2008 Chefs’ Charity for Children

Recently I went with some friends to the 2008 Chefs’ Charity for Children, an annual event that benefits St. Michael Special School in New Orleans, which serves students 6 to 21 years and older who are developmentally disabled. A friend and I arrived around the time we thought lunch would be served; we chose to skip the four or five cooking demonstrations that started off the event. Needless to say, the demos went long. WAY TOO LONG. Try 2 hours late! And to insult the throngs of hungry people, the way the food was served only further prolonged the agony!!! Sure, some of NOLA’s finest and most popular chefs were giving the demos, but really, they should be mindful of not going over their allotted time. The actual lunch was not to be started until the demos were over and once the demos ended several hundred people rushed to queue in several lines where the food was being served buffet style. Several dishes were served (horribly small portions) after waiting in line for nearly half an hour. Thankfully, some of the dishes (prepared by several area restaurants) were very good (and some tasted like they had been waiting 2+ hours). The one glorious benefit of the whole affair was not the food, but the endless supply of wine. Lots and lots of wine. Once seated with our other friends and with some food, we proceeded to hit up the wine. And we kept hitting up the wine. We certainly got our money’s worth, but I think they have many things they can improve upon — keeping to a schedule and table service instead of herding us like cattle at too few troughs. We did get a take home item — a 60 page ‘cookbook’ with recipes from local chefs and restaurants (Besh, Lagasse, Folse, etc /​Brennan’s, Dooky Chase, Broussard’s, etc) with some excellent recipes.