At Philoctetes staff meetings our tastes tend toward goldfish crackers, pretzels and diet coke. On May 11 we traded our lowbrow snacks for gourmet fare courtesy of the French Culinary Institute, which generously hosted sixty Philoctetes Center guests and donors for a benefit entitled Food for Thought: The Je Ne Sais Quoi of Taste. Nils Noren, Vice President of Culinary Arts at FCI, and acclaimed magician Mark Mitton organized the event, with the assistance of Susanna Mitton and the Philoctetes staff.

Guests arrived in eveningwear to tour the aromatic halls of the Institute, observing students in chef's hats brewing bouillabaisse, baking bread, and experimenting with chocolate. They ogled sculptures made out of sugar (a dueling penguin was a favorite) and a library filled with books about food. Next up were a high-tech cooking demo with Noren and David Arnold, FCI's Director of Culinary Technology, and a presentation on the science of smell with Stuart Firestein, Professor of Neurobiology at Columbia. Noren and Arnold showed off some of their techniques, including kombu duck breasts cooked in a tube and ramp mashed potatoes prepared with liquid nitrogen. While FCI staff served up samples, Firestein explained why the food would be less tasty with an incapacitated olfactory system. Nose clips accompanied passion fruit meringues with white-chocolate fennel cream to illustrate the point.

The moveable feast continued as guests filled their plates at an array of food tables, including a tartar station (arctic char and yellowtail) and a blini station (with smoked trout, trout roe, red onions and sour cream). Bay scallops with smoked potato cream and curry apples, mushroom ragout with pickled cherry tomatoes, and asparagus salad rounded out the menu.

While savoring these delicacies, guests assembled for a multidisciplinary roundtable, Philoctetes style. Arnold, Mitton, and Noren held a conversation about the restaurant industry and the creative life, joined by Serge Becker, a partner in New York dining and nightlife staples Joe's Pub, La Esquina, Café Select, and The Box; Alex Guarnaschelli, Executive Chef at Butter; and Philip Pearlstein, a painter and President Emeritus of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Guarnaschelli, who told the audience that she snuck out from a busy night at Butter on the pretense of a bathroom break, described her grueling years of apprenticeship at a Parisian restaurant, while Becker spoke of his serendipitous introduction to New York City nightlife. After the roundtable, guests found room for pastries, petit fours, and coffee, followed by a round of aquavit and a hearty "Skol!" The final toast was a fitting tribute to the organizers of the event, the staff of the French Culinary Institute, and the enthusiastic guests, who raised $13,000 for the Center.
-Polly Rosenwaike