Friday night was the “Dinner of the Decade”, a tribute to James Beard and our Michigan bounty, hosted by Master Chef Brian Beland and multi James Beard Award winner Chef Jimmy Schmidt. The event took place at the 128 year old grand Country Club of Detroit which is under the directorship of Craig Culter. When approached with the idea of the club hosting such a dinner he immediately said yes. Craig grew up in NYC where his mother would regularly take classes from James Beard himself.
Through Chef Beland and Chef Schmidt’s collective culinary leadership they crafted an extraordinary historical gastronomic celebration with several James Beard award winning or nominated Michigan chefs. Their vision was to pay tribute to Michigans bounty of ingredients and wines.
In this post you will see the menu as well as the featured chefs. While the kitchen was elbow to elbow with some of Michigan's most celebrated chefs the wines and Michigan wineries were carefully managed and selected by Master Sommelier, Madeline Triffon.
A celebration of this magnitude was the ideal opportunity for the evening to generate two $5000 donation scholarships through the Michigan Chef's de Cuisine for future culinary students at OCC and Schoolcraft Culinary programs. A portion of the funds also went to further support the culinary educational work that the James Beard Foundation does nationally for the hospitality industry.
The entire evening was filmed to be featured as part of the our next chefs film, Detroit the City of Chefs II. The dinner will be featured as part of the story about James Beard and his effect on Michigan chefs. The other story beat that will come from this memorable dinner will be a look at a day in the life of Master Chef Beland through his intense, well-orchestrated day of cooking, and hosting so many iconic chefs at his country club.
A truly heartfelt thank you to all the chefs, wine makers and the outstanding professional team at the Country Club of Detroit. This dinner will forever live in history as an important story in our upcoming film Detroit the City of Chefs II, scheduled to be released this fall with a premiere at the Emagine Theatre of Novi complex.