The shocking cancellation of the James Beard Foundation’s Chefs & Champagne summer charity gala — revealed by sources and first reported on 24hbongdda.site on Wednesday — stunned and saddened leading food world professionals.
Veteran Hamptons restaurant marketing specialist Steve Haweeli said, “Twenty-nine years is a long run but things change within organizations let alone markets. It was a great event. I’m surprised at this development.”
“Everything has a natural life cycle and it’s good to leave the party when it’s at its height,” said Rotisserie Georgette owner Georgette Farkas, who’s had a table at the glamorous event under a tent in Sagaponack, LI, for several years.
The Beard Foundation “is putting their brain power in the right place,” Farkas said of Chief Executive Clare Reichenbach’s new focus on food-industry issues such as sustainability, treatment of women and childhood nutrition.
Chefs & Champagne, known as C&C, has been a July institution since 1990 and a “must-attend” for Big Apple and East End restaurant-goers. Even some pencil-thin Hamptons socialites broke their lettuce-only regimens to sip tiny cups of gazpacho.
Celebrities such as Richard Gere, Kim Cattrall, Star Jones and Martha Stewart and top toques including Daniel Boulud, Bobby Flay and Thomas Keller flocked to the bash where New York-area chefs whipped up tasty morsels for guests who paid $200-$375 for tickets.
Last year’s event at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard was guest-hosted by Padma Lakshmi. Participating Manhattan restaurants included the Rainbow Room and Bar Sixty-Five, Aquavit, Untitled at the Whitney, Sen Sakana, Don Angie and Benoit.
Although no money changed hands between the foundation and participating restaurants, the event raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Beard-designated charities and brought the participating eateries precious exposure.
But crowds seemed thinner in recent years.
One Hamptons restaurant insider said, “It’s easy to be No. 1 when you’re the only one. Now there are food festivals with famous chefs all over the map.”
The source added, “Most people still thought C&C was the classiest event. But Dan’s Taste of Summer (a group of food events highlighting Hamptons kitchen talent between May and August at various locations) was eating their lunch by drawing more people.”
Taste of Summer is expanding this year from five to seven events, including a Grillhampton competition between Hamptons and New York chefs on July 19 and Taste of Two Forks on July 20.
A second source said the C&C cancellation also reflected Reichenbach’s greater interest in expanding the foundation’s clout nationwide with less attention to the New York area.
The organization will announce its prestigious annual James Beard Award nominations in Houston for the first time this year, while the award presentations will be held in Chicago where they moved from New York a few years ago.
James Beard Foundation reps didn’t return calls.