Friday, October 8, 6:45 pm
Members and guests $200

Event Location:
The Oakroom at the Seelbach Hilton Louisville
500 Fourth Avenue

For reservations or more information, please call 502.897.3112.

Host chef of our Friends of James Beard Benefit in Louisville, Walter Leffler, has a particularly effective credo: “Every element of every plate executed 100 percent, 100 percent of the time.” It’s that kind of dedication that has earned The Oakroom, where he mans the ranges, a perfect four-star rating from Louisville’s Courier-Journal. Leffler is a native New Yorker and graduate of Johnson & Wales University, an alma mater that has often asked him to return and inspire generations of future chefs. Before his arrival in Louisville, Leffler earned the Hilton Corporation its first AAA-Five Diamond restaurant award, through his work at the Hilton at Short Hills Hotel & Spa in New Jersey.

Oakroom alums Mike Cunha and James Gerhardt are credited with creating the concept of “Kentucky fine dining,” combining new Southern cooking with old Southern charm. Having been part of the team that earned The Oakroom its AAA-Five Diamond award, they’ve now moved on to Limestone, in Louisville’s East End. Cunha is another graduate of Johnson & Wales University who spent four years at L’Auberge de Maison in Marion, Massachusetts, and has also cooked at Hilton properties in Austin and Midland, Texas. Gerhardt’s résumé includes positions at Cincinnati’s Maisonette, The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, and the Stouffer Grand Resort on St. Thomas. He is a CIA graduate and was nominated in 2002 for Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation.

Agostino Gabriele is a native of Sicily, who credits Palermo’s Rosticceria Domore with giving him his first job at the age of 14. After an apprenticeship at Le Caprice, also in Palermo, Gabriele worked at the Park Hotel in Dusseldorf, Germany, and Secondo Matteo, in Milan. He worked with brother Giovanni in St. Louis, Missouri, at Giovanni’s on the Hill, and in 1975 opened Agostino’s Little Place, also in St. Louis, where he remained until joining another brother at Vincenzo’s, where he is now partner and executive chef.

Anthony Lamas, another Oakroom alum, has been called “one to watch” by Louisville magazine for the innovative tapas menu he created at Baxter Station. Trained in the San Diego Apprenticeship program, Lamas cooked at Azzura Point at Loews Coronado Bay Resort and the Ocean Terrace Restaurant at San Diego’s Hotel Coronado before heading east. He became sous-chef at Lilly’s, in Louisville, and since 2000 has been chef and co-owner of Jicama Grill, named one of the “top ten best of the best” restaurants by the Courier-Journal.

Peng S. Looi, a native of Ipoh, Malaysia, earned a degree in civil engineering, but his true passion is food. He opened his first restaurant, August Moon Chinese Bistro, in 1987 and followed up in 1994 with Asiatique. Citing the “exciting panoply of ingredients” to be found in his native country, Looi injects Malaysian influences into his Pacific Rim cuisine. A recent guest at the Beard House, Looi was also guest chef at the Cheeca Lodge Food and Wine Festival in the Florida Keys.