Writing about Ferran Adria yesterday, we linked to our favorite good food loving Philadelphia liberal blog. But it's been a while since we took a look at our favorite liberal loving Philadelphia good food blog, chef Shola Olunloyo's StudioKitchen which in its last update not only endorsed Barack Obama for President, but earlier in the year recommended the proper way to stew, simmer and boil him, like Jonathan Swift with a thermal circulator.
It was a reminder another quarter's gone by since we've taken a look at the dining dollar donations of the nation's top chefs, and we wondered whether donations have dried up snce the Democratic and Republican nominations had been announced. What's changed? Hillary only gets love from Harlem and the steakhouse crowd that once supported Rudy Giuliani has no love for McCain. So who's giving now?
Restauranteurs...
Michael Eberstadt of
Rack & Soul: $1500 to Hillary Clinton.
Fabio Granato of
Serafina: $1400 to Barack Obama.
Stratis Morfogen of
Philippe: $1000 to Barack Obama.
Thomas Wilson of
Mas (Farmhouse): $355 to Barack Obama.
Chefs...
Sean Rembold of
Marlow & Sons and
Diner: $225 to Barack Obama.
And since Ferran Adria inspired this post, what about his protege? Jose Andres gave $1000 to Barack Obama this past quarter as well. Another nationally recognized chef, Thomas Keller of Per Se and French Laundry hasn't been giving to either Presidential candidate however. He's the only top chef (consistently) donating to a congressman. Who?
Mike Thompson, the Democratic congressman for California's First District: wine country.
How involved in wine country is Mike Thompson? He's the co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan, bicameral
Congressional Wine Caucus. Quoting Thompson from their website:
"In 1999, George Radanovich and I founded the Congressional Wine Caucus with the idea that Members of Congress could benefit from learning more about the challenges of growing grapes and making wine. Additionally, we felt that people in the grape and wine business would be interested in hearing more about federal regulatory and legislative developments that affected them. Since then, we've held numerous policy briefings and wine receptions on Capitol Hill, and become involved in a wide variety of legislative issues, all with the goal of promoting our incredibly vibrant American wine industry from the vineyard to the wine glass."
So we're guessing unlike most chefs and restauranteurs who give to political campaigns, Keller (and you as a customer) actually sees a return on investment in the community. Now if we could just get a reservation to be his customer.
We should note Barack Obama did have an excellent showing this quarter from those a little more hands on with wine bottles. Your tipping dollars totaled $3,298 in small donations from city bartenders across the board, from the Outback Steakhouse to the 21 Club.
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