• Consider taking photos at the dinner for our website.

SEE YOU AT THE DINNER…
Pat

• Monday, April 12, 2010, 7 pm
• SF County Fair Building (aka Hall of Flowers) Golden Gate Park, 9th and Lincoln, SF
• for a lovely Spring dinner.
• As usual, reservations are required and must be made no later than Friday, April 9th. Late reservations will not be accepted as food orders must be made early for this dinner.
• To make a reservation contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com.
• There are only 60 spaces available including the cooks.
• Culinary Group dinners are open only to MSSF members in good standing and their guests.
• The dinner price will be $16.00, $15.00 for seniors and students.
• Remember to bring your own tableware, beverage and an appetizer to share.
• The MSSF membership roster has a section with members listed by city should you prefer to carpool.

NOTES:

• There will be NO raffle as our rafflemeister, Curt, will be out of the country that night.
• A black laptop style bag with an “American Society of Hypertension” logo on it and a black and red bag with a pie tin was left at the last dinner.
• cooks who need large pans for the dinner can obtain them by calling Al Carvajal’s daughter, Catherine at (415) 310-5432.
• a member would like the recipe for the onions in balsamic appetizer we enjoyed at the Feb. dinner
• bring containers in case we have leftovers to take home
• Lisa Gorman lchanterelle@yahoo.com misplaced a large stainless steel lid at the last dinner. Let her know if you found it.
• We’re recruiting for people to assist with chairing the Culinary Group…

See you at dinner,
Pat

For more information contact Pat George at (510) 204-9130 or plgeorge33@yahoo.com or Stephanie Wright at (510) 654-6279 or lioness@bytewright.com
See you there,
Pat

Just to tweak your imagination here are the menu items with a short description. We began with a Sea Bean (pickleweed) Salad with carmelized cacao nibs, apples, grapes and sea beans dressed with a chocolate mayonnaise. No mushrooms yet but a nice way to start. We moved on to a King Trumpet Tarte Tatin using mushrooms instead of apples with cocoa nibs in a puff pastry served with a chocolate-balsamic-caramel sauce and a Key Lime Apple (made of chocolate). We next had a Candy Cap Ice Cream Float which was made of candy cap mushrooms, chocolate and maple ice cream served with a garnish of St. George Spirits Candy Cap liqueur. I don’t think the liqueur will be on the market; they made it especially for Michael. After an intermission tour, we sampled Chanterelle Truffles which we had seen constructed on our tour. These were a ganache infused with oven-toasted Chanterelles and coated with Recchiuti’s “Hot Chocolate” blend. They were sensational . They will NOT be offered commercially, said Michael, as they are way too expensive to make. He used a large amount of chanterelles simmered for a very long time with cream to make the ganache. Onto the next offering: Reishi Truffles made of Reishi ganache on a layer of walnut-Fernet-Burnt Caramel paste, hand-dipped in milk chocolate and served with a Reishi tea. Last on the menu was a Shiitake Pot de Creme served with Shiitake butter toffee and a chocolate almond sponge cake. And we all went home with a half pint of candy cap chocolate ice cream. The experience was that wondrous combination of the unusual and the delicious. Elegant and creative. And, probably, a one-time offering. But let’s hope Michael and Kyle decide to do another collaboration. I’ll be watching for one.