Slideshow

What You Missed at the Sixth Annual Great Chefs Event

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While New York’s top restaurant critics, Adam Platt and Frank Bruni, dined at Vetri last night, the restaurant’s namesake, Marc Vetri and dozens of other esteemed chefs from all over the country assembled in Philly’s Navy Yard for the Sixth Annual Great Chefs Event, a fundraiser for the Alex’s Lemonade Foundation. Their goal was to raise at least $1 million for childhood cancer research. “This is like the most talent that’s assembled in Philadelphia since, gosh, I think ever,” Iron Chef Jose Garces told Grub Street. “Just looking around the room, I see John Besh, Ken Oringer, Jonathan Waxman and Aaron Sanchez. Kudos to Marc Vetri for pulling together all these great chefs for such a great cause.” If you were like Platt and Bruni and missed the event, we’ve put together a slideshow of some of the dishes the chefs served. Click through and start drooling.

Shake Shack made its Philly presence known with its classic American cheeseburger with green leaf lettuce, tomato and Shack Sauce, served on a griddled Martin’s potato roll.
Acclaimed author of bestseller Blood, Bones & Butter represented with this simple, yet elegant dish.
Another simple, yet tasty offering.
The onetime Top Chef contender offered up this playful rendition of the bar food staple, which was a favorite of Top Chef winners Michael Voltaggio and Kevin Sbraga when they paid her a visit last fall.
Served with za’atar, lahvosh and mint.
Chef Kenobi and his dish were a big hit with the Great Chefs’ crowd.
In addition to the many amazing savory dishes offered, there were some remarkable sweets too.
Food Network fan favorite Aaron Sanchez made his Great Chefs debut with this tasty taco.
The crowds just couldn’t get enough of these.
Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio couldn’t make it to this year’s event, but that didn’t prevent his chefs from turning out these Craft-y tacos.
Mark Lander served each one of these to order.
The Chicago-based dessert bar served up these sweet, tasty morsels.
The Iron Chef’s rib, which was served with Cuban black beans, passion fruit sofrito, and yuca passion fruit mojo, was a crowd favorite. Garces and his crew ran out before the night was over.
Schwartz payed homage to his hometown with a nod to one of its oldest and dearest food traditions, scrapple. Top Chef champ Kevin Sbraga assisted Schwartz in preparing and plating.
As if the New Orleans chef would serve anything less.
Though he forgot about the four huge chefs knives in his carry-on, Kahan still managed to slip through O’Hare’s crack security and serve this dish for the Great Chefs Event.
You could hear Sawyer yucking it up with Food Network personality Anne Burrell above the crowded room’s din as he served these up.
Boston’s James Beard award winner turned out one of the evening’s most memorable dishes.
Goin, who sponsored her own Alex’s Lemonade Stand fundraiser in L.A. last year, literally fired her s’mores to order.
Easily this was the most gorgeously composed dish offered.
Manzare enlisted his son to help prepare his tequila-spiked sushi.
Becker was all over the place, reconnecting with friends from his brief stint at Starr’s Washington Square, but the crowds steadily found there way to his table as word circulated about his tuna tacos.
Dandelion’s chef Robert Aikens made his Great Chefs debut with this rich pate served on sourdough toast.
Another crowd pleaser, Mark and Clark served their fried oysters with green pepper relish and bacon bits.
This lemonade-inspired creation proved to be one of the evening’s most ambitious efforts.
Solomonov joked that his beef cheeks served with cauliflower tehina puree and pickled ramps wasn’t necessarily photogenic, but made up for it in taste.
What You Missed at the Sixth Annual Great Chefs Event