Fabulous fundraiser feast

I’ve attended plenty of fundrais­ers for food char­i­ties over the years and most are not to my taste.

Too many — often sev­eral hun­dred — well-heeled guests dressed to the nines trip­ping over each other to get at the food served at indi­vid­ual sta­tions in a glitzy indoor venue or some­times in the big out­doors is not my cup of tea. Their moti­va­tion is to see and be seen at an event that’s both a tax write-off and makes them feel good about vis­i­bly sup­port­ing some wor­thy cause.

All this seemed to be absent at Recipe for Change held recently in the west-end head­quar­ters of the excel­lent non-profit out­fit Food­Share for which it raised money.

A man­age­able num­ber of about 100 guests, each of whom paid a rea­son­able $100, min­gled cheer­fully in what is the hall of a for­mer school.  Sup­port­ers of Food­Share, they were not the usual crowd. There was no push­ing and shov­ing and there was plenty of good­will as folks chat­ted while  enjoy­ing the sump­tu­ous food pre­pared by many of the city’s top and most up-and-coming chefs.

Out­stand­ing were the incred­i­ble chicken ravi­oli from Quince restau­rant; delec­table Poud­ing Chomeur by Anne Yary­mowich and her AGO team; lus­cious melt-in-the-mouth short­ribs from the Park Hyatt chefs and Mil­dred Tem­ple Kitchen’s del­i­cate smoked trout salad, to men­tion only a few.

But above all, it was the warm mood of the evening that made it spe­cial. The chefs were happy to be there and exchanged plates of food as the soiree came to a close. And we graz­ers knew this happy gath­er­ing was per­me­ated by a rare  spirit: the result of  shar­ing won­der­ful food for a great cause with­out it being “show-off charity.”

I, for one, look for­ward to next year’s Recipe for Change. Here’s my quote cited on FoodShare’s web site after the event.

“Recipe for Change was the best fundrais­ing feast I have attended. Chefs and guests all rel­ished the fan­tas­tic food and uplift­ing spirit.”