Help From Restaurants: An SOS for the Hungry

Restaurants all over America--including several that serve the most expensive meals--are very much aware of the tragedy of real hunger in our country, and are doing a great deal to help combat it. One of the most significant and effective ways in which they’re doing so is through membership in an organization called SOS (Share Our Strength), which describes itself as “a nationwide network of restaurants fighting hunger.”

A good example of the way SOS works is its forthcoming second annual “Taste of the Nation” benefit, to be held Thursday evening, April 27, under the sponsorship of MasterCard International. More than 1,000 chefs across the United States are expected to participate in a series of dinners and food and wine tastings that night--which SOS hopes will raise at least one million dollars, to be donated to some 80-plus hunger organizations nationwide. Locally, the event will take place at the Rodeo Collection in Beverly Hills. Participating restaurants include Michael’s, La Toque, City, Trumps, Citrus, 72 Market Street, Caioti, L’Orangerie, Pastels, Brentwood Bar & Grill, DC 3, Gillilands, The Grill and more. For a two-week period before the event, beginning this Thursday, April 13, MasterCard will donate 25 cents to SOS for every MasterCard transaction at any of these establishments. Tickets to the event are $75 each. Call the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank at (213) 234-3030 for further information.

OTHER EVENTS: The Century Wine Club (anyone may join) at Hy’s in Century City hosts a rare comparative tasting of five vintages of Opus One (the news-making Robert Mondavi/Baron Phillipe de Rothschild Cabernet-based wine), 1981 through 1985, plus a six-course dinner on Wednesday, April 12, starting at 7 p.m. Tariff for the meal is $95 per person. . . . Christian Chavanne, former executive chef at the Golden Door in La Jolla and ex-spa cuisine chef at the Sonoma Mission Inn, will prepare a menu low in cholesterol, sodium and calories on Wednesday, April 13 and Thursday, April 14 at Chez Melange in Redondo Beach. . . .

Also on the 14th, the United Cerebral Palsy Assn. of Orange County presents its Award of Distinction to former restaurateur Bernard Jacoupy, now general manager of Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach. Assorted gourmet food items and dinners at top restaurants will be auctioned off. Tickets are $150 apiece. . . .

And Universal Studios Hollywood offers a Jazzy Taste of Hollywood on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The event, which combines live jazz and comedy performances with food prepared by chefs from “20 of Hollywood’s trendiest and tastiest restaurants,” will take place at the Stage Right Theater and on the Streets of the World set.