"JohnAsh" news and stories

Organic Valley, a Wisconsin-based cooperative of farmers has teamed up with Chef's Collaborative to provide an epicurean way to celebrate Earth Day.

The idea behind the Earth Dinner is to create a themed dinner party where you and your guests connect with the food by discussing its geographic origin as well as how it was grown or produced. There's even a set of cards available to help spur conversation with such themes as "First bite: Describe the very first time you tasted something you picked off a tree,vine, stem or pulled out of the ground."

The coolest thing about the Earth Dinner though is that they've gathered five chefs from around the U.S. to create menus featuring everything from sorrel salad with creamy dressing to shrimp and grits with asparagus. This year's lineup is:

• California: Chef John Ash, John Ash & Company, Santa Rosa
• Pacific Northwest: Chef Greg Atkinson, Organic to Go, Seattle
• Midwest: Chef Bruce Sherman, North Pond Restaurant, Chicago
• Northeast: Chef Gordon Hamersley, Hamersley's Bistro, Boston
• Southeast: Chef Robert Stehling, Hominy Grill, Charleston

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John Ash says he thinks of pasta as the "blank canvas of cooking" and he has the highest and mightiest possible title of a cookbook, ever in Cooking One on One: Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food From a Master Teacher.

Yet the recipe he offers on the wires today is essentially tuna noodle casserole, done beautifully (and simply). His sauce packs a whallop with both tuna (he suggests a higher-quality tuna than this Chicken of the Sea from my *ahem* collection) and anchovy fillets.

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