Michele Stueven
Executed by the catering mastery of the Patina Group, 1000 dinner guests filled the Rose Bowl Stadium on Saturday to feast on passed appetizers, cocktails, wine and dishes from about 20 of LA’s best chefs composed from 13 of California’s best farms to benefit the Alta Dena and Palisades Community Funds.
The third course of braised Rocker Brothers Meat and Provisions short rib coconut curry with herb salad and cara cara oranges with crispy shallots and smoke-finished West African jollof rice and plantains was a collaboration from the Billionaire Chef Tolu Eros, Karla Subero Pittol, and Paola Guasp of Amara Kitchen, paired with a 2022 Daou Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.
For dessert at the table for 1000 shaped in letters to spell out LOVE, Dean Yasharian prepared an oozy warm Cuyama Orchards apple tarte tatin with cinnamon labneh alongside Giada De Laurentiis’ lemon ricotta cookies and Little Flower Cafe sea salt caramels.
Giada De Laurentiis (Michele Stueven)
The whole event came together in a matter of about two weeks after Outstanding in the Field founder Jim Denevan toured the devastated remains of the Eaton and Palisades fires and rallied the local food community to help raise funds for renewal.
Celebrity chef Curtis Stone’s son Hudson performed City of Angels, a song he composed in response to having to evacuate the wildfire disaster.
“When you work for somebody like José Andrés and see the mountains that he moves daily, you can’t say no to him,” Zaytinya chef Michael Costa told LA Weekly as he prepared the mezze spread of vegetables, lavash chips and 90 pounds of hummus.
“The least we can do for these folks who lost everything is what we do best, which is to cook and to share what we do positively,” he said. “When terrible things happen there is this helplessness that you feel. An event like this gives you direction and a place to put all those feelings and do something that actually helps.”
The Day After Tomorrow is running an auction on CharityBuzz to benefit The Altadena Community Fund and The Palisades Community Fund for the next week that includes plenty of dinner experiences and travel getaways.
Michael Costa mezze prep (Michele Stueven)