Skip to content

James Beard Foundation’s Night of Culinary Stars Hits Seattle October 19

Yeah, yeah, it's only July, but you'll want to get tickets for this a.s.a.p.

By Chelsea Lin July 26, 2018

junebabyjordan_0

This is the time of year when everyone’s social calendar is maxed out—the last thing you’re probably thinking about is what you’re going to be doing in October. (Besides complaining about the rain, surely.) But the James Beard Foundation’s Taste America “A Night of Culinary Stars” is coming to Seattle on Oct. 19, and if you don’t get tickets now, you may not get the chance.

The foundation pops up in only 10 cities each fall for these individualized benefit dinners, so it’s a testament to Seattle’s culinary cred that we’ve been chosen (again). This year’s big draw is Edouardo Jordan, owner of JuneBaby and Salare, who took home two James Beard Awards (for Best New Restaurant and Best Chef: Northwest) at the ceremony in May. He’ll be cooking dinner alongside visiting chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski of San Francisco’s State Bird Provisions, which is damn hard to get into (for good reason). There will also be bites from a variety of other local A-listers: Hogstone’s Jay Blackinton, Felipe Hernandez of Los Hernandes Tamales in Union Gap (which one a James Beard this year also), Adana’s Shota Nakajima, Mutsuko Soma of Kamonegi, Melissa Miranda of Musang and more. Think of this as a chef supergroup, with a single performance.

I reached out to Jordan, and he understandably doesn’t have any insights he can share about what he’ll be cooking just yet. But it’ll surely be delicious.

The event—appetizers, dinner, cocktails—will take place at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. Tickets (starting at $295, with proceeds benefitting the James Beard Foundation) are available here. In full disclosure, Seattle mag is a media sponsor. But trust I’d be there regardless. You should be, too.

Follow Us

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Restaurant Roundup: Holiday Cheer at SLU BRU, StarChefs, and Kabul Closing

Here’s what was served up recently in the Emerald City.

Fusion food has an innate ability to bring us together. In the blending of two (or sometimes more) cultures, new perspectives are unlocked and we are all better for it. Esquire is in agreement, as the magazine has selected Lupe’s Situ Tacos, a Mexican-Lebanese taqueria in Ballard, as one of the 33 best new restaurants…

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

Counter Culture: Sansonina Ristorante Italiano

An Italian escape hiding in Renton.

Tucked just off Rainier Avenue, across from a Safeway, Sansonina Ristorante Italiano—which opened early in 2019—is the kind of place you drive past for years without noticing until you walk through the door. Once inside, the outside world dissolves, the hum of traffic fades, and suddenly you’re not in Renton anymore. You’re in a dimly…

5 Things to Eat in December

5 Things to Eat in December

This month’s assignment: Take the pressure off. 

There’s something about the end of the year that adds pressure to everything we do. Despite all the talk of holiday cheer and “merry and bright,” heightened expectations can bring a sense of weariness. We’re fretting over feasts and gatherings while working fervently to tie up loose ends—gifts, work, everything—with a pretty bow. Each month,…

Ahead of the Cut

Ahead of the Cut

How a tech-minded home cook turned years of tinkering into a chef’s knife powered by 40,000 vibrations per second.

Scott Heimendinger traces his love for knives back to college, when his dad taught him how to cook over the phone. By his junior year he had saved for his first real knife, a JA Henckels Santoku. Compared with the $9 IKEA knife he had been using, “it felt like a laser… things that used…