Anthony Bourdain, Duff Goldman & Alice Waters on the power of food.

Duff, Anthony and Alice talk about food as aphrodisiacs at the May 14 Food for Thought Forum.

Perhaps most importantly, we learned it's not the food, but the chef...

Digesting Food for Thought

We are still digesting all the delectable, curious, and fulfilling moments of our Food for Thought Forum last Thursday...

• like when the Travel Channel camera crew arrived in our office Thursday afternoon and set up in our conference room to film a "Tony and Friends" podcast that will later appear on the No Reservations website

• and when Tony Bourdain and Duff "Ace of Cakes" Goldman nonchalantly strolled into our office and warmly greeted our small and adoring staff

• and the incredibly warm welcome Alice Waters received at Billings Forge, and how moved she was by the good and important work being done by their community
  

• and the many special moments that were experienced at Hartford's lovely Society Room...from eating the delicious food prepared by Blue Back Square restaurants and Whole Foods to the thrill Forum Friends experienced chatting up some of their favorite foodies
  

• and then, of course, The Forum itself - a packed house at the Bushnell, a full crowd at the live simulcast at the Wallace Stevens Theater, and a panel of Forum favorites, including Forum Fave and Connecticut's own Colin McEnroe

• Not to mention dessert: the oh-so-sweet back stage, off-camera, post Forum moments with our special panelists and friends

Like any highly anticipated and carefully planned meal shared with friends, we are still savoring the moments, bite by bite. Stay tuned for photos, videos, and all kinds of behind-the-scenes morsels sure to please.

In the meantime, you might wish to check out what others are saying:

Here's Colin's Sunday column in The Hartford Courant

And more Colin

And just a bit more Colin

And more from...

Fox 61

The New Haven Advocate

Fairfield Weekly

And blogs galore, including:

Eat Me Daily

Jules Pieri

Tasty New England


Were you there? At the Bushnell or the live Simulcast? What did you think?

The Food Forum is Here!

The excitement has already begun here at the Forum. Tony Bourdain's people have arrived to set up for the podcast he'll be doing with Duff Goldman from the Forum office! (1:50 pm)


Yeah, that's Tony and Duff signing stuff at the office after the podcast.
Cool guys who seem to be really liking each other - should be an awesome Forum! (2:30pm)

Elizabeth Edwards' Gives Lessons in 'Resilience' - Both in her New Memoir and at The Forum

Elizabeth Edwards will appear this afternoon in an anticipated interview with Oprah to promote her new book, Resilience, which discusses her battle with cancer, her husband's Presidential run and his well-known infidelity, and her children and family. Later in the week she will appear on other media outlets including Larry King Live and The View.

In September, Edwards was in Hartford as a part of a Forum on The Presidency, along with Matthew Dowd and Joseph Ellis, and she discussed what it was like to campaign with her husband.

The crowd later broke out in applause when she talked about her inspiring outlook on her cancer.




During the YOUTH Forum press conference Alexandra Gruber, 15, of Hall High School in West Hartford, asked Mrs. Edwards what it was like having "the whole world finding out your whole business. How do you deal with the world knowing about... cancer, those kinds of things?"

Edwards replied: "I don't have a corner on all those things. I see people all the time who do it. Actually, my being public about those things has allowed me to get an enormous amount of support. A lot of people who have all the same things I have, most of them without the kind of health insurance, for example, that I have, they don't have people calling them "inspiring". They don't have a spotlight on them, they don't have a camera on them, and so I get a lot of support. So as much as something is taken out of you, it's also given back to you in a real way."

The Final Frontier

If you go outside right now and listen carefully, you will hear giddy giggling. That, my dear friends, is the sound of millions of geeks like me. Yes, Star Trek is coming.

As far as I am concerned there are really only two kinds of people in the world, Trekkers (Those who are fans of Star Trek) and those that are fans of that other outrageously successful space wars opera.

The question is articulated in a number of ways:

Enterprise v. Millennium Falcon (Uhhh, warp speed is multiples of "hyperspeed." Photon Torpedoes and phasers...there is no contest.)

Captain Kirk v. Luke Skywalker (Really? The double ax handle and overwhelming sexual charisma...how many times did Captain Kirk have his hand cut off?)

Gene Roddenberry v. George Lucas (Progressive and forward thinking, the first on-screen kiss of a white man and black woman!)

How about science v. fiction?

There is no contest.

Happy Birthday Pete!

Where I come from a great American is at least one of these:

A rabble-rouser

Thoughtful and conscientious

A terrific musician

What happens when you put them all together?

You get Pete Seeger.

Celebrating his 90th birthday on May 3, this composer and performer of the classics, 'If I had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)', 'Turn, Turn, Turn', 'Where have all the flowers gone?' has led a life bound to the principles of peace and harmony (literally and figuratively).

In the 40s he sang for the workers trying to organize and for Eleanor Roosevelt and the the soldiers.

In the 50s he formed The Weavers but refused to bow the the House Committee on un-American Activities and was banned from television and radio for more than a decade.

In the 60s he fought for civil rights and opposed the Vietnam War.

In the 70s he worked on cleaning up the environment by founding the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater.

And he did all that with the most powerful weapon he had, his voice. He sang, 'Where have all the flowers gone?' in the face of the guns of Vietnam and sang 'We Shall Overcome' to the police and dogs when he marched with Martin Luther King on Washington. He sang 'That Lonesome Valley' in the polluted Hudson River Valley.

There are few who are not captivated by the warmth, charm and ease of his voice.

Here's to a happy 90th and hopes that we have 90 more with this Greatest of Americans.

The Forum mourns the loss of Jack Kemp

We were able in 1996 to spend an evening with Jack Kemp and Mario Cuomo.









Listen as Jack describes his idea of success.

Jack Kemp
July 13, 1935 – May 2, 2009