What's Cooking?

The town’s recent Top Chef contestants have been very in demand in this celebrity-starved city, and tonight, Melissa Harrison (formerly of Centro, now of Happy Noodle House) will join with L.A. Top Chef contender Alex Eusebio (a Denver native who worked at Aix and Cuba Cuba) to take on fellow local chefs Biju Thomas and Rachel Woolcott in the True Flavors Celebrity Cook-Off, a contest at Mise En Place, the cooking school at 1801 Wynkoop Street. Each team will have 35 minutes to make a specialty drink, an appetizer, an entree and a dessert – from ingredients revealed to them only moments before.

TrueChild, a national advocacy group for children, will be the beneficiary of the event, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight, and includes a reception and silent auction. “Someone on the board of directors and I were thinking of ways to fund-raise and we thought of doing a celebrity cook-off,” explains Gina Reiss, senior vice president of development for TrueChild. “We came up with an Iron Chef-style dinner, a fundraiser where everyone doesn’t just want to get out of there. Everyone said it was different and unique, and we ended up raising $50,000.”

They’re hoping to raise just as much again this year. Tickets are $150 and can be purchased at www.truechild.org.
Thu., June 25, 6-9 p.m., 2009