2007 GREAT CHEFS DINNER

Top New York Area Chefs Take to the Kitchen

for Hayground School

Drew Nieporent, Ruth Reichl, Toni Ross, Roy Scheider Host

Dinner by 12 Superstar Chefs Features Fine Wines & Auction

Monday March 19, 2007 , Lure Fishbar, Soho, New York

For the third year, New York’s Superstar Chefs – 12 of the area’s most dazzling culinary wizards – will serve up an extraordinary multi-course dinner to pay tribute to a former colleague, the late Jeff Salaway.   GREAT CHEFS DINNER 2007, helmed by restaurateur Drew Nieporent, Gourmet Magazine editor and author Ruth Reichl, and Hayground School co-founders restaurateur Toni Ross and actor Roy Scheider, will take place at the stunningly designed, award-winning Lure Fishbar, 142 Mercer Street, Soho, New York, on Monday March 19^th, 2007.   The evening will benefit Jeff’s Kitchen and The Jeff Salaway Scholarship Fund at the Hayground School, Bridgehampton, New York – projects that were dear to Jeff’s heart.

The stellar lineup of culinary masters, many of them longtime friends of Jeff’s include: Josh Capon of Lure Fishbar ; Rebecca Charles of   Pearl Oyster Bar ; Tom Colicchio of Craft Restaurants and Top Chef TV; Claudia Fleming of The North Fork Table and Inn ; Larry Forgione of An American Place and An American Café St. Louis; Michael Huynh of Mai House; Marc Meyer of 5 Points, Cookshop, and Provence; Joseph Realmuto of Nick & Toni’s Restaurants; Aaron Sanchez of Paladar and Centrico Restaurant; Dan Silverman of Lever House; Toshio Tomita of Nobu Restaurant ; Laurent Tourondel of BLT Restaurants; and Miche Bacher of Sacredsweets working with Hayground’s talented student chefs to create the desserts for the evening.

This gala evening, one of the food world’s most eagerly anticipated events, begins at 6:30pm with a lavish cocktail reception featuring an array of signature dishes from half a dozen of the chefs.   Then, course after course will roll out while the area’s foremost sommeliers pour wines to compliment the gastronomic delights.   A highlight of the evening will be a lively auction conducted by the witty Drew Nieporent, as sharp with his humor as he is with a filet knife. One-of-a-kind gourmet experiences, travel packages and rare wines will be featured in the auction.

continued next page

Ticket prices for Great Chef’s Dinner 2007 are as follows: Executive Chef  tables for 10 are $20,000; Benefactors tables of 10 are $15,000; tables of eight are $6,000; and tables of six are $4,500.   Individual tickets are $750.   In addition, individual limited seats are available for a premium table with fine wines at $1,500 each.  For more information, please contact Donna Imbarrato at 631-327-0573 or <lucieliam@aol.com>.

In past years, lucky auction bidders have walked away not only with sated palates, but such special items as a week in a Telluride penthouse, a villa in Tuscany for a sun filled vacation, extraordinary wines from the world’s leading vineyards, and, in the case of several lucky couples, world renowned chef Bobby Flay, Nick & Toni’s executive chef Joseph Realmuto, and Lever House chef Dan Silverman came to their homes to prepare exquisite dinner parties!

In 2001, the tragic death of Jeff Salaway resonated deeply throughout the East End of Long Island as well as the international food world. The well-liked and charismatic young restaurateur who owned several restaurants, including the acclaimed Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton, left behind both a loving family and a vast group of food industry friends.   Determined to keep his memory and culinary vision alive, they joined together with The Hayground School – which Jeff helped to co-found – to create an event that would ensure the fulfillment of his dreams.

In 2003, the first Great Chef’s Dinner was organized with Chefs Bobby Flay, Larry Forgione, Marc Meyer, Alfred Portale and Jonathan Waxman, among others, with   scores of volunteers.   Held at 5 Points Restaurant, the celebrity studded dinner and auction raised over $ 300,000 to build a sleek kitchen/classroom at Hayground School, which Jeff had been planning before his death.   Now that dream is a reality with a free-standing building on the sprawling Hayground campus that serves as a kitchen/science classroom for both children and adults – a professional grade unit fitted with top-of-the-line Viking appliances.   Classes in nutrition, food science and cooking are held there.

About Hayground School

In late 1995, a local group of parents, educators and community members met to discuss a better way to educate their children. This group included representatives from the Native-American, African-American, Latino and Euro-American communities on the East End of Long Island.   Their shared vision, Hayground School, opened on

September 11, 1996, with 60 students from pre-K to 8^th grade.

Hayground’s mission is to provide an open community K-8 school where unproductive conventions are replaced with new ways of teaching and learning. The school is committed to a program of innovation in a community of diversity, both economical and cultural.   The school is founded on the conviction that all children can and should live a life of the mind that all children can be serious and passionate readers, engage in serious discourse, and work and study in an environment where art is at the center, not the periphery, of life. For more information go to www.hayground.org

###