Bon Appétit Management Company

Why does Duncan Chase like working as lead bartender at Bon Appétit Management Company’s TASTE Restaurant? He says because hereally gets to have fun and be creative with the drinks he makes. At the Seattle Chef’s Collaborative Seasonal Cocktails Meet & Greet, hosted at the Mistral Kitchen Patio Rooftop recently, I got to try Duncan’s grappa cocktail. It was so delicious that I asked him to share his recipe with us. Here it is, including some of TASTE’s producers — the perfect late summer cocktail for this long weekend. Soft Tail Sparkling Sunset

By Kristen Rasmussen, MS, RD For this month’s Well Being Challenge, we’re encouraging you to Get Closer to Your Food by making meals with seasonal ingredients from local producers. We’d love for you to show your commitment to the local food community by sharing your food pictures or comments about your local and seasonal food experiences on our Facebook page wall. Here’s a delicious farmers-market salad to get you started.  Arugula Salad with Fennel, Pear, & Shaved Parmesan Serves 4

This week, as millions of college students headed back to school, Newsweek/The Daily Beast released its College Rankings 2011, with categories including Most Service-Oriented, Most Beautiful, Future CEOs, and — most important to us — Best College Food, honoring those schools that “go above and beyond to make it great.” We are proud to say that on that list of 25, Bon Appétit Management Company teams feed a whopping eight of them:

Recently at Seattle University, Bon Appétit Management Company and Slow Food Seattle cosponsored a free showing of the new documentary Vanishing of the Bees, which was directed by George Langworthy and Maryam Heinen and narrated by actress Ellen Page. An astonishing 350 people attended the showing and the panel discussion with local beekeepers that followed.

Here’s a healthy dessert to round out this week’s bulghur and broccoli dishes

Bon Appétit Management Company is pleased to announce that it has joined the campaign for Food Day, a nationwide celebration of real food and an effort to improve health, the environment, and America’s food system. It’s a grassroots mobilization to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. On October 24, 2011, people will gather at events big and small and from coast to coast in homes, schools, colleges, churches, city halls, farmers markets, supermarkets, and elsewhere to both learn and advocate.

By Kristen Rasmussen, MS, RD Help your body repair the damage caused by aging and the environment by eating antioxidants. Deeply colored fruits, vegetables, and other naturally colored foods are rich in a variety of micronutrients that act as antioxidants, so eat a rainbow to guarantee you’re getting enough. For this month’s Well Being Challenge, we’re encouraging you to eat a meal containing fruits, vegetables, and other naturally colored foods from three different color groups at least once a day. To show off your beautiful and healthy meal, post photos of meals containing at least three different color groups on our Facebook page wall. Here’s an easy, tasty recipe to get you started! Steamed Broccoli with Caramelized Onions & Pine Nuts

Help your body repair the damage caused by aging and the environment by eating antioxidants. Deeply colored fruits, vegetables, and other naturally colored foods are rich in a variety of micronutrients that act as antioxidants, so eat a rainbow to guarantee you’re getting enough. This recipe for Bulgur Pilaf with Tomato, Zucchini, & Turmeric will get you started on the colorful path to health.

I eagerly returned for this summer’s eighth annual trip with other Bon Appétit staff to visit and dine with Shepherd’s Grain farmers in Washington State. On our excursion to Eastern Washington, Bon Appétit chefs, managers, and I visited the Spokane Hutterian Brethren Colony in Reardan, WA, where the Grosses, Hofers, and Walters uphold their collective 460-plus-year family tradition in farming, growing crops on 9,000 acres and living a self-sufficient lifestyle. I love this trip because – like many conscientious eaters today – I like to know where my food comes from. It’s a rare treat to be among 75 farmers and chefs who put the meaning of their work so eloquently into words.

Although available year round, fresh asparagus during the peak season is an unmatched delight so this spring, Chef Kiley Davis of Kaneko Commons and I set out to find the best local asparagus for our kitchens here at Willamette University in Salem, OR. We found it during a visit to Kenagy Family Farms, located just 45 minutes south in Albany, OR.