Chef Edward Lee: Nonprofit Fine Dining Restaurant in D.C.

Interesting concept

https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2024/01/02/new-restaurant-tasting-menu-nonprofit-m-frances

5 Likes

I :heart: Ed Lee. Succotash wasn’t great when I went, but Milk Street blew my mind. His cookbook is great, too.

2 Likes

I’d love to try his food sometime. Will flag to my DC friends, maybe they’ll try it out before I’m there next, which is not on the calendar for a while.

I missed the COTM featuring him for some reason, but the recipes and bent sounded really good.

I liked this from the article (I didn’t know anything about his organization) – reminded me a bit of the old French Culinary Institute restaurant in NYC where students cooked the multi-course meal in a regular restaurant set-up and the likes of Pepin were visible mentoring / supervising (but this has a social good element):

Kentucky-based celebrity chef Edward Lee (who’s also behind D.C.'s Succotash) and industry veteran Lindsey Ofcacek co-founded The LEE [Let’s Empower Employment] Initiative in 2017 with the goal of creating programs to make the hospitality industry more diverse, equitable, sustainable, and compassionate.

LEE’s mentorship program for women in food and spirits — which includes six months of training and funded externships — inspired the idea for M. Frances.

The intimate restaurant and cocktail bar aims to recruit top chefs — locally and nationally — to run a yearlong residency program for up-and-coming talents. The collective will create local, seasonal tasting menus throughout the year.

2 Likes

Succotash reminded me of “Barrel and Bushel” which is in Tysons and kind of connected to a hotel, if I recall correctly. Or next to one. I like B and B better. Succotash is ok, not memorable.

Back in the day when I used to join society more :roll_eyes::joy::joy::joy: I would meet a friend there after work to chat, eat, vent, etc.

I also love soft pretzels and B and B has one. :smile:

1 Like