How much would you pay for a one-of-a-kind home dinner for ten with Chef superstars Mario Batali and Tom Colicchio? What if it was for charity? At the 12th Annual Bid Against Hunger sponsored by City Harvest, New York City’s only food rescue program, the highest bidder paid $24,000 for a meal by the culinary duo.
The October 24th evening brought 50 fabulous chefs together to cook signature tastings for charity. With tickets priced at $250 for the public and $1,000 for VIPs, the extravagant menu had quite the range of samplings from Grilled Octopus Escabeche Salad from Geisha to even Pastrami on Rye from Artie’s Delicatessen. Gothamist’s favorite was The Stanton Social’s cheesecake kebobs of pumpkin and mocha.
The benefit included a silent and live auction where the Batali and Colicchio dinner was the second highest bid in the live auction. First was the Ultimate New York trip for $26,000, which includes two nights at the Mandarin Oriental, dinner for four at Nobu, and two seats to Jersey Boys, just to name a few.
All proceeds benefited City Harvest, the organization which provides free food to over 260,000 hungry New Yorkers each week. It costs City Harvest only 25 cents to rescue and deliver a pound of fresh nutritious food. Next time you think your event might have leftovers, their fleet of 15 trucks and volunteers on foot will pick it up for free. Here's information on donating food to City Harvest, as well as some information about donating money - it's a great cause.
