Event Location
The Madison Hotel
1 Convent Rd., Convent Station, NJ
6:30 P.M. Silent and live auction
Members and guests $175

Corporate sponsorship tables for 10, $2,000 and $2,500
For reservations or more information, please call Barbara Getze at (800) 626-8097.

When this writer used to visit his grandmother in New Jersey, the dining was never more sophisticated than hot dogs at Callahan's, corned beef at Squires Delicatessen, or deep-fried blintzes at the Plaza Diner. All right, maybe it was the family that wasn't very sophisticated, not the restaurant scene. Regardless, the dining options in the Garden State these days are on par with the best. Every year for the last seven, several of the best New Jersey chefs invite some of their colleagues and friends from around the country to put on a benefit for the Beard Foundation.

This year, Ehab Habashi, chef of the Madison Hotel, is playing host to the event. A native of Sicily, Habashi studied at the Culinary Institute of America. Joining him are Foundation president Len Pickell and trustee Nina Griscom, who are serving as the event's co-chairs. Foie gras magnate and Foundation Angel Michael Ginor has coordinated a long and impressive invitation list of chefs. But this year he's added a hitch: as part of the invitation to participate, each chef has been assigned a course/ingredient around which to build his dish. That makes the dinner a surprise for the guests. But given the names of the chefs on this list, that's the kind of surprise we live for.

Among those invited is Kirk Avondoglio, the maker of some of the world's best smoked salmon (not to mention award-winning pastrami-style and gravlax varieties) from his family's restaurant and banquet facility, Perona Farms. David Burke may be best known for his chefing at Park Avenue Café, but he is also the culinary mastermind behind the entire Smith and Wollensky group of restaurants, which includes ONEcps and Maloney & Porcelli.

From the frigid February climes of Canada—where he has been since a multi-year stint in Singapore—comes Susur Lee of Susur in Toronto. His reputation for unique East-meets-West cooking has literally followed him around the world. The host of last year's event, Walter Leffler, is coming up the parkway to The Madison Hotel from his post at the Hilton at Short Hills. There this New York native has served presidents and royalty, earning commendations from both.

Beard Award-winner Ken Oringer is coming home to New Jersey from Boston. Though his restaurant, Clio at the Eliot Hotel, is considered by many to be the best in Beantown, he was born and bred in Paramus, not too far from Convent Station. Tim Schafer knows his way around New Jersey, too. He is chef of Tim Schafer's Cuisine, a small, idiosyncratic (and delicious) restaurant in Morristown that Fran Schumer of The New York Times (regional edition) gave a high grade of "very good." Last, alphabetically that is, certainly not least, is Takashi Yagihashi of Tribute in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Yagihashi hosts his own annual Friends of James Beard Benefit, but this time he's leaving the Midwest for the Mid-Atlantic to cook his highly personalized French fare.

In addition to dinner, there will be an auction of food and travel packages. What are you waiting for—an invitational?