Chefs Timothy Hollingsworth and Michael Kahikina at Alex’s Lemonade. All photos by Elise Thompson for The LA Beat.
Now in its 9th year, LA Loves Alex’s Lemonade threw the cookout to end all Cookouts on the grassy Royce Quad of UCLA last Saturday, breaking last year’s record for most funds raised for the cancer charity. More than 2,500 attendees enjoyed bites from some of the nation’s best chefs, as well as sips and pours from numerous mixologists and vintners. The auctions alone raised over $650,000, with an impromptu dinner at Jimmy Kimmel’s with chefs like Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, raising 300,000 alone. The dinner was so popular, they auctioned it off three times at $100,000 each.
One of the things that sets LA Loves Alex’s apart from the numerous food events happening in LA is their solid lineup of chefs that return year after year. Other events have rotating participants, with some heavy hitters, some new and “happening” restaurants, and some talented local neighborhood spots. At Alex’s, the chefs are all heavy hitters. You know when you attend Alex’s you are going to see Suzanne Goin, Jonathan Waxman and Giada De Laurentiss–at the very least. Chefs Marc Vetri from Philadelphia, Redbird’s Neal Fraser, Phoenix’s Chris Bianco, Michael Cimarusti, Nancy Silverton of Mozza, New Orlean’s Donald Link and Zoe Nathan of Huckleberry have been volunteering every year since the very first cookout in 2010.
There was a lot of seafood happening on the quad, with co-chair David Lentz of Hungry Cat wowing the crowd with a fried oyster roll and fresh uni, straight out of the sea urchin’s shell. Diver Stephanie Muntz of Sea Stephanie Fish in Santa Barbara was on hand to help serve the urchins she had caught herself.
