Fine Dining Restaurant Group to host third annual Alex's Lemonade Stand Fundraiser

07/15/2019

In our continuing efforts to raise funds and awareness for the fight against childhood cancer, we are excited to partner with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) to help host Alex’s Table, an intimate sit down dinner featuring culinary creations from fantastic guest chefs and co-chaired by Rebecca and Dmitry Balyasny and Kristin and Mike Kelly. The event will take place this Saturday, July 20. 

The evening will bring together chefs from across the country to present signature culinary creations – all to benefit ALSF. Dishes will be paired with cocktails and wines from Gramercy Cellars and Lingua Franca, while the Leif Routman Jazz Quartet will provide live music and Whiskey Mornin’ will set the scene for after-dinner dancing.

This year’s event will showcase dishes from guest chefs Marc Vetri, Jeremy Sewall, Stephanie Izard, Ben Ford and Ian Wortham. 

Marc Vetri is the chef and founder of Philadelphia’s critically acclaimed Vetri Cucina.

A Philadelphia native, Vetri opened the storied restaurant in 1998 with his business partner, Jeff Benjamin. Within two years of Vetri Cucina’s debut, Vetri was named one of Food & Wine's“Best New Chefs” and received the Philadelphia Inquirer's highest restaurant rating. In 2005, Vetri received the James Beard Award for "Best Chef Mid-Atlantic."

In 2015, Urban Outfitters Inc., a leading lifestyle retail company, joined forces with several of The Vetri Family restaurants. After overseeing a successful transition,Vetri decided to rededicate himself to pushing culinary boundaries at Vetri Cucina. 

In 2018, Vetri continued to expand Vetri Cucina’s horizons with a second location at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Featuring views of the Las Vegas strip and Red Rocks mountains, the restaurant offers an a la cartesampling of the rustic Italian dishes Vetri and his team spent decades crafting in Philadelphia.  

In addition to his restaurants, Vetri is the driving force behind the Vetri Community Partnership, a non-profit dedicated to nutrition education. He is also the author of four award-winning cookbooks.

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Jeremy Sewall started his culinary training at the Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated in 1992. Sewall’s professional career began in Maine at the Relais & Chateau White Barn Inn. Later spreading his wings and moving to Europe, he worked for the Albert Roux in London and Amsterdam before returning to Boston and accepting a position at L’Espalier. Sewall then moved to San Francisco, where he spent five years as the Chef at Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, California. During his time at the Lark Creek Inn, Sewall was one of five chefs in the country nominated as a Rising Star Chef by the James Beard Foundation in 2000. 

In 2003, Sewall moved back to New England and opened the Great Bay restaurant (present day Island Creek Oyster Bar), where he garnered accolades from The New York Times, Esquire and Gourmet, among others. In February 2006, Sewall and his wife Lisa (former pastry chef at L’Espalier) followed their dream of opening their own restaurant and opened Lineage in Brookline, MA. Their appreciation for fresh ingredients and Jeremy’s authentic approach to modern American cuisine evolved into the present day market-driven menu.

Building on the success of Lineage, Sewall opened Island Creek Oyster Bar in 2010, followed by Row 34 in 2013, a second Row 34 in 2015 and a second Island Creek Oyster Bar in 2016. 

After years in the kitchen, Sewall released his first cookbook, James Beard Award nominated The New England Kitchen: Fresh Takes on Seasonal Recipes, with co-author Erin Byers Murray in 2014. He then co-authored a second book in 2016, Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw, with Marion Swaybill.

Through Sewall’s restaurants, books, and teaching he is truly dedicated to celebrating the diversity of New England seafood and the passion of the people who bring it to us. For Sewall, it’s in his blood.

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Stephanie Izard, James Beard “Best Chef: Great Lakes” recipient 2013, and 2011 Food & Wine “Best New Chef,” is the Executive Chef/Partner of four Chicago restaurants, Girl & the Goat, Little Goat, Duck Duck Goat and Cabra Cevicheria.  

A 2011 James Beard “Best New Restaurant” nominee, Girl & the Goat has been praised by high-profile publications such as Saveur, New York Times, Food & Wine, Better Homes and Gardens and others. Little Goat, Izard’s highly successful follow-up to Girl & the Goat, encompasses a diner, coffee shop, bakery and bar. In March 2016, Izard opened her third restaurant, a Chinese concept called Duck Duck Goat in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. 2019 brought Stephanie’s newest restaurant, Cabra Cevicheria, a Peruvian inspired eatery on the rooftop of The Hoxton, Chicago. 

Izard was awarded with the coveted title of “Iron Chef” after winning season 1 of Food Network’s Iron Chef Gauntlet. Additionally, Izard was the first woman to win Bravo’s Top Chef (Season 4/2008). 

Among other recent projects, Izard has a line of globally inspired cooking sauces and spices called “This Little Goat.” Izard’s first book, “Girl in the Kitchen,” was released in 2011 and her second book “Gather & Graze” was released in April 2018. 

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Ben Ford officially earned his cooking stripes at some of the country’s most established restaurants and alongside several of America’s most treasured culinary icons. 

In 1987, Ford left his hometown of Los Angeles to study at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where he also worked with one of the country’s most prolific organic chefs, Alice Waters, at the famed Chez Panisse. He returned to Los Angeles and honed his traditional French-cooking techniques as Sous Chef at Eberhard Mueller’s Opus in Santa Monica. After tenures at two seminal Los Angeles restaurants, Campanile and Eclipse, Ford was named Executive Chef at The Farm of Beverly Hills.

In 1999, Ford opened Chadwick restaurant. The local and seasonal high-end California-Mediterranean menu earned him rave reviews and national acclaim, including a coveted 3 ½ stars from Irene Verbilla of the Los Angeles Timesin 2001. That same year Chadwick was also named in the Top 100 Restaurants in the World by Conde Nastand Beverly Hills Restaurant of the Year. 

Following 9/11, Ford desired a way to make his style of food more accessible to the average American, and launched Ford’s Filling Station, one of the country’s first ‘gastropubs’ in Culver City. He was quickly awarded for his efforts with 2 ½ stars by Verbilla of the Los Angeles Times. In 2013, recognizing a lack of good food in airports, a second location was launched at LAX, followed by a third location inside the JW Marriott/Ritz Carlton Hotel at L.A. That same year, Ford authored his first cookbook “Taming the Feast: Ben Ford’s Field Guide to Adventurous Cooking.”This year, Ford will open Bull & Butterfly. 

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Ian Wortham began cooking in the Finger Lakes region of New York in 2004 while pursuing a degree in Photography from Ithaca College. After moving to Colorado in 2011, he has worked for Frasca Inc. since 2012. Starting as a line cook he worked his way up to Chef de Cuisine of Frasca in 2015. After several research trips to Italy, in 2017 Wortham helped open Tavernetta as the Executive Chef.

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For more on the event and to purchase tickets, click here.