There are so many fundraisers and so many ideas out there for helping various causes.
The British American Business Council’s “Fifty Shades of Food, Glorious Food” at the Hilton Hotel Anaheim has really caught my attention because it promises to be the ultimate restaurant-week experience all in one night, the consummate adventure for foodies.
You should make reservations ASAP for this extravagant evening on April 26, since two-thirds of the tickets are already sold.
Kent French, commentator for the Anaheim Ducks, will emcee the event. Michael Johns, a finalist on American Idol’s seventh season, will attend, and Warren Barton, a TV studio analyst for Fox Soccer and a former English football player, will present scholarships to two lucky Orange County high school students.
This event has stellar chefs, celebrity names, entertainment and, I’ve been told, Hollywood-worthy settings. A group of acclaimed chefs is collaborating to prepare a five-course gourmet meal in front of a celebrity-studded audience. Action and drama will unfold as the popular chefs wield razor-sharp blades, chopping and dicing their way to culinary nirvana.
Participating chefs and restaurants—some having Michelin Stars—include Hilton’s executive chef, Kyung Soo Carroll, and the hotel’s Mix restaurant and lounge; Chef Azmin Ghahreman, owner of the acclaimed Sapphire Laguna restaurant and lounge in Laguna Beach and its gourmet specialty shop, Sapphire Pantry; Chef Andrew Sutton of Disney’s Napa Rose restaurant in the Grand Californian Hotel; Chef Michael Rossi of The Ranch Restaurant & Saloon, one of the “hot” new restaurants in the county; Executive Chef Sayed Moalemi of TusCa in the Hyatt Hotel, Anaheim; and Chef Alfred Prasad of sister restaurants Tamarind of London, Mayfair, London and Newport Beach.
These premier chefs have been working on a menu for a few months to dazzle foodies.
Shaun Robinson, 2013 president of the British American Business Council OC, said he is excited about the event and the support it’s already received from the community.
“We are thrilled beyond belief at the caliber of chefs who are participating and supporting this event,” he said. “These top chefs have traveled the world, served kings and queens, and are now putting Orange County on the map with their outstanding food and spectacular restaurants.”
The feast will kick off BritWeek 2013 in OC, an annual creativity and innovation week between Britain and California that’s hosted by the British American Business Council in Orange County and will benefit the council’s scholarship fund. The fund sends two Orange County students on a two-week, all-expenses-paid trip to the International School of British Studies Summer Program, and also Pure Game, a nonprofit charity that mentors underprivileged OC youth through encouragement on the soccer field.
Hilton Hotel Anaheim is at 777 Convention Way. The event will take place in the Avalon Ballroom on the lobby level. For additional event and ticket information, visit www.babcoc.org or contact Valerie Blackholly, executive director of the BABC OC and the event’s organizer, at (949) 472-2221.
Disney Dazzles
Disney still has the ability to dazzle us with totally unexpected, upscale fine-dining venues. Napa Rose in the Grand Californian Hotel, under the auspices of Chef Andrew Sutton, continues to hold court with America’s best restaurants, with a sophisticated wine-country ambiance adding to its fame.
Now there’s the glamorous Carthay Circle Restaurant inside Disney’s California Adventure, near the Buena Vista Street entrance.
Carthay Circle Restaurant is on the second floor of Disney’s reproduction of the Carthay Circle Theatre. The original Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles played a significant role in Walt Disney’s life. It was the location where his first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered in 1937.
Hollywood’s luxurious Golden Age aura is remarkable in this incarnation.
The use of finely milled wood, exemplary fabrics, and even an exact reproduction of the elegant original carpeting are about as far from casual Disney fare and surroundings as one can imagine. The oxymoron of the experience is that the diners are dressed in their most casual and unsophisticated attire, since they’ve paid admission for a day in the park. You can’t gain access to the restaurant without paying for a California Adventure admission.
