So what is One Pot?

I’ve noticed that recently, when I’m explaining events or news to people in conversation, I have the impulsive urge to hyperlink some of my words, rather than have to go off on a tangent to explain the reference. I think this is a sign that I spend too much time online…

Fortunately, we now have a blog, so I can just direct people here to explain the One Pot dinner we attended last week.

It’s hard to define exactly what One Pot is, but basically it’s a dinner served family style in a unique location with a discussion-worthy topic or person on-hand. 

In this case, the visiting guest was Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham, discussing his book “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human”, about how his research shows that cooking, more than tools or a genetic mutation or anything else, was the major factor in the evolution of modern man.

Dr. Wrangham, coincidentally, also happened to be my professor in a large lecture class on human evolution my freshman year at college. So we knew we had to check this out.

The dinner was held at Caffe Vita on Capitol Hill, in their coffee warehouse next door to the coffeeshop. In the entrance was a massive Neopolitan-style oven, full ablaze, with chefs unhurriedly pushing and pulling trays of food in and out of it. There were burlap bags of coffee piled around tables set up in a sunlight-filled warehouse. As attendees arrived bearing alcohol, we were all given copies of the book. 

Michael Hebb, the “food provocateur” behind One Pot (just read the story, easier than explaining), introduced the evening, and after a brief Q&A with Dr. Wrangham, the food started circling. The casually dressed chefs making the meal, by the way, included Mark Fuller of West Seattle restaurant Spring Hill, which meant one of Food & Wine’s top new chefs was essentially cooking a private meal for about 50 people.

Need I mention how incredible the food was, and all from the wood-fired oven? There was Macrina bread with raw butter, a baby kale salad with lemon and goat cheese, Israeli coucous with ramps, sausages, lamb chops, and for dessert, Theo chocolates and lusciously smooth Caffe Vita coffee.

The communal table led to easy conversation with the other diners, and Dr. Wrangham did end up sitting at our table for part of the night, so I was able to confess I’d been in his lecture class all those years ago. 

And of course, this all happened because I learned about the event through Twitter — this and the other One Pot and  Words and Wine events held in Seattle. It’s definitely on our agenda to go to some future One Pot dinners, as well as the Words and Wine sessions with people like soon-to-be-former-NYT-restaurant-critic Frank Bruni.