Estrogen

February 1

Women will notice you, even if you’re a short, chubby, bespectacled bald man, if you’re the only man there.
And that’s basically what I was last night at the Institute of Culinary Education, at the launch party of New York City Women in Food, a new association that combines the New York Women Culinary Alliance and the New York chapters of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs and Les Dames d'Escoffier International. Apart from the camera crew and staff at the ICE, including president Rick Smilow, I was the only man there.
So I met a lot of new people. Shelley Clark introduced me to Lisa Fickenscher from Crain's New York Business, and I got the cards of women who were planning water-tasting events for their daughter’s high school, freelance copy editors and writers. I got to catch up with the likes of Rozanne Gold and Susan Ungaro, and I got more feedback than I really needed on my goatee (I thought it had made the rounds already, but I guess not).
And I learned news, apparently old now, that James Oliver Cury left Time Out New York last week to join Epicurious.
I’m slightly hurt that he didn’t include me in the bulk e-mail that he sent out announcing that, but I suppose I’ll get over it.


Here we have, starting on the left, Liz Young, founder of NYC Women in Food and director of ICE’s Recreational Division Director; Univision anchor Denise Oller; chef-restaurateur extraordinaire Lidia Bastianich; ICE’s Grand Poobah, Rick Smilow, and cooking show host and author Daisy Martinez.