For the past three decades, it’s raised $18 million for folks in the D.C. area who are battling AIDS, HIV, cancer and other illnesses.
Next week, the D.C. nonprofit Food & Friends will host the 30th anniversary of its signature dinner and auction fundraiser Chef’s Best at the Marriott Marquis on Massachusetts Avenue on Monday, Aug. 21.
“Chef’s Best is an opportunity for the community to come together,” executive director Carrie Stoltzfus told WTOP. “We deliver [free] medically-tailored meals to people living with serious diagnoses. We were founded as an AIDS-serving organization 35 years ago; that’s still an important part. We also now take care of people with cancer, heart failure, kidney failure and a whole host of issues that make it difficult to cook and shop on your own.”
After caring for 65 clients in its first year, the group will deliver 1.9 million meals for 5,000 people this year.
The event’s Chef Chair is three-time James Beard finalist chef Erik Bruner-Yang of Maketto on H Street, Northeast. Guests can enjoy gourmet tastings and signature cocktails from 35 of the region’s most talented chefs and mixologists, including Amy Brandwein of Centrolina, Shane Mayson of Crazy Aunt Helen’s, Terri Cutrino of Hank’s Oyster Bar, Roberto Santibañez of Mi Vida, Patrice Cleary of Purple Patch and Derek Watson of Nama Ko.
“We’re super, super excited to be able to participate,” Watson told WTOP. “It’s a really important cause that I just love. I’m relatively new to D.C., I’ve only been here for a year and the restaurant has only been open for a year, but we’ve gotten such a great response from the community that when this opportunity came up, we were like, ‘[It’s a] no brainer. We’ve got to do something really cool and we’ve got to do something really special.'”
Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Watson bounced around from Chicago to Philadelphia before arriving in the nation’s capital to open Nama Ko, an acclaimed sushi bar and Japanese restaurant located on 14th and U Streets, Northwest.
“We actually timed our tuna delivery for the event, so all of the tuna is going to be Spanish bluefin tuna,” Watson said. “It’s going to be all fresh that we’re going to prepare the day before for this. We actually made a special bite. … We’re going to prepare Tamaki. We take our house sushi rice, which we cook and season with a housemade vinegar, then put some wasabi spice, our housemade soy sauce, chopped up cucumber, pickled ginger, sesame.”
You’ll also enjoy tastings from Food & Friends’ own executive chef, Rasheed Aburrahman.
“Each chef will have a station throughout the ballroom, so guests will circulate, mingle and try small plates at each station,” Stoltzfus said. “Then, dessert is seated at tables, so that’s when we’ll have the program and the auction.”
Guests will bid on various auction items to raise money for the cause.
“This is a really important fundraiser for Food & Friends,” Stoltzfus said. “There is going to be an opportunity for everyone to donate to this important mission. We’re going to have an amazing auction with trips to Europe, the Caribbean, Asia to bid on, as well as restaurant opportunities, a sports package, so a lot of really neat things.”
It’s a fun event for foodies, showing a more compassionate side of the culinary industry than FX’s “The Bear.”
“I haven’t watched it,” Watson said. “I lived and worked in Chicago for like 10 years, so the majority of the early part of my career. It’s fun, it’s entertaining. Can it be that stressful? Absolutely, but I’d rather hear chefs talking about events like Food & Friends because all of my friends are more passionate about stuff like that than some of the jerks we know in the industry who scream, yell and throw stuff. There’s so much good we do as chefs.”
Find more about the fundraiser here.
