On May 30, Certified Master Chef Brian Beland and the Country Club of Detroit in Grosse Pointe Farms, along with Chef Jimmy Schmidt, will host a star-studded culinary gala of James Beard-winning and nominated chefs.
The country’s first woman Master Wine Sommelier Madeline Triffon will be selecting the wines for the event.
Joined by metro Detroit’s chef community, the historic dinner at the Country Club of Detroit will celebrate the significance of James Beard and the James Beard Foundation’s national awards of excellence presented each year to chefs and restaurants around the country.
Celebrated Detroit chef Schmidt was first awarded this honor in 1984 with the “Who’s Who of Cooking in America Award” (the award before it was known as the James Beard Award) as well as Best Chef Midwest 1993.
The featured chefs will focus their creations for the plated dinner and tasting reception around the vast array of Michigan’s rich food and wine resources.
The 250-to-300-person evening celebration will be filmed for the upcoming Detroit PBS film, “Detroit: The City of Chefs II,” scheduled to debut in the early fall. The goal of the film is to teach the audience the significance of who James Beard was and why this recognition is so relevant to the national chef and hospitality community.
The film also will feature award-winning local Detroit chefs as they provide insight into how the honor has affected their careers.
It comes on the heels of “Detroit: The City of Chefs,” which celebrated the hospitality industry and premiered last December before it launched on Detroit PBS.
Since the beginning of the awards, 78 chef, wine, beer, hospitality, and restaurants in Michigan have been honored by a JBF Awards nomination. Of this honored group, a total of 14 were JBF Award Winners, with five Chef Award Winners, four Who’s Who Award Winners, three Journalist Award Winners, and two Classics Award Winners.
The funds from the dinner on May 30 will benefit the James Beard Foundation as well as enable the local Michigan Chefs de Cuisine association to award two $5,000 scholarships to culinary students selected from Schoolcraft College’s and Oakland Community College’s culinary arts programs.
Tickets for Country Club of Detroit members and the general public are $300 each, which includes the evening’s service gratuity. The organizers state ticket sales are considered a donation since they are processed through the Michigan Chefs de Cuisine.
To learn more about “Detroit: The City of Chefs II” and view the trailer (when the page opens, click on TRAILER at the top), visit here.
To order tickets to the Michigan Dinner of the Decade on May 30 at the Country Club of Detroit, visit here.
Participating chefs to date include:
- Javier Bardauil (BARDA)
- Doug Hewitt (Freya)
- Colin Campbell (Alpino Detroit)
- Anthony Lombardo (SheWolf Pastificio & Bar)
- Sara Welch (Marrow)
- Warda Bouguettaya (Warda’s Patisserrie)
- Omar Anani (Saffron de Twah)
- Mike Ransom (Ima)
- Takashi Yagihashi (formerly of Tribute)
- Jimmy Schmidt
- Brian Polcyn
