Members in the News
The annual meeting of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW) brings together the area’s restaurant leaders, innovators and policymakers, and among the attendees at the March 19 gathering were our own (from left) Erinn Tucker, Linda Roth, Daniella Senior, Ris Lacoste and Micheline Mendelsohn. (Not pictured, Tiffany MacIssac, Annie Boutin-King). Daniella (second from left) also participated as the only restaurateur on a panel about how the new administration is shaping our local restaurant industry.
The third annual Black Women in Food Summit is taking place April 25-26 at the Eaton DC hotel downtown, and Charissa Benjamin (left), founder and principal of Savor PR, and Tambra Raye Stevenson (right), founder and CEO of Women Advancing Nutrition, Dietetics and Agriculture (WANDA), are two of the speakers at the event, which celebrates talent, resilience and innovation in the food industry. The theme of this year’s summit is “Limitless: Claiming Space for Abundance.” Here’s more information about the Black Women in Food Summit.
Way to go, Amy Brandwein, who was named a semifinalist in the Outstanding Chef category in the James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards. Amy is the chef/owner of Centrolina and Piccolina de Centrolina in Washington D.C. (photo from Feb Entre News)
Accolades also go to Laura Calderone, founder of Relish Catering in North Bethesda, who made BizBash’s list of Industry Innovators 2025: 10 F&B Professionals Who Are Rewriting the Rules of Event Catering. The honor recognizes caterers nationwide who are “changing the game through forward-thinking sustainability efforts, stunning presentations, clever business practices, and much more,” according to BizBash.”It's been a long journey to receive this acknowledgment, but I'm very proud of the work my team and I have put in to achieve this,” Laura tells us. To learn more about Laura and her company, check out the BizBash interview here.
In the must-watch category is this clip from the upcoming PBS documentary, “Finding Edna Lewis,” in which our own Leni Sorensen, food historian, teacher and farmer, talks about the widely admired chef (and 1999 Grande Dame). Filmed at Sorensen’s Indigo House, her farmstead in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, the segment includes dinner party preparations for a meal of chicken curry, tomato soup and Lewis’ bread pudding. In the clip, Leni says her motto is “what would Edna do?” adding that Lewis also taught her “the courage to cook anything.” The full documentary, which is hosted by award-winning writer, podcaster and food editor Deb Freeman, premieres on February 20. For streaming details, click here. And for more about Leni, check out this January 11 story that appeared in The Daily Progress, which honored her as one of its 2024 Distinguished Dozen.
Congrats are in order for Maru Valdes, who was named Latina Entrepreneur of the Year by Latino Magazine in 2024. Watch her acceptance speech here.
The November/December issue of Bethesda Magazine has a bunch of articles by and about our members. Carole Sugarman wrote the cover story, “Let’s Get Coffee,” which features 16 Montgomery County coffee shops, and Deb Lindsey shot the cover photo and others that accompany the piece, which starts on page 52. In addition, Janet Cam is profiled in a story about markets that cater to the diverse backgrounds of the county’s residents; the author, David Hagedorn, wrote about going shopping with Janet to Rockville’s Great Wall Supermarket. It appears on page 112. Check them out here.
Maisha Spann is excited to announce her promotion to Chef of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s soon-to-open Quill & Crumb Cafe. With seven years of experience at Elior North America, including roles with sister companies Design Cuisine and Corporate Chefs, she will now join a third, Constellation Culinary, to lead and manage the cafe. Quill & Crumb will serve freshly made soups, salads, sandwiches, pastries, and a selection of coffee and tea. Anticipated opening is late November. Maisha also founded and runs two businesses of her own–Food is Love Personal Chef Services and Say Grace Children's Culinary Academy.
Kudos to Debbie Moser, president of MeatCrafters Inc., who reports that her company’s duck breast prosciutto was selected as the Food Winner for Garden & Gun Magazine’s 15th Annual Made in the South Awards. The awards celebrate all kinds of Southern craftsmanship, and Debbie’s “miracle cure,” as the headline reads, “stood out almost in a class of its own,” according to the judge, chef and restaurateur Alexander Smalls.
As co-founder of DMV Black Restaurant Week, Erinn Tucker (middle) is proud the organization was selected as a partner by DoorDash for its first Accelerator for Local Restaurants program in Washington D.C. The Accelerator provides restaurateurs and food entrepreneurs with the education and resources they need to diversify their revenue and expand their business. She’s even more excited to report that two of the 24 businesses selected were owned by Dames: Angela Chester-Johnson (left), CEO of Plum Good LLC, and Bernie Rousseau (right), owner of Scratch Kitchen Olney–and that the two have completed the program, having received cash, membership to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, and lots of help with resources.