Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 2011 Page: 50 of 68
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Aim for the outfield
Gay chef Abraham Sal,mm tests his Beard dinner and hits a home run
While the Texas Rangers are vying for the
American League pennant, the World Series for
one local foodie is going on right now.
Chef Abraham Salum already has a solid local
reputation for his inventive cuisine, but this
month, he gets called up to the bigs. As any chef
knows, that means one thing: Cooking at the
James Beard House in New York City.
The James Beard Foundation's mission is "to
celebrate, preserve and nurture America's culi-
nary heritage and diversity in order to elevate
the appreciation of our culinary excellence." That
means inviting cooks to strut their stuff at a vari-
ety of events, including the chance to prepare a
meal at the JBF House. The invitation alone is an
honor, and one Salum will be executing on Oct.
21.
But before the big night, Salum — chef-owner
of both his eponymous Uptown eatery and
neighboring Komali — tested the waters on his
planned JBF dinner with a preview tasting.
The evening began at Komali, with passed
hors d'oeuvres. Items on deck included seafood
tostadas, Lebanese style arancini balls, caprino
royale Texas goat cheese and country butter bis-
cuits with chicken fried chicken. Next at bat: A
full four courses with wine pairings, plus
dessert, served up in the Salum dining
room.
The lineup was luscious: Chilled cream
of corn, seared dive jjscallop with pickled
beet carpaccio, oven roasted sea bass and
braised pork jowls combined for an in-
ventive menu with mango bread pud-
ding as a sweet cl0ser.
It's next to impossible to choose one fa-
vorite from this team, though the oven
roasted sea bass, served over pumpkin
bisque, shaved Brussels sprouts and
Spanish chorizo saute topped the heavy-
hitters list. The fish was sweet and flaky; a
sprinkle of dukkah dust formed a deli-
cious crust on top. The chorizo and the
sprout lent the perfect amount of spice and tex-
ture to the creamy bisque.
I also fell in love with the mango bread pud-
ding served per the chef "Mexican style," with
prickly pear sauce and queso cotija ice cream.
Even a bread pudding skeptic like myself
would not be not ashamed to admit to devour-
ing every morsel.
Chefs get to the Beard House, named after
BASS PRO | The sea bass was the star of the test menu
Abraham Salum plans for his upcoming James Beard
House dinner. (Photo courtesy Desiree Espada)
the late gay gourmand, having established a na-
tional or regional reputation marked by use of
high-quality, seasonal and/or local ingredients
with demonstrated excellence in a particular
discipline as well as the recommendations of
his or her peers. As Chef Salum's test dinner
proved, the local gay chef is set to knock his JBF
debut right out of the ballpark.
—Jenny Block
TASTING NOTES
Burgers and Burgundy, the DIFFAfoodie
fundraiser introduced two years ago, is back for
its third installment on Sunday. The combination
of red wine and gourmet burgers, featuring culi-
nary creations from chefs including host John
Tesar (The Commissary), Matt McCallister
(Campo), Tim Byres (Smoke) and Teicchi
Sakurai (Tei An), descends on One Arts Plaza
from 4 to 7 p.m., Oct. 9. (If you don't like wine,
Grey Goose vodka cocktails will be poured.)
Tickets are $75, and available at all participating
restaurants or online at DIFFADallas.org.
Sprinkles Cupcakes has a history of lever-
aging the sale of their indulgent treats into chari-
table benefits, and the next one is near and
dear to many queer hearts. From Nov. 1-6,100
percent of proceeds from the sale of dark
chocolate cakes adorned with a lavender dot,
above, will go to The Family Place to combat
teen bullying. Show youth "it gets better" while
scarfing down a moist Sprinkles cupcake. It
doesn't get better than that.
— Arnold Wayne Jones
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES:
you can SUPPORT the TASK FORCE
with the COMBINED FEDERAL CAMPAIGN
If you're an employee of the U.S. Federal Government,
including the military services, you can easily designate
the Task Force as a beneficiary of your payroll deduction.
Simply enter our CFC number 350C
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force builds the political power
of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community from the
ground up. The Task Force is the country's premier social justice
organization fighting to improve the lives of LGBT people, and
working to create positive, lasting change and opportunity for all.
Founded in 1973
k
PLEDGE
with
CFC#
35004
National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force
tion Create
>
Ke
www.theTaskForce.org
facebook.com/
theTaskForce
@theTaskForce
50 dallasvoice.com
10.07.11
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Nash, Tammye. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 28, No. 21, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 2011, newspaper, October 7, 2011; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth239188/m1/50/?rotate=270: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.