The cocktail lounge on the building’s first floor is equally gorgeous in midcentury ambiance and has a separate menu of appetizers, tapas and desserts should one not want to dine in the full-blown meal format. Having one of the classic cocktails of the bygone era delivers a good dose of nostalgia, but modern libations are also high on the agenda.
I love the unexpected “golf ball” of crystalline, pure ice and the triangle of ice floating in the cocktails served in specialty glassware. Craft beers, California wines and seltzer sodas are further enticements.
The food takes full advantage of today’s penchant for farm-to-table freshness.
Its modern cuisine pays tribute to the bold and diverse flavors of Southern California, with a strong emphasis on contrasting flavors, innovative cooking techniques and fresh, locally sourced ingredients. We’ve tried many of the dishes, and based on those, I encourage food lovers to make a reservation.
Seating is available in the main dining room on two open-air terraces and in the Premiere Room, a private dining room that can accommodate parties of 12. I far prefer the main room, which you should specify when making your reservation and which I hope is not an impossibility on your day.
One can tell from the extensive kid’s menu alone the level of care incorporated here: Salad or soup, pastas, mini tacos, fish, soba noodles, petite filet, sloppy Joes, and chicken schnitzel are savory dishes that outshine anything I’ve seen in any other OC restaurant. Included with most entrees are appropriate starches and veggies, too. One more surprise: Prices are only $5 to $13 for the youngsters.
Adults have much to choose from, as well. I’ll forego in-depth descriptions and just say that this is really remarkable food to find in a theme park.
The restaurant has its own chef, and overseeing it on an executive level is the aforementioned Chef Sutton. Some thoughts: firecracker duck wings (no chicken flippers here), mushroom gorditas, ceviche, pork satay, cavatelli pasta with braised lamb, Jamaican jerked ono, Skuna Bay salmon, grilled barbacoa-style quail, short-rib raviolis, tiger prawns, rib eye steak, Colorado rack of lamb, even Kobe beef cheek sliders. Most of the items are available at lunch and dinner.
I told you it was not an ordinary experience, and it’s certainly not ordinary food. If the names of the dishes elicit anticipation, you can also expect beautiful presentations worthy of the unique settings. Also, the wine list presents an all-encompassing array of food-friendly wines, with more than 30 by-the-glass selections.
And a perk to add to the mix is that when you purchase an entrée plus an appetizer or a dessert, you’re eligible for a ticket granting access to a reserved center-stage viewing area for the World of Color nighttime water spectacular. Guests dining before 7 p.m. receive access to the first World of Color show of the night. Those dining between 7 and 9 p.m. receive access to the second World of Color show.
Put this on top of your priority list for your next visit to California Adventure.
Book a reservation as far in advance as possible, as this is a “hot” ticket to acquire, by calling Disney Dining at (714) 781-3463.
Trip to China
My husband Patrick and I have put together an exceptional VIP itinerary for a trip to China in October. We take only a few couples and/or singles on our specialized and sophisticated culinary and cultural excursions, and I’m giving my readers a heads-up. We’ve done a few of these in the past and have a superb China specialist as adviser, so we’ve got a formula that ensures the most memorable discovery of China.
We stay in the best hotels, including one of the most highly touted in Beijing, the Peninsula, Shangri-La, etc. In Beijing we’ll have access to a hidden part of the Forbidden City—a first for anyone except dignitaries.
We’ll also walk the Great Wall, visit Xian and the Terra Cotta Warriors museums, go to the city of Wuxi via a high-speed train, sail the Yangtze for three days on a brand-new ship that will pass through the now-famous locks, and experience the intrigues and allures of Patrick’s hometown of Shanghai.
This is the first time I am inviting anyone but our close friends on the journey. But it seems fair to allow some readers to start participating.
This is planned for 16 people maximum, in order to keep it on the VIP level and to ensure it is most enjoyable for everyone. I’d love to have some of my readers enjoy this journey with us. Please call me at (949) 677-9603 or email chaothyme@aol.com if you’d like to see a complete itinerary. But do it soon, as some have already reserved their spaces.
