"via matta" news and stories

Interesting piece over at The Boston Phoenix. The writer asks several chefs what dish they order in a restaurant to see if the kitchen knows what it's doing. That one meal that you would judge the entire restaurant by.

Rialto chef Jody Adams orders a simple pasta dish, because she says that if a restaurant can screw that up, then they'll probably screw up a more complex meal. Michael Schlow (who is chef at two Boston restaurants, Radius and Via Matta), has a different dish for each type of restaurant. At Japanese restaurants, it's the rice. At steak houses, he goes by the side dishes and the wedge salad (what the heck is a wedge salad?). Michael Leviton over at Lumiere goes by the simple dishes at Asian restaurants: Shrimp and broccoli, drunken pasta, and for Italian restaurants it's the risotto.

I'll have to agree with the author of the article and say I often go by the chicken dishes, since they're a pretty basic dish, and I also go by the salads. But then again, I've had some awful meals at some restaurants where everything else I've had is first-rate, so I go back. Readers, how do you judge restaurants overall?

I don't know about you, but I certainly take my fair share from Epicurious, the uber-food website with a giant database of recipes and articles about food and dining, without ever paying a dime. Well, now, I guess it's time for a little payback. And what better payback than charitable payback!

Epicurious editor, Tanya Steel, has developed a fundraising program aimed at raising money for the millions of children who go hungry in the US. The program, called Wine. Dine. Donate., launched on the Epicurious site on August 1st, has three ways to participate.

1. Throw a dinner party - Each month, epicurious will suggest a dinner menu and offer tips and tricks for entertaining. You invite your guests, prepare, cook, and then at your dinner party, collect contributions from your guests. Afterwards, you can share your experience in the Epicurious forum. This month, the menu comes from chef Michael Mina of San Francisco.
2. Go to a dinner party - Epicurious has coordinated with America's top chefs and will throw a dinner party once a month at one of their restaurants. You can buy a ticket to the dinner, and the proceeds go toward the cause. On September 18, the dinner is at Michael Mina in San Francisco; October 3 at Via Matta in Boston; October 24 at Custom House in Chicago; and November 12 at Abacus in Dallas.
3. Donate directly - Go directly to the America's Second Harvest site and make a contribution online.