Beauty and the Feast: DIFFA's Dining by Design

Thursday evening, we were lucky enough to attend Jenn-Air's Chef's Table event held at the World of Whirlpool flagship office. This wonderful benefit was a celebration of CS Magazine's July restaurant issue and the kick-off fundraiser for DIFFA's (Design Industry Foundation Fighting Aids) Dining by Design series. Great food, great people, and a great cause!

The penthouse level of the Murdoch building, where World of Whirlpool is located and where the event was held, is so chic and was beautifully decorated, not only with flowers but with edible art like this chocolate sculpture resembling coral. (We got the scoop on how it was made...fill a bowl with ice and pour melted chocolate over the top. The chocolate will flow over the ice and harden. Then once the ice melts, this craggy shape is what's left. Very cool.)

As expected, the food was amazing. How could it not be when chefs such as Jacques Torres, Chris Macchia, Mindy Segal, and others are doing the cooking! Deb was particularly enamored of this artichoke and shrimp tortelli by Federico Comacchio of Coco Pazzo.

But even with all that, our favorite part was the herb garden. The Whirlpool/Jenn-Air staff grows a huge variety of herbs on the rooftop deck!

 

Through fundraising events like Chef's Table, DIFFA has granted over $40 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide and DIFFA/Chicago itself has awarded almost $4 million. It was a pleasure attending the Chef's Table and we look forward to more DIFFA events. Thanks to Jenn-Air, CS Magazine, all the planners, chefs, and sponsors!