Michele Stueven
L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade, hosted by James Beard Foundation award-winners Chef Suzanne Goin and partner Caroline Styne along with Chef David Lentz returned to UCLA’s Royce Quad on Saturday with a culinary superstar lineup of chefs donating their time and services to raise funds and awareness for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and its mission to find better treatments and cures for all kids with cancer.
Food, wine and cocktails were prepared by the nation’s best chefs, winemakers and mixologists, with returning chefs Michael Cimarusti, Chris Bianco, Adam Perry Lang, Donald Link, Nancy Silverton, Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo, Rocco Whalen, and Marc Vetri. First-time participants included Michael Mina, Nina Compton, Fred Eric, Kris Longley, Michael Reed and Vivian Ku. The event raised a whopping $1.7 million with auction items, including lunch with Phil Rosenthal and dinner with Jimmy Kimmel. Dinner with Kimmel and his wife, Molly, at their barn in the Hollywood Hills sold to the winning bidder for $80,000.The Kimmels donated the dinner featuring food prepared by star chefs Marc Vetri, Adam Perry Lang, David Chang, Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Chris Bianco. The always popular women chefs dinner featuring Nancy Silverton, Suzanne Goin, Sherry Yard, Nancy Oakes and Alice Waters along with wines curated by Caroline Styne, was sold to two bidders, raising $160,000. The mens chefs dinner featuring Josiah Citrin, Walter Manske, Michael Cimarusti, David Lefevre, and Three-Star Chef William Bradley of Addison raised $40,000.
Each year the culinary bar gets raised a bit higher and this year’s event may have been the best yet. It was tough to narrow down the favorites, but here are our top ten. Check out the photo gallery and Kwini Reed’s video for more behind-the-scenes .
Jitlada (Michele Stueven)
- The duck confit taco nestled in a crispy rye crepe shell with soft herbs, apple relish, pickled chili and onion from Poppy & Seed in Anaheim.
- Bourbon glazed smoked pork belly with Italian Chioggia beet salad from Bruce Kalman’s Soulbelly in Las Vegas
- Uni in the shell from Sea Stephanie Fish, David Lentz, and Harry Liquornik
- Jitlada’s Spicy Noodles
- Adam Perry Lang’s Flintstone-sized beef ribs (always the longest line)
- Refreshing summer melon gazpacho from Full of Life Flatbread
- Pizza from Speak Cheezy – Chorizo verde with fiore di latte mozzarella, shishito rajas, spring onion, caramelized corn crema and fermented Fresno dust
- Steve Samson’s Sicilian swordfish meatballs with tomato, capers, olive and mint from Rossoblu
- The a.o.c. Fiesta Jalisco with tequila, lime, watermelon and hibiscus
- Valerie Gordon’s lemon ice cream with chocolate chips
Uni diver Stephanie Mutz (Michele Stueven)