The ripe, overwhelming odor of cheese greeted guests entering grand ballroom at City Harvest's Bid Against Hunger benefit at the Puck Building. The smell emanated from chef Terrance Brennan's cheese table laden with fromage from Artisanal. Brennan was joined by 31 other chefs and their restaurants to provide gourmet tastings to raise funds for the hunger nonprofit. (The irony that this particular glutton-fest benefitted a hunger charity was lost on no one.)
The autumnal decor started outside the building's entrance, where a bounty of large and small pumpkins spilled down the Puck's cast-iron steps. Salou Design provided the overall decor and lighting design of the rooms where the tastings and silent and live auctions were held. One inventive floral presentation: Maureen Fitzgerald, wife of chef Denis Fitzgerald, decorated Remi restaurant's table with roses placed inside hollowed-out pumpkins.
Nicholas Lowry of the Swann Galleries presided over a live auction that was relatively sedate until the "My Dinner with Eric and Rocco..." lot was presented. The package, which featured dinner for eight cooked by swoon-inducing celeb chefs Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Rocco DiSpirito of Union Pacific prompted a bidding war between two parties. After the chefs sweetened the deal by turning the dinner for eight into a dinner for 20, and threw in extras like a foie gras course and a kilo of caviar, the battle ended with two dinners, one for each bidder, at $18,000 each. By the end of the night, the event raised more than $264,000.
—Suzanne Ito
The autumnal decor started outside the building's entrance, where a bounty of large and small pumpkins spilled down the Puck's cast-iron steps. Salou Design provided the overall decor and lighting design of the rooms where the tastings and silent and live auctions were held. One inventive floral presentation: Maureen Fitzgerald, wife of chef Denis Fitzgerald, decorated Remi restaurant's table with roses placed inside hollowed-out pumpkins.
Nicholas Lowry of the Swann Galleries presided over a live auction that was relatively sedate until the "My Dinner with Eric and Rocco..." lot was presented. The package, which featured dinner for eight cooked by swoon-inducing celeb chefs Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Rocco DiSpirito of Union Pacific prompted a bidding war between two parties. After the chefs sweetened the deal by turning the dinner for eight into a dinner for 20, and threw in extras like a foie gras course and a kilo of caviar, the battle ended with two dinners, one for each bidder, at $18,000 each. By the end of the night, the event raised more than $264,000.
—Suzanne Ito
Candied apples donated by Francois Payard of Payard Patisserie & Bistro decorated the entrance to City Harvest's Bid Against Hunger tasting benefit at the Puck Building.
Remi restaurant's table was decorated with flowers stuck inside hollowed-out pumpkins.
At the live auction portion of the benefit, auctioneer Nicholas Lowry (right) of Swann Galleries auctioned off a dinner party with chefs Rocco DiSpirito (left) of Union Pacific and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin.
Most of the tastings and the silent and live auctions were held in the grand ballroom of the Puck Building.
