March 29, 2024
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First lady hosts community college chefs Annual dairy event focuses on creativity

AUGUSTA – First lady Karen Baldacci said Wednesday her annual dairy reception at the Blaine House was “all the buzz.”

“People were asking ‘Are you going?’ ‘Did you get invited?’ ‘How did you get invited?’ This is apparently the hottest invitation around,” Baldacci told the dozens who gathered to taste food prepared with Maine ingredients by students and chefs from the state’s five community colleges.

The audience apparently agreed, spending two hours wolfing down Calais Crab Dip, lobster and cod chowder, chicken Veronica, three-cheese manicotti and seafood chowder magnifique.

Nobody was a bigger fan than Jacob Bickford, who is “six and three quarters from Topsham, Maine.” Bickford walked up to Chef Donald Rossignol of Central Maine Community College in Auburn and solemnly shook his hand. “I really liked the chowder,” he said. “I’m going to have some more.”

Bickford’s appetite for dairy products should come as no surprise. He is the son of Julie Marie Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association. “He could be the poster child for dairy products,” his mom said.

Brian “Barney” Wright of The Wright Place in Clinton, which milks 650 cows, asserted, “The food tastes better the third time around,” while neighboring farmer Walter Fletcher of Pittsfield said, “It’s hard to get filled up with these little bowls.”

Although the reception’s mood was festive, the subject was serious. It focused on a recently released study by the American Academy of Pediatrics that says seven of 10 teenage boys and nine of 10 teenage girls do not get enough calcium in their daily diets.

“This study is good news for the dairy industry,” Catherine Hoffman of the Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council said. “It recognizes that parents need to be role models in providing three daily servings of milk, cheese or yogurt.”

Dr. Dora Mills, director of the Maine Bureau of Health, and Baldacci said the buffet laid out Wednesday was illustrative of the bounty of Maine’s dairy and seafood industries.

Anne Eagan’s Calais Crab Dip is a prime example.

Eagan, who was laid off after 25 years in a job, started a second career as a chef. While a student at Washington County Community College, Eagan created the dip and is now marketing it in a colorful net bait bag.

“What better way to survive in Maine than to create a business that pulls the crab pickers and the dairy farmers along with you?” said her instructor, chef Marie Mullin-Emerson.

The People’s Choice Award, which is voted on by those attending and tasting at the reception, was presented by Baldacci to Southern Maine Community College’s Three Cheese Seafood Chowder magnifique.

A steamy, thick broth of oysters, lobster, shrimp and scallops, mated with spinach, white wine, garlic, celery and onions was poured into cups containing parmesan, Emmenthaler and brie cheeses. The heat of the broth melted the cheese, blending the ingredients into a thick, rich chowder. The chowder was created by SMCC students Antonetta Magno and Kalen Curran with chef Wilfred Beriau.

For information about the national 3-A-Day Dairy program and recipes, go to www.3aday.org.


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