No Average Dough
Too many cooks spoil the broth goes the old adage, but culinary wizards were in abundance when UCSB Arts & Lectures threw a benefit gala at the Museum of History with Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN’s Parts Unknown.
The 61-year-old, who flew in from Bali via Dubai for the 300-guest fete, gave an expletive-filled speech “Raw & Unfiltered” about his peripatetic lifestyle and rise to fame after his 2000 best-selling book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, which made fellow chef Gordon Ramsay look quite mild-mannered by comparison.
“As a chef, you need a certain megalomania,” he observed.
The dinner, which raised more than $700,000 for the popular program, was created by Peter Lee, executive chef at Laquita, Jason Paluska, head chef at The Lark, and Weston Richard, executive chef at Les Marchands, all Funk Zone eateries owned by entrepreneur Sherry Villanueva.
TV chef Michael Hutchings also made his signature abalone dish for the reception, with cocktails provided by the Good Lion.
A live auction, conducted by Dan Burnham and Eric Sonquist, featuring dinners for 12 prepared by Paluska, Justin West of the Wildwood Kitchen, Johan Denizot of the Belmond El Encanto, Greg Murphy of Bouchon, Gary Singh of the hot new State Street eatery, Bibi Ji, and a dinner hosted by Craig and Susan McCaw at his new Coast Village Road eatery, Oliver’s, with Folded Hills wine donated by Andy and Kim Busch, totaled a handsome $119,000.
Among the gourmands and oenophiles helping the cause were Leslie Ridley-Tree, Monica Babich, Sara Miller McCune, Bruce Heavin and Lynda Weinman, Meg Burnham, Richard and Annette Caleel, Robert and Margo Feinberg, Tom and Heather Sturgess, Marcy Carsey, Kath Lavidge and Ed McKinley, Bruce and Judy Anticouni, Christopher and Lisa Lloyd, Henry and Dilling Yang, Celesta Billeci, Robert Lieff, Nina Terzian and Linos and Nancy Kogevinas.
E) Lynda Weinman, Leslie Ridley-Tree, and Dan Burnham greeting one another in the Santa Barbara Historical Museum Los Covarrubias Adobe’s Courtyard (photo by Priscilla)
