It all started with the ingredients, both literally and figuratively. Montclair resident David Schiller is the author of a blog and book-in-progress entitled The Ingredients. Together with his wife Asa Miraglia, Schiller has taken a passion for food and entertaining and elevated the simple dinner party into a charitable event.

“David loves to cook and we love to have people in our home.” Miraglia explains. “With the new book contract for The Ingredients, David found himself cooking more unusual things. But with all the cooking and eating (and drinking!) there was always a vague feeling of something being off, like how could we be reveling in so much while some others had so little?” 

Hence “Sharing the Table” was born, an evening devoted to good food (and wine), good company and good deeds. The couple’s idea was to host a small dinner party with six guests who would each contribute $40 for two local food-related charities, The Community  Food Bank and the Human Needs Food Pantry.

“We liked the idea of the donations going to something local, that benefits not only Montclair but New Jersey as well.” Miraglia notes.

As an added bonus, Schiller's company, Workman Publishing, matches the donations, bringing the total to almost $500 for an evening.

Initially, Miraglia admits they were wary of how the concept of Sharing the Table would be received, “we weren't sure if people would like the idea ... if it would seem pretentious.” However, after sending out an email to friends suggesting the idea, their qualms disappeared. 

“Somehow we hit the send button and within 24 hours we were fully booked for the first four dinners, with lots of people asking about the next round and getting on a waiting list.”  Schiller notes. “That response really far surpassed our expectations.”

Lest you think it’s only Schiller and Miraglia’s close friends showing up, it’s not, although certainly there are those too.

“At our last dinner we knew only two of the six guests,” Schiller says, “so, four total strangers show up at our house for a dinner party and by the end of the evening we all felt like great new friends.”

Miraglia agrees, “it's a little nervous having people you don't know over, but that's all part of it too, to stretch ourselves a little bit and to remind ourselves how lucky we are.” 

What were some of the guests’ impressions, you might ask? “I’m still thinking about David's asparagus, which was amazing, as was his appetizer of fancy grilled cheese sandwiches," says Jody Suden, a guest at the first Sharing the Table event.

"Asa and David really make everyone feel comfortable, the food is delicious, the company interesting and you make a donation to charity—not bad for an evening out," Suden adds. 

Catherine Verhoff was one of the aforementioned “total strangers” and found the evening to surpass her expectations, saying that “in the worst case I thought this would be just another rubber chicken dinner to raise money for a worthy cause (we attend a fair number of those events). But the evening turned out to be a very special one. We laughed and talked and drank too much wine far into the evening. What a great way to make new friends and, at the same time, support a charitable cause.”  

If you are wondering exactly what $40 gets you (besides the obvious altruistic feelings) the couple shared the menu from the most recent dinner.

Guests arrived and were greeted with Miraglia’s own house cocktail, “Tears of the Prophet” (sorry, a guarded recipe). Although Schiller is responsible for the meal, Miraglia takes credit as  mixologist and mood setter. 

The cocktail was accompanied by snacks of marinated green olives, green almonds and preserved lemon, and toasted crostini with fontina and homemade artichoke hearts. That deliciousness was followed up by a first course of fettuccine with fava beans, pancetta and escarole.

The main course was porchetta (Italian pork roast) of which Verhoff eloquently describes as, “succulent—crispy and crunchy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside—and redolent of garlic and rosemary.”

Keeping the porchetta company was roasted asparagus and wild ramps. To truly illustrate this family’s collective dedication to “ingredients,” the ramps were foraged by Schiller and his 11-year-old daughter on a rainy hike along the Appalachian Trail.

Dessert was homemade roasted strawberry-buttermilk ice cream with warm rhubarb compote and crushed amaretti. “Our guests brought prosecco and some delicious pinot noir wines and the party went on until well past midnight.”  Miraglia happily notes.

Schiller and Miraglia hope that Sharing the Table will evolve into a community-wide event, with others taking part in the hosting.

“When we initially talked about Sharing the Table, we thought it would be neat if two things were to happen: if people we didn't know came to the dinners (friends of friends, word of mouth, etc.) and if other people began to give dinners also,” Miraglia explains.

Regardless, Schiller and Miraglia are hooked, as are the folks on the waiting list. But, as Schiller notes, it all comes down to the notion of sharing, pointing out that “while this is all on one level about my book and the idea of cooking, it wouldn't have made sense without the first impulse: how do you share what you have with people who don't have? We love the pleasure of good food and wine ... all very well for us, but then this idea of making it charitable gives it a kind of purpose. And that's what struck an immediate nerve with the people who responded. Not my food, but the idea of going out and enjoying oneself, yet having it mean something and—hopefully—do some good.”