Sips & Suppers!

Sunday night, we had the opportunity to join two private suppers as part of the 10th annual Sips & Suppers benefiting DC Central Kitchen and Martha’s Table.

At our first supper, we snapped some of Washington's greatest chefs: The Line Hotel's Spoken English chefs James Wozniuk and Matt Crowley with acclaimed chef Erik Bruner-Yang of Maketto and, most recently, The Line's Brothers and Sisters with Himitsu co-founder and chef Kevin Tien. Bruner-Yang and Tien collaborated on the evening's menu, which was inspired by President Richard Nixon's 1972 official state visit to China. 

Here, the hosts for the evening, Cornerstone Government Affairs' Mike Smith and his wife, Avenue Solutions' founding partner Amy Tejral, with their cousin, event consultant Connolly Keigher, during the cocktail hour prior to the dinner seating. Smith and Tejral hosted 16 diners at their beautiful home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. 

The evening's supper featured over seven courses, including a delicious round of Asian-fusion appetizers during the cocktail hour featuring hamachi crudo and duck rillette. Here, LM Marketing Group's Laurie Matthews with Greg McDonald and APT's Kelly Wilder. 

For the seated dinner, guests enjoyed starters of buttermilk biscuits with a foie gras pâté, cold platter dishes of beef shin with chili oil, white fish in pickled wine sauce, roasted wood-ear mushrooms and fermented and pickled oysters. For the main courses, the diners enjoyed a modern take on "shark" fin soup, crispy pork belly and Peking duck taco. Lastly, we enjoyed an exceptional Hong Kong-style egg tart custard. Here Facebook's Brian Rice and his wife, FitCene's Lauren Rice, with Pillar & Post owner Daphna Peled. 

In addition to the Michelin-quality dinner courses, diners enjoyed specially paired sparkling wines, wine and sherry to round out each course for the night. Here, DC Central Kitchen COO Andrew Finke giving remarks during the cocktail hour highlighting the impact Sips & Suppers has had in D.C. 

At a second dinner, hosted by Mark and Margot Bisnow, two of D.C.'s most creative chefs, Momofuku D.C.'s Tae Strain and Kyirisan's Tim Ma, dazzled guests with five extraordinary courses, such as heirloom carrot, caviar, salmon roe and black garlic. The food and wine was donated so all the costs went to fighting hunger in the D.C. region.

D.C.'s commercial real estate community opened its wallets and hearts for Sips and Suppers at the Bisnow family's supper: Gensler's Gigi Webb Murphy, JBG Smith's Mitchell Schear, starchitect Shalom Baranes and MRP Realty's Bob Murphy. This one dinner raised over $17,500, with all 36 dinners raising a total of $650K, all for a great cause.

All of the chefs' assistants and the volunteers for DC Central Kitchen and Martha's Table gathered in the kitchen to listen to the accomplishments of those two great organizations, including 5.5 million free meals served last year.