Special Post: VOSS for DINNER?

     On leap day--February 29, 2012--a panoply of Los Angeles food bloggers and magazine writers gathered at FIG restaurant, in Santa Monica, for a special chef's tasting menu. Sensory pleasure and good company were not, however, our only motives. The festivities were designed to benefit the VOSS Foundation's "Give a Drop" campaign.

Company at table

Glaum Ranch Hen's Egg with Truffle and Asparagus

     The event was a reminder of cultural contrasts. Chef Ray Garcia is well known for highlighting, with a spare grace, local and bountiful foods. He stocks his walk-ins from the overflowing Santa Monica Farmer's Market, and, through the restaurant's regular forager, taps other fecund fields in California. Note the captions under the special-tasting-menu items pictured here. They all emphasize the local origins of ingredients.

Rabbit with McGrath Farm's English Peas

Sonoma Lamb with Carrots and Harissa

Pudwill Farm's Blackberry Pavlova with Vanilla Mousse

Contrast this situation of local abundance and easy access to high-quality foods with the focus of the dinner's sponsor--the distant and unyielding terrain of Sub-Saharan Africa. There, even access to clean water, never mind the likes of humanely raised lamb, is a daily challenge. 

VOSS  Foundation banner

     VOSS has been addressing this discrepancy. Since 2008, VOSS has helped construct thirty-two water access points in five African countries. With their "Give a Drop" campaign, you can help the cause by texting DROP to 89544 on any U.S. mobile phone. $5 will be donated automatically to the campaign. See? Even this is easy-access for many of us over here!