On Tuesday, November 16, Los Angeles chefs Josiah Citrin, Walter Manzke, Alain Giraud, and Tony Esnault will gather at Providence with Providence chef-owner Michael Cimarusti and pastry chef Adrian Vasquez to prepare a multi-course benefit dinner boasting their renditions of the most celebrated dishes of chef Paul Bocuse, founder of the Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, France.  The cause, you ask? The Bocuse d'OR USA Foundation.

Sure, it may be a less worthy excuse for a splashy big-ticket benefit than Los Angeles's public schools, but that doesn't mean it's entirely frivolous. Each year, a team of American chefs challenges gaggles of illustrious chefs from Europe and Asia at the Bocuse d'OR World Competition.  We're guessing that, for the first two decades of American participation, they got creamed like butter for frosting, beaten like eggs, hacked like steak tartare. In 2008, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, and Jerome Bocuse became the Board of Directors for the new Bocuse d'OR Foundation to help provide training and guidance to American squads, presumably to improve their chances of making good showings, which is important–you know, for pride and stuff.

Beyond a warmed heart, what shall attendees forking over $150 apiece in turn get to fork into their wide, gaping faces? The menu might as well be etched onto pounded scrolls of foie gras: Stroll down the sidewalk, press your face against the glass, and gaze at tables creaking beneath capon consomme, gratineed lobster, wild french rouget sauteed in potato scales, loin of venison, and duck stuffed with truffle and–oh yeah–foie gras. Let's pray for survivors.

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