Celeb chefs serve 10-course feast
“This is our Tavern on the Green,” John Thrash observed at the Dunlavy, all decked out for Recipe for Success’ “Delicious Alchemy: the Banquet.”
After afternoon thunderstorms and potential flood warnings, the sky cleared just in time for a cool breeze and chic crowd to sweep through Charles Clark and Grant Cooper’s latest addition to their “it” dining portfolio. From the special events space’s indoor/outdoor perch overlooking Buffalo Bayou and Lost Lake, a who’s-who roster of Houston chefs served 10 decadent courses to 75 guests in support of Recipe for Success’ 10th anniversary.
The 11th-hour weather change allowed founder Gracie Cavnar to roll up the porch’s curtains moments before the amuse bouche — tuna poke on a wasabi-sesame spoon, bacon-wrapped dates (Monica Pope dubbed it “date with a pig”) and snapper ceviche — emerged from the kitchen.
In years past, Cavnar has hosted fundraising dinner parties, each dubbed “a gala in small bites,” to feature founding chefs and advisory board members Pope, Lance Fegen, John Sheely, Pedro Garcia, Bryan Caswell, Randy Rucker, Robert Del Grande, Randy Evans (who drove through the storm from San Antonio), Elouise Jones and Clark; 2016 marks the first time she has managed to wrangle the entire lot into one kitchen.
“Get ready for the most amazing meal of your life,” she told diners including Becca Cason Thrash, Genevieve and Shawn Patterson, Alex and Astley Blair, Karen and Roland Garcia and Cynthia and Anthony Petrello. Wait staff delivered skate wing with scallops, lentil soup with black truffle (Diane Roederer’s DR Delicacy donated the truffle magic), duck leg two ways, smoked short rib, and cremeux de chevre to two elegant tables under the Dunlavy’s signature canopy of chandeliers.
One by one, each chef introduced his or her dish to a captivated audience. Fegen, who “had to swim from Galveston to get here,” shared that after joining Recipe for Success, he felt like a better father to his own children. Del Grande reminded guests to be childlike and never lose their sense of wonder.
Since 1995, the nonprofit has fought against childhood obesity through programming that connects youth to their food from seed to plate. The inaugural banquet raised $150,000, thanks in part to generous liveauction purchases of Rene Garza’s “The Couture Cognac” and Joseph Havel’s one-of-a-kind needle and thread on a hemmed cotton napkin titled, “There’s No Such Thing as Leftovers!”
Festivities concluded al fresco with vanilla bean pound cake and chocolate pot de crème.