Four-Star Dining to Benefit the SF Food Bank

Michael Tusk in his four-star San Francisco Chronicle review, photo: John Storey

By Meesha Halm

The crescendo leading up to the summer's biggest foodie bash, SF Chefs, is heating up with a series of run-up of events and special dinners. The next one can only be described as the benefit dinner for the philanthropist foodie that has it all.

For one-night only, nine of the city's top chefs - deemed so by the San Francisco Chronicle - will come together to prepare a blow-up bash to benefit the San Francisco and Marin food banks. The nine toques - each of whom have snagged a rare four-star rating by local critic Michael Bauer, will prepare an individual course, which will in turn be matched with wines selected by the restaurant's wine director. The evening will kick off with a champagne reception with passed hors d'ouevres created by each chef.


The list of participating starry chefs and their restaurants are Douglas Keane of Cyrus; Thomas Keller of The French Laundry; David Kinch of Manresa; Christopher Kostow of The Restaurant at Meadowood; Corey Lee of Benu; Roland Passot of La Folie; Daniel Patterson of Coi; Michael Tusk of Quince; and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.

All this will be going down at featured chef Michael Tusk's flagship restaurant Quince on July 29. The price of the dinner ain't cheap, but tickets are sure to go fast, and we can't think of better reason to overeat. The San Francisco-Marin Food Bank distributes approximately 45 millions of pounds of food, half of it fresh, to annually to citizens of both counties, where it's estimated that one of five residents needs assistance.

Want to see how these four-star chefs fared in the minds of Zagat readers? Check out our comparison story.

Four-Star Dinner, July 29, beginning at 5:30PM at Quince Restaurant; 470 Pacific Ave, $2,500 per couple or $1,500 per individual. Reservations are limited and can be made by calling Quince at 415-775-8500, ext. 31 or e-mailing 4stardinner@quincerestaurant.com.