Craft Dresses Up Menu with a Charity Favorite; Tom Colicchio May Return

By Hanna Raskin Mon., Nov. 15 2010 at 4:39 PM

Categories: Announcements of the Food Kind

Chef Jeff Harris' cavatelli, version 1.0, before it was dressed up with duck and foie gras.

Charitable contributions aren't the only good thing emerging from the bushel of culinary benefits being held this month.

Chef Jeff Harris last weekend created a duck cavetelli with Swiss chard and foie gras for Stephan Pyles Celebrity Chef Dinner, the 11th annual fundraiser for The Wine and Food Foundation of Texas' Stephan Pyles scholarship. The cozy noodle dish is now on Craft's regular menu.

As a server explained it to me, Harris had previously made his cavetelli with smoked chicken, roasted tomatoes and lemon confit. He revised the recipe to serve to the bigwigs at the Pyles' dinner, subbing in luxe-leaning ingredients for the chicken and tomatoes. His colleagues were apparently so pleased that Harris decided to start selling the stuff.

Good choice: The plush pasta, garnished with foie gras shavings, is at once comforting and complex. It evokes late-autumn without falling into the monotonous root vegetable trap that snags so many well-intentioned seasonal dishes come November.

That's what I think. I called Harris to learn more about the preparation, but gave up after being put on hold for 10 minutes. Perhaps he was busy rolling cavatelli.

In other Craft news, Tom Colicchio may be planning a return trip to Dallas: According to the restaurant's Facebook page "He might be here mid-December (15th & 16th). Waiting on confirmation."