Eric Ripert, Toni Ross, Cary Lowell and Richard Gere at last year's event

The much-anticipated Benefit for the Hayground School’s Jeff’s Kitchen and The Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund is now in its seventh year in the ongoing series and will be held this Sunday. The event will include a cocktail party featuring notable Manhattan chefs as well as top local chefs preparing hors d’oeuvres using local bounty.  Confirmed chefs at this year’s event include: Miche Bacher (Sacred Sweets), Josh Capon (Lure FishBar), Harold Dieterle (Perilla Restaurant and winner Top Chef), Claudia Fleming (The North Fork Table & Inn), Marc Forgione (Restaurant Marc Forgione and winner Iron Chef), Bryan Futerman (Foody’s), Gerry Hayden (The North Fork Table & Inn and James Beard nominee for best chef in North East), Marc Meyer (Five Points), Christian Mir (Stone Creek Inn),Isaac Mizrahi (Special Guest “Chef”), Kevin Penner (1770 House and THE GRILL on Pantigo), Joseph Realmuto (Nick & Toni’s), Cheryl Stair (Art of Eating), Jonathan Waxman (Barbuto and winner Top Chef Masters), Jason Weiner (Almond) and Michael White (Marea, Osteria Morini and Al Fiori).

Specialty drinks and wines will be featured at the cocktail party.  A silent art auction will also be held during the cocktail party featuring renowned local artists.

VIP Wine Dinner in Jeff’s Kitchen Featuring Top Culinary Talent

The sit-down dinner to follow the cocktail party features a four-course meal paired with wines prepared by a select few of the participating chefs.  A portion of the produce used in sit down dinner will be sourced from Hayground School’s Slow Foods Greenhouse.  There will also be a live auction following the dinner featuring exclusive culinary and travel packages such as cooking sessions with celebrity chefs and five star travel packages.

Ticket Prices and VIP Wine Tables

The “Meet the Chefs” cocktail party will be held in a festive tent on the Hayground School beautiful grounds and will feature live music, a silent auction and a bounty of tastings from the great chefs and restaurants featured.  Tickets for the cocktail party only are $175 per person.  Tickets for the dinner and the cocktail party are $850.  VIP wine tables are also available, limited availability, featuring fine wine selections and premium seating in Jeff’s Kitchen with prices starting at $1750. Tickets for children will be available for $35, which includes kids dinner and creativechildcare by Hayground Camp counselors, plus a separate kids’ dinner.

An Annual Tribute to the Late Jeff Salaway

The Chefs Dinner series is the primary fundraiser for Bridgehampton’s own Hayground School (www.haygroundschool.org) and an annual tribute to the late Jeff Salaway, a widely respected and beloved restaurateur and one of the school’s co-founders.  The 2010 event raised $200,000 for Jeff’s Kitchen and the Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund.  Says Nick & Toni’s Toni Ross, who was also the late Salaway’s wife, “Jeff believed that the growing, preparation and sharing of food is a primal human experience and the foundation of family and community.”  Jeff’s Kitchen is a full service professional kitchen and classroom fitted with top-of-the-line Viking appliances and a new pizza oven.  Classes in nutrition, food science and cooking are held there for both children and adults.  Completing the facility, recently a professional Farmtek greenhouse was erected by Hayground students, staff and friends with funds provided by Slow Food.

To reserve pre-sale tickets contact Samantha Dettmer at 631-537-7068 x113 or email at info@greatchefsdinner.org.  For more information go to www.greatchefsdinner.com.

About Hayground School

Hayground School is founded on the conviction that all children can and should live a life of the mind. All children can be serious and passionate readers; all children can engage in serious discourse; all children can work and study in a community where art is at the center, not the periphery, of life. All children can develop the habit of compassion. The mission at Hayground is to provide an open, community school where conventional teaching methods are replaced by new ways of teaching and learning. They are committed to a program of innovation in a community of diversity, both economic and cultural.

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