I even bumped into old friends – Jeff Wolfram, an architectural photographer that I’ve assisted from time to time and Ed Bruske, auteur of The Slow Cook and the man to talk about school food around here. I also made some new friends, including Jessica Sidman, who publishes a blog about frozen desserts called The Frozen Fix. I will totally be making her Coconut Ginger Sorbet next summer.

But you don’t care about that. What you really want are pictures of the fooooooood. Very well – I give you little, fat cubes of pork belly.

The ingredients Chef Aaron put together are all local, including the pickled tomatoes he used as garnish. They were made from tomatoes grown right in the restaurant’s garden. This, obviously, is totally rad and completely in line with my thinking about food.

While Aaron prepped the pork belly offsite, there was an incredible amount of onsite preparation that went into the final presentation. It starts here with the pork belly being friend in a skillet with some of the ketchup and then being transferred to a plate to await garnishes as below.

The garnishes included the aforementioned pickled tomatoes, micro cress (I had never seen these before – adorable! And actually quite tasty.), and a pepper cracker. Crackers and pork belly, I hear you ask? As my grandmother would say, “Just eat it!*”

This is a horrible photograph, I know. But it tasted really good, I promise! I know it to be true but I can’t take decent photographs while doing anything else and I was really preoccupied with yakking with folks about my recipe and how awesome Aaron had made it.

Chef Aaron explaining the dish to one of the judges. It probably went something like this:

“Green tomatoes tend to be acidic. To balance that, we add a fatty piece of sheer goodness (AKA pork belly). Then, we pickle some green tomatoes to add some more acidity/sweetness while pairing the ketchup components. Then, we need a little textural crunch element to cut through the mostly soft components. So, we add a little salad of micro pepper cress. This has a very crisp, peppery bite to it. Then, we add a flat bread cracker that will be full of pepper to add more texture and add a classic tomato pairing like black pepper.”

I might be a little biased but I thought it was delicious. It was not only really popular with the East Asian contingent – two different woman told me nearly word-for-word: “You can never go wrong with pork belly.” – but also very popular with the male contingent of the evening’s festivities. One guy, stated very seriously, “This is the best thing here. If the announcers ever give me the microphone, this is all I’m talking about.” Another guy, after hearing the judges’ final results, said, “You guys were robbed. Yours is the best stuff here.”

And then they had to pop my head to get it out of the Pavilion Hall. Heh.

Actually what she would say was “You don’t have to like it, you just have to eat it.” Which I could never come back with a witty retort for, honestly. Hopefully my kids will show me the way.

Of course, I’m still vacillating between chuckling inwardly that my green fruit recipe won a final spot at the Red Fruit Fest and OHMYGODIMGONNABEONSTAGEWITHAFAMOUSCHEF!!!!!1111.

Heh. Wow.

We started the evening with three signature martinis. The one below is fittingly called “My Favorite Sweater” and is a wonderfully sweet fruity thing lovingly wrapped in warm cinnamon tones.

And what would an evening tipple be without some cheese? Lansdowne put out a selection of three cheeses, accompanied by various jams and figs. The entire evening course included an incredible amount of locally sourced foods – including the cheese below, which came from a Virginia dairy.

After getting to know each other a bit and sharing thoughts about drinks and cheese, we migrated into the private dining room for the seven course Fall menu. The first course was a pair of two soups (see top photo) – Lobster Bisque on the left and the rather fancy-sounding “Celery Root and Heirloom Apple Vanilla Foam” on the right. The Lobster Bisque was rich and salty but I wanted to curl up and sleep inside the Celery Root and Apple soup cup – it smelled and tasted just like liquified turkey stuffing.

Sadly, cornbread was not a course. But it was gooooood. And Lansdowne gets serious props for putting it in their bread basket. (I wish more restaurants did this!) The second course was a squash tasting, followed by a salad of locally grown Bibb lettuce with onions, pears, blue cheese dressing and, here’s the best part: HOMEMADE BACON.

Next up was probably my favorite dish of the evening – “Pan Roasted American Sturgeon with Citrus-Herb Butter, Sauté of Fall Mushrooms and Leeks, and Potato Brunoise.” Chef Wes Rosati explained that the fish comes from sustainable fishery distributor Cleanfish. Three years in Japan have turned me into a huge fish snob; I was completely prepared to be underwhelmed by this dish. But I loved it, and not just because it was sitting on a treasure trove of leeks, potatoes, and mushrooms.

In addition to smoking their own bacon, Lansdowne also smoked a variety of other meats, including the “sticky” short ribs they serve in their surf and turf below.

Last up was the ribeye. I’m not a steak girl but I liked this – it was simple, unfussy and served with all the right stuff: green beans, roasted shallots, and steak fries. Oh, and drizzled with brandy sauce – yum!

Dessert was a trio of handmade(!) ice creams (from front to back below): mint chocolate chip, earl grey, and german chocolate fudge. They were all incredible (the mint chocolate was refreshing and light, the earl grey was smooth and slightly smoky with subtle bergamot and citrus tones) but the german chocolate fudge was OH. MY. GOD. LUSCIOUS. Creamy, rich, dense, just the right amount of chocolate and punctuated with lovely little fudge bits. I was completely stuffed when they brought the ice cream out but I ate all of the GCF anyway.

Firsthand plug: Lansdowne Resort is more than just amazing and (largely) locally sourced food. It’s also a beautiful golf course, hiking paradise, base camp for winery hopping, soothing spa, full staffed event center, wedding venue, and amazing summer pool complex. It’s close enough to DC that the drive won’t wear you out and far enough that it feels like a vacation, especially combined with a spa visit, room service, a relaxing stroll on the trail, and a dip (or, if you’re a water nut like me, many dips) in the pool.

Full Disclosure: I was paid to take some pictures of this event for Lansdowne’s promotion use. I wasn’t paid to write this blog post nor was I invited to the event to promote it myself. I’m only showing you these pictures to make you jealous.