By Julie Espinosa, Armando GallardoIt’s no surprise that D.C. has slowly but surely become a foodie’s paradise. Last week, in what some consider one of the best food-related events of the year, Capital Food Fight took center stage at the Ronald Reagan Building for its 12th edition. The event brought together some of the best chefs representing 75 local restaurants in Washington D.C., hungry attendees, a series of fun-filled challenges, and, of course, the one and only, José Andrés. If that doesn’t sound like an evening destined to end in a food coma, you have no soul. Or you have a magical, never satiated, cursed stomach.The event began at 5 p.m. with a VIP reception and was followed with general admission at $250 per ticket, which was more than worth it given the entertainment, open bar and unlimited food options from some of D.C.’s top restaurants. Add to that José Andrés, Carla Hall, Anne Burrell, Richard Sandoval and Spike Mendelssohn, and you have a recipe for instant success.

As an added bonus, Mark Kessler performed as the master of ceremonies setting the stage for all spectators to feel as if the Redskins made it to the Super Bowl and this was their chance to cheer for RGIII. Kessler not only made us feel as if each ‘challenge’ was the semi-final of Top Chef but also helped to balance José Andrés’ persona, along with Carla Hall who at some point became one of the challengers for the “women’s team”. jiro dreams of sushi telechargerMore on that later.sushi grade fish somervilleCapital Food Fight has not only become an event for foodies but also for philanthropists who see in DC Central Kitchen the heart of what the food industry should be doing for those in need. jiro dreams of sushi tchaikovsky

“You can give a man a fish or teach him how to fish,” said one of the hosts as they were discussing the mission of the non-profit which raised over $550,000 for its culinary training and anti-hunger programs at the end of the evening. The amount raised is of extreme importance given that 40% of its $13 million annual budget comes from charitable fundraising such as Thursday’s event. sushi grade fish knoxvilleThis might be the reason why when the time came to auction a dinner package for 6 worth $9,000 from 9 top restaurants in the District, the final bid was $15,000.Needles to say, the food offered was delicious but what we really loved was some of the food for thought we heard from the chefs throughout the night. sushi grade fish publix“What we try to do with our food is to chase flavors with the only goal of making the perfect BBQ. jiro dreams of sushi review guardian

I make all my chefs watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi to understand the nuances that it takes to make good BBQ,” said Chef Andrew Evans from The BBQ Joint.In addition to the tastings, the main events were Chefs challenges in the style of Top Chef with a TV crew broadcasting the action for the masses with the added, and highly praised, commentary of Andrés and Hall. Chefs Amy Brandwein, Harper McClure (BRABO), Nick Stefanelli (Masseria) and K.N. Vinod (Indique) created dishes in only 10 minutes with a secret ingredient such as squash, but which varied throughout the event. There was also a cake challenge which had everybody taking photos and posting them on Instagram with the hashtag #FoodFight.As the evening was coming to the end, Carla Hall stepped down as a host and took the stage as a contestant in one of the challenges, with butter as the secret ingredient. Andrés encouraged the crowd to sing along to the 90s hit “Who Let the Dogs Out?,” changing the lyrics to “Who let the butter out?,” a request that left the crowd confused and wondering if it was time for another drink;

with the crowd not really following through on his request, Andrés’ certainly thought so and demanded a gin and tonic.In all, the event ended with attendees feeling stuffed, maybe a bit inebriated and José Andrés barely able to contain his excitement for the money raised for a fantastic organization."Ask me if I care." I first heard that statement from a teenager who had been invited to lend a hand to something outside his usual sphere of interest. This young man (who had a reputation for being blunt, but honest) had been raised to view everything from the perspective of "What's in it for me?"  His challenge was spoken with a noticeable air of defiance. That incident happened back in a time when teenagers were eagerly forming rather than extinguishing their dreams, when and had yet to become dirty words. It took place during a period when young people did not respond to any and all questions with a bitter, sarcastic "Whatever!" It happened long before so many American youth became .

