Event location
Prince of Wales at the Hotel del Coronado
1500 Orange Ave., Coronado, CA

Monday, October 15, 6:00 P.M. cocktails, 7:00 P.M. dinner. $125 members and guests.

For reservations or more information, please call Sara Gevirtz at (858) 551-4667.

WHEN BUSINESSMEN ELISHA Babcock and H.L. Story conceived of the Hotel del Coronado in the 1880s, they envisioned a resort that would be the "talk of the Western world." Now almost 150 years later, "The Del" is certainly the talk of the foodie world: its elegant Prince of Wales restaurant is hosting the second of two Friends of James Beard Benefits being held in San Diego this month.

Prince of Wales chef Matt Van Marter will welcome four well-known local chefs to his landmark dining room, which SD Insider critic Eileen Sondak described in a four-star review as "one of the most regal dining rooms in town." Van Marter is a graduate of the Atlantic Culinary Academy, and he finished his education as chef de partie at the fine dining restaurant at EuroDisney in Paris. When he returned to the United States, he spent five years as sous-chef of Marius at Le Meridien, Coronado, before taking over the kitchens at the Hotel del Coronado.

At his restaurant down the road from Chino Farms in Rancho Santa Fe, Tom Atkins, chef of J. Taylor’s at the luxurious L’Auberge Del Mar hotel, has his pick of the fresh produce that is shipped daily to elite restaurants all over the country. In diningSanDiego.com, David Rottenberg wrote that Atkins—a veteran of the Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe and San Francisco’s One Market and Lark Creek Inn—is poised to make J. Taylor’s "one of the finest restaurants in the city."

"Some people might call the El Bizcocho experience, simply, dinner. I call it a circus for the senses," Leslie James wrote in The San Diego Union Tribune. Tom Dowling, executive chef of the Rancho Bernardo Inn, has been ensuring a letter-perfect experience at the Inn’s two French-Californian-inspired dining venues, Veranda and El Bizcocho, since he arrived in 1985. An East Coast native and graduate of the CIA, Dowling worked as sous-chef in New York at the Helmsley Palace Hotel and then Gotham Bar and Grill. As executive chef, Dowling guided Le Plumet Royal—Peacock Inn in Princeton, New Jersey, to a three-star rating in The New York Times.

Bon Appétit called George’s at the Cove, "that rarity, a seaside showplace that also serves great food." Located on the water in picturesque Del Mar, George’s at the Cove showcases the seasonal Californian and fresh seafood–based cuisine of Trey Foshee, a Food & Wine 10 Best New Chef who has also worked as chef de cuisine at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows and as executive chef of The Tree Room at the Sundance Resort in Utah. During his time at George’s, the restaurant has received many awards, including #1 Best of the Best from San Diego magazine and GQ’s coveted Golden Dish Award.

"’Very hip and very now’ encapsulates restaurant Parallel 33," Terryl Grave wrote in San Diego Metropolitan. Chef Amiko Gubbins’s cooking spans the globe, incorporating countries as far flung as Morocco, Lebanon, China, and Japan, all of which cross the 33rd parallel (a "wondrous taste trip," Grave raved). Before she opened Parallel 33, Gubbins cooked at the much lauded Pacific Rim Café Japengo, winner of San Diego magazine’s Best Asian Cuisine Gold Medallion award in 1995 and 1997.