Robert Irvine Dinner:Possible Fundraiser for Extreme Makeover Home Edition Beaufort

Friday January 14, Kriss and I attended the Dinner:Possible fundraiser for the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Beaufort at the Westin Hilton Head. Robert Irvine had told us about it when we ate at his restaurant eat! back at Christmas. The purpose was to meet his goal of raising enough money to pay off the family’s mortgage, a requirement in order to tear down the original house. I’d never thought about it until past EMHEs but I’m sure the lender wouldn’t be too happy about someone tearing down the house the lean was against.

Ice Sculpture for Robert Irvine's Dinner:Possible

We got to the cocktail reception right after it started, held in a small round room on the backside of the Westin lobby, I thought there would be more people in there but as the hour went by it quickly filled up, at a few points I couldn’t even move. We didn’t know anyone else there so Kriss and I kind of hung off to the side of the room where it was less crowded watching everyone when we heard a little change in the sound of the chatter, Robert had walked in. Everyone of course was trying to get a picture with him but being spoiled by Robert on a few recent meetings we decided to hang away and let him do his thing for everyone else. Kriss did walk over close enough for him to see her and say hey and grab a quick hug. The Extreme Makeover Home Edition crew showed up then with a camera to get a few sound bites that may be on the show, if so look over Robert’s left shoulder and you may see me back there.

Kriss with Marc Summers

A few minutes later we noticed a smaller gathering of people more on our side of the room and Kriss said “Its Big Daddy!” Aaron”Big Daddy” McCargo is a past winner of Food Network’s Next Food Network Star a few seasons ago and we knew him from there. He also has a show now called Big Daddy’s House. We had struck up a small conversation at one of the tables with another couple and when Kriss told them “there’s Big Daddy Aaron McCargo” they had no clue who he was. So we headed over to meet him and Kriss yelled “Hey Big Daddy” and he immediately stopped talking to whoever he was with and walked towards her. He was excited, said Robert had called him up and said “Get here, I need you” so there he was. I snapped a few shots of Kriss and him talking, I unfortunately didn’t have my camera with me so they are camera phone shots. Right beside him walked in Chef David Britton. If you’ve ever watched Robert Irvine’s Dinner:Impossible, David is the shorter guy that Robert is always yelling at “DAVIDDDDD!” He too was very cordial and spent several minutes with us chatting and a photo op. While we were still talking to David we noticed Marc Summers a few feet away talking to a few people and taking pictures so we wrapped up with David and shuffled over to Marc. He’s been on the Food network quite a while, you may have seen his show Unwrapped, but he also used to host several shows on Nickelodeon such as Double Dare. He’s also a producer behind many other Food Network shows such as Robert Irvine’s Dinner:Impossible and comes to Savannah often for Paula Deen shoots.

Large ice sculpture in lobby

As it got closer to 7:00 I grabbed Kriss to head out to the ball room because I had overheard someone say it was general seating so I was picturing arriving in a room filled with all of the hundreds of people that didn’t go to the cocktail reception. We zipped by the silent auction in the hallway, which I wanted to check out, to go find a table and I was pleased to see not that many people in the room yet and the band playing, many tables had no one sitting at them. What DIDN’T catch my eye at first were how many tables had company name signs on them, apparently quite a few companies bought whole tables and I would say that more than half of the room were company tables. We walked forward towards the stage to see if any didn’t have names but they all did so we turned around and headed back to the back of the bus. Being that we were close to the back anyway, we chose a table in the very last row, close to one of the exits (think quick bathroom breaks,) and a pleasant surprise we didn’t realize until later…

There were fortunately two large screens hanging from the ceiling so we could see everything on the stage anyway, vision wise there was no difference sitting in the middle or the back. I do think we were young enough to be grandkids of 3/4ths of the room, nearly 700 people I heard, and kids to the rest, and that described our table exactly. Since the band was still playing I left Kriss for a moment to go check in, we had a room reservation for the night , and I didn’t want to worry about it later, and when I was handed the key Kriss texted and said they were starting so I beelined it back to my seat.

For the most part, we weren’t able to understand the next few hours. We could see everything going on up on the stage with Robert, Aaron, and Marc calling people out on the stage to do things, kids, family members of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition recipients and some we have no clue who they were. Some of it looked like chaos, I’m not sure there was a set script for everyone, it looked more like they had an outline and Robert was being his normal crazy self filling in. In between stage time the band would play and we were served each course of our meal and a glass of wine matched to it.

Salmon 1st course

The meal was a “secret” menu Robert had concocted for the night. In his interviews on the news leading up to the event he said he wouldn’t reveal the menu until that night, it was a menu he’d never made before, and never would again so a once in a lifetime dinner. The first course was a chargrilled salmon, fennel tomato compote, smoked tomatillo jus, and a glass of Charles Krug 2009 Sauvignon Blanc. The fish was cooked perfectly with the skin on it still on it and it was funny to look around/listen to everyone debating “do I eat the skin or peal it off?” Now again we’re talking about a table of people that are easily old enough to be my grandparents and all appeared to be well off so you would think they had eaten plenty of meals on Hilton Head at the fine dining establishments and would know how to eat a piece of salmon, well you would be wrong. Every one of them took their fork and knife and started peeling the skin off the top. BAH! When they took my plate away they would not have needed to rinse it before putting in a dishwasher.

Bisque 2nd course

Second course was a cauliflower bisque, celariac jus, lobster & crab, with a glass of Charles Krug 2008 Chardonnay. OMG, this is a bowl of soup I wish I had right now on this cool rainy day. Creamy but light, not heavy at all, with just the right sized chunks of lobster and crab meat. They weren’t so small to leave you wondering “hey, I don’t think there is any meat in mine” but they weren’t so large that you needed to split the pieces in half. Again, if I had thought I could have gotten away with it I would have stuck my nose in the bowl to lick the bottom, but I could imagine the gasps from my table mates so I refrained and scraped as much as I could with the spoon.

