Tuesday, May 8, 2012

05/08 Susan Smith, Levana Kirschenbaum, Chef Damon Baehrel, Ross Bennett!


Susan Smith Senior - VP "National Confectioners Association"

Americans young & old LOVE candy. And our love affair with sweet treats is nothing new. Did you know that sweets have been enjoyed around the world for thousands of years?  Recorded history traces several types of actual candy to the Egyptians 3,500 years ago!  Now is your chance to get the inside scoop on all of your confectionery favorites at this year's SWEETS & SNACKS EXPO®.  Susan Smith of the National Confectioners Association, will take you deep inside for a look at the top trends and picks at this year's EXPO and  talk about new flavors for 2012, why we love to snack and why we SHOULD treat ourselves plus  American's favorite snacks. Susan Smith is Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications for the National Confectioners Association. With 27 years in the industry, she is one of the U.S. Chocolate and candy industry's leading experts on issues impacting the confectionery industry.  Smith has appeared countless times in national print and broadcast with features on dozens of broadcast channels including CNN and NBC's The TODAY Show.

 
Levana Kirschenbaum - "Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen Cookbook"

For the past 35 years Lévana Kirschenbaum’s name has been synonymous with upscale Kosher dining through her eponymous restaurant Lévana, her library of best-selling cookbooks, and her enormous online following on her popular blog, Facebook and Twitter. With her latest book, The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen: Glorious Meals Pure and Simple, Lévana embarked on her most ambitious journey yet: to present a beautiful, comprehensive compilation of her life’s work, her Magnum Opus as she calls it: The hundreds of dishes she shares are at once economical, easily prepared, and absolutely irresistible: Serious ingredients, fun dishes: This is her motto, even when it comes to dessert. This substantial, beautiful volume goes beyond the traditional scope of a cookbook, and generously shares a whole natural, sensible, and wholesome way of life; it belongs in every household, Kosher or not, just within reach, sure to be used again and again: a cherished, useful gift for any occasion. This book includes Lévana’s latest, as always all natural recipes, with 72 gorgeous full-page photographs by Meir Pliskin. It is chock-full of simple and natural dishes and desserts that uses whole unprocessed foods.


Chef Damon Baehrel -  "California Winemasters" 


Chef/Grower Damon Baehrel -  "The Basement Bistro"  likes to keep his guests informed of the ingredients he has grown, harvested and/or preserved to be utilized in our current Native Harvest Tasting Menu, as well as keeping them up-to-date with our Happenings.  Our Dining Room is fully reserved for the coming months, and we have established waiting lists.
"California Winemasters" is a wine tasting extraordinaire and spectacular hors d’oeuvres dinner benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. One of WINE SPECTATOR’S “TOP TEN U.S. CHARITY WINE AUCTIONS” will be held on the "Midwest Street" backlot at Warner Bros. - May 19, 2012 - Warner Bros. Studio - Gate 7 - Forest Lawn Drive - Burbank, CA 91522 - 6-10:30PM


Ross Bennett - NBC's "Fashion Star"

Raised in Texas, Bennett is a mixture of a big city kid and true country boy who likes to hunt, fish and design custom one-of-a kind dresses and other tailored items for women. Bennett studied under some of the most prestigious presidential tailors in the state. He currently has a dress shop in Austin, Texas where he designs cocktail, formal, and wedding dresses, along with suiting and garments needed for everyday at the office. NBC kicks off the New Year with the new reality competition series "Fashion Star," that will search for the next big brand in fashion. Featuring host and executive producer Elle Macpherson along with celebrity mentors Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and John Varvatos, the series will give 14 unknown designers the chance to win a multi-million dollar prize to launch their collections in three of America’s largest retailers: Macy’s, H&M and Saks Fifth Avenue.  Each week, the show will begin with an exhilarating fashion show unlike anything seen before featuring musical performances, dancers and models in front of a studio audience. Every fashion show will be built around a weekly challenge that is designed to further develop and expand the designers’ brands. The series will feature clothes designed for America to buy and has enlisted three of the world’s top retailers to help in the decision making process. Caprice Willard (Macy’s), Terron E. Schaefer (Saks Fifth Avenue) and Nicole Christie (H&M) will serve as the judges who make on-the-spot decisions as they vie for the right to purchase and exclusively carry the work of the up-and-coming designers each week. At the end of each episode, America will have the chance to immediately purchase the winning designs showcased on the episode that week. What viewers see on TV that night will be on the streets and in stores immediately. With just a single trip down the runway,  "Fashion Star" will change the lives and fortunes of these aspiring designers forever.  Each week, designers who do not sell any of their items to the buyers will be up for elimination. In addition, celebrity mentors Simpson, Richie and Varvatos will be able to save one of these designers from the chopping block. The fashion designers featured on the show will include everyone from the stay-at-home mom who makes her own clothes to sell at the local community market to the recent design school graduate who has held jobs with major design houses to an engineer who became a self-taught designer. Many of the contestants will come to the competition with their own existing lines and will be challenged to take their brand to the next level. All the contestants will be put to the test to see how they react in a variety of real-world scenarios to determine who has the vision and desire to build a fashion empire and achieve his/her dream. With top experts as their guides and mentors throughout the process, designers will have to be as adept in the business of fashion as they are in their creativity as it’s up to them to make their brand a national reality. In the end, one designer will successfully combine fashion and business to become the next "Fashion Star" and will receive the prize of a lifetime –$6,000,000 in orders for capsule collections in Macy’s, H&M and Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
  
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