FOOD AND FRIENDS

Eleven-time James Beard Award winner Alan Richman got a crowd giggling at the Barnes & Noble near Lincoln Center as he read excerpts from his book “Fork It Over: The Intrepid Adventures of a Professional Eater” (Harper Collins).

In a series of tips, Mr. Richman said that the most expensive restaurant he knows of is Masa at the Time Warner complex. He went with six friends. “We took our own wine and the check was $650. Everyone says they don’t think that is so expensive. But then I tell them: $650 apiece.” But he still found it a good value. “It is the greatest sushi I have ever eaten.” The perfect bistro? “So expensive you won’t believe it, but it’s L’Absinthe. Every entree is $35.”

One audience member asked for a recommendation for Chinese food. “You will have to go to Flushing. The best Chinese restaurant is Shanghai Tide, two blocks from Roosevelt on 40th Road. Better soup dumplings than I had in Shanghai.” Shun Lee Palace on East 55th Street is good, too, but a bit fancy: “The waiters wear tuxedos.”

He went on to describe a meal he shared with Sharon Stone. The dinner was arranged by GQ, for which he was writing. The actress was warming up under the influence of excellent wine, said Mr. Richman, when her good mood fell flat – he had asked about her love life. Afterward he received a note thanking him for the meal and “your odd perspective on my naive dating habits.”

Among those present were the author’s wife and Food & Wine wine editor, Lettie Teague, who sat front and center alongside the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Dana Cowin. Ms. Teague told the Knickerbocker that after a visit to Maryland Mr. Richman had learned to cook amazing crab cakes for her: “It was definitive.”

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BONDS OF FRIENDSHIP

At the 2004 Partners for Democracy Awards Dinner of the America-Israel Friendship League in New York, Israel’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, noted “the torch of friendship lit this evening in the name of American-Israeli friendship.”

The keynote speaker was Israel’s vice prime minister, Ehud Olmert, who said Israel has to guarantee its Jewish nature. “Perhaps a new leadership will emerge among the Palestinians, but we cannot wait,” he said.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the Park East Synagogue recited a benediction at dinner and found that the bread knife was not much sharper than the one meant for butter. He tossed it aside and used his bare hands to break a loaf of challah in a folksy touch.

Rabbi Schneier spoke of the night’s awardees as dreamers and visionaries. In his acceptance speech, honoree and Lehman Brothers’ Vice Chairman Harvey Krueger jokingly commented on Rabbi Schneier’s mention of banking and dreaming in a single breath: “That’s a rapid way to lose clients.” Other awardees included the president of Bank Leumi Group, Galia Maor; the chairman of Bank Hapoalim’s board, Shlomo Nehama; and Mort Zuckerman, who said he was as proud as a 92-year-old hauled into court on a paternity suit.

A co-chairman of the dinner, Israeli businessman and brother of famed entertainer Yoram Gaon, Benjamin Gaon, introduced actor Richard Gere, who leaped onstage to accept a rose. The Tibet activist spoke of “the extraordinary energy” in the banquet hall. He said Israel had much power but little security and looked forward to a time of “compassionate peace.”

The attorney general of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, garnered an emotional response from the crowd when he invoked the memory of mid-19th century Mormon Zionists who saw the future of a restored Israel as a shining light on a hill.

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LECTURE ON FREEDOM

Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson spoke on “One World, One Destiny: Freedom & Globalization – Do We All Want Freedom, and Who Decides When and What It Should Be?” at Bronx Community College.

“I’m concerned with what ordinary people, lay people, understand freedom to be – in this particular case, what Americans really think freedom to be,” Mr. Patterson said.

Mr. Patterson rejected John Locke’s view that freedom is written in the hearts of men. Many non-Western languages do not have a word for freedom, he said.