Course three I’m sorry to say, showed up and I grabbed it and drank it right down so no picture. But it was our palate cleanser before the main course, a sorbet with lemon foam pistachio “shooter.” Picture a tall skinny shot glass with a fruity foam and small pieces of pistachio. I really wish I had a pic of this to complete the shots but really, that’s all there was, a shot glass that was gone in a few seconds, it took me longer to make sure I didn’t have any pistachio left in my teeth than to drink it. I’m not complaining about it by any means, I’m just sorry I didn’t snap a shot of it.

Beef tournedo entree

The fourth course was the entree, I had been anxiously awaiting it since I saw it on the menu. A seared beef tournedo, duck confit, Chinese long bean, pommes puree, port wine jus Charles Krug cab. I’m a steak lover and have grown lately to enjoy a good steak with potatoes and beans, but the beans must be properly cooked. Growing up in the south I was raised with white rice at most every meal and some type of bean that has been stewed to the point that there are very few identifiable pieces for CSI to determine came from a bean. But steak, creamy mashed potatoes, and some type of long green bean that has been cooked but still has a crispy snap when bitten, you have probably called it al dente in reference to pasta, and it can be applied to many other cooked foods including veggies. Usually this is done by cooking the vegetable somehow, possibly boiling, and then quickly dunking them in an ice water bath, this is called blanching. If you haven’t figured it out, pommes are potatoes. Tournedos can refer to many meats but when most people think tournedo, filet is what comes to mind. I truly think a test on my plate would have revealed that no food had ever been placed on it, only my DNA would have been found.

Dessert

Final course was dessert. Apple Bavarian, cardamom tuille, with cherry coulis. I’m going to go against the grain of every paragraph above here and say that this course was perfect. Not that there was anything left on the plate, but even though it was a smallish looking dessert, any more would have been too much. That heart is a thin layer of chocolate piped into a cool plate so that it hardened. Then the cherry coulis was gently filled inside to create the red heart, beautiful. The apple Bavarian was smooth yet firm enough to stand on it’s own without falling. It was something I could never have dreamed up. It had a lot of apple flavor, but not at all like anything I’ve ever eaten apple which is usually a pie or something with chunks of apple surrounded by sweet, thick pectin induced goodness, well this was completely different.

After the meals everyone came out and there was a live auction. I’ve been to fundraisers before and they always do this in conjunction with the silent auction, the difference is the items in the live auction are typically something that most people can’t afford. Golf outings and spa days for a group of ten each, jewelry, trips to the mountains with a cabin for the weekend, and so on. Its stuff I couldn’t likely ever bid on but it’s fun to watch people get excited and carried away and it’s of course for the cause so a great way to beef up the bottom line of the fundraiser with some fun.

At the end Robert came out with everyone and closed the program with a thank you, then a color guard with Marine flag, the family is a Marine family, and all of the waiters and waitresses paraded out in a long line with sparklers. Very moving close to the program.

Mark Richt auographed ball UGA

When we walked out into the hallway the silent auction had surprisingly not ended yet. Kriss and I had taken turns stepping out to check on the only Georgia item there, an autographed Mark Richt UGA football. There were plenty of South Carolina items, you keep forgetting you’re in a different state, from Clemson and USC, there were a pair of Jimmie Johnson signed gloves in a cool shadow box with certificate of authenticity, and many local services such as spa days, tanning, cleaning and so on up for bid, but we only cared about one thing on that table. We kind of ended up in a little bidding war with someone but with all of the shows we watch on Discovery, TLC, and History channels, we felt prepared to win this item or dump it on someone else willing to give plenty to the cause.

With room key in hand we headed down to the car for our luggage and went to find our room. It was a bit of a walk which is usually a PITA but when you’re staying in a beach resort, it’s a good thing because they don’t typically put the elevators near the beach so the further we walked, the closer to the Atlantic we were getting. Sure enough, a quick throwback of the curtains revealed a 4th floor balcony view of several pools at our resort with waves crashing on the other side of the beach a stone’s throw away. We dropped our stuff and headed back down to check our auction item and sure nuff, we had won it. Kriss retrieved it from the table as I paid for it. Robert had also come back out for some photos and they had a backdrop set up to pose in front of so we jumped in for a quick shot and speak to Robert. I have no clue who it was taking the pictures though so I don’t know where to go look to find it, I wish I did. A handshake, thank you, and some words with Robert and we grabbed our football and headed to the room. There had been mention of getting together after but it was late and between the cocktail reception 6 hours earlier and the glasses of wine at dinner spread throughout the night, we just were past the point of partyin’ like rock stars so we crashed.

Oh, you want to know the secret to sitting in the back of the room at dinner? Well, when the wait staff serve they attack like the military, several gather around a tray with all of the food on it and grab plates and bring it to all ten people at once. Then they are gone to take care of the other tables. Then they disappear to take stuff to the kitchen, grab empty plates, and fill wine and water glasses of all of the tables they are responsible for. So there are considerable amounts of time that their tray is unattended and to the surprise of one of our grandparent aged table companions, several bottles of wine left unattended. So he promptly got up and grabbed 2 opened bottles of the red wine and refilled all of our glasses, thanks grandpa.

This really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. An amazing meal, Food Network celebrities, and all for a good cause. You can read more about the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Beaufort at their website and watch the episode when it airs. We also can’t thank Robert Irvine enough, you’re amazing. The tickets were a small price to pay for the evening you afforded us.

edit – Someone finally posted the red carpet pic we took with Robert, added below.