Last weekend, while attending the West Coast premiere of play, , at the , I heard those words again: "Ask me if I care." This time, however, they came from a 30-something college dropout whose and were evident in his slumped , lengthy and -- despite an obviously keen -- his reluctance to engage. Baker's play takes place in the back yard of the Green Sheep Café in the small town of Shirley, over the course of a summer. Its three characters are: One of the hardest things for an actor to do onstage is nothing. Some people are great at it (in 1982, when made her role debut as in the revival of , audiences were transfixed by her foreboding silence and menacing presence for much of Act I). Others struggle to break the spell and jump on a line. As the playwright explains: Under the careful direction of , the cast of paces its pauses with such nonchalance that it seems as if style of recent (which emphasize  in ) has taken over the stage. When TJ launches into a lonely about a childhood event -- in which he repeats the word "" as if practicing a exercise in -- the audience can easily find itself challenged by the temptation to count how many times he says the word "ladder" (more than 80), the desire to savor his emotional detachment, or to wonder about the depths of his .

As SFPlayhouse's artistic director, (who designed the evening's set) notes: KJ (Haynes Thigpen), Jasper (Peter O'Connor) and Evan (Brian Miskell) in a scene from The Aliens (Photo by: Jessica Palopoli) Underplaying a role is much more difficult than emoting onstage with broad gestures. To his credit, Brian Miskell's portrait of Evan Shelmerdine is imbued with a rare, lackluster type of truth and beauty. Watching Miskell as he tries to appear cool and relaxed while self-consciously lighting one of his first cigarettes is a study in body language and dramatic pacing. Although, going by the spoken word, The Aliens may have one of the shortest scripts on record, this SFPlayhouse production transforms Baker's play into a tender coming-of-age experience in which an impressionable teen finds the most unlikely of mentors in two directionless 30-something slackers: one, a burned out shlub with a sparkler, and the other a failed writer who, though he idolizes Charles Bukowski

, has made the sorry mistake of calling his ex-girlfriend a cunt. Over at the Curran Theatre, another two-act, three-character play is entertaining local audiences. Pinter's first commercial success (as well as his most studied script) is passing through town in a production of The Caretaker that was originally directed by Christopher Morahan in 2009 at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. This Theatre Royal Bath production will soon travel to Columbus, Ohio and then on to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Jonathan Pryce and Alan Cox in The Caretaker Photo by: Shane Reid When The Caretaker first came to America in 1961, I saw the original Broadway cast (Donald Pleasance, Alan Bates, and Robert Shaw) at the Lyceum Theatre.  At the time, I was much too naive to understand what was going on (although I was hardly the only member of the audience to be thoroughly confused by Pinter's script). Set in a rundown house in London, The Caretaker focuses on three strange men with exceptionally poor communication skills:

Davies (Jonathan Pryce) is a homeless bum who has been rescued from a fight by Aston, a kindly man who brings Davies back to his dilapidated room and offers him shelter for the night. Davies hates foreigners, blacks, and young people, smells terrible, and makes strange noises in his sleep. Aston (Alan Cox) is a man in his early thirties whose personality was altered by electroconvulsive therapy while he was a patient in a mental institution. Mick (Alex Hassell) is Aston's younger brother who looks after the building and has impressive dreams for his future. Jonathan Pryce and Alex Hassell in The Caretaker If The Caretaker gets off to a rocky start with American audiences, it is largely because most of the geographical references to London neighborhoods mean nothing. It can also take a while for American audiences to get used to the actors' British accents. Pinter's play becomes increasingly comical and obtuse during the first half of the performance. While Davies is obviously someone with delusions of grandeur, it isn't until Aston's poignant soliloquy about the time he spent in a mental institution that the audience gets any insight into the relationship between the two brothers.

Jonathan Pryce in The Caretaker (Photo by: Helen Warner) While Pinter's play provides a star vehicle for Jonathan Pryce, the tone of any performance (at least to my mind) is determined by how Mick is portrayed. What little memory I have of the original production is that the character was oddly menacing in a thuggish sort of way. In this production, however, Alex Hassell's Mick seems quite a bit more mischievous and mercurial -- a young man with a panther-like agility who, as long as he is saddled with his brother's hopeless situation and the responsibility of maintaining a decaying house, seems eager to keep himself amused. Alex Hassell and Jonathan Pryce in The Caretaker In researching Pinter's play, I was surprised to discover that a woman (Miriam Karlin) had played Davies in a 1990 production of The Caretaker at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, Wales. That got me wondering what Pinter's peculiar drama about isolation and alienation might be like if cast with Elaine Stritch as Davies, Callista Gingrich as Aston, and Katy Perry as Mick!