Howell will be joined by fellow No Kid Hungry champions Chad Gauss of The Food Market, Bryan Voltaggio of Aggio, and Zack Mills of Wit & Wisdom, as well as Ben Lefenfeld of La Cuchara and Aja Cage, pastry chef at Gunther & Co., for the collaborative event.
The evening will begin with a cocktail reception and live auction at 6 p.m., followed by a seated meal with six courses, each prepared by a different chef. While the full menu won’t be revealed until the night of the fundraiser, diners can count on a pheasant squash tart with birds sourced from Keiser’s Phesantry in Southern Pennsylvania from Howell, and a decadent dessert fusing pears, chocolate, and a shot of homemade root beer from Cage.
Chad Gauss, chef and owner of The Food Market.
Though she is no stranger to food fundraisers (her previous stints include heading up the pastry teams at Fleet Street Kitchen and Salt), this will be Cage’s first time participating in an event for No Kid Hungry.
“When I was growing up, my mom was always very adamant that we share dinner together,” she says. “It’s so important in terms of building a better bond with your family and developing good eating habits early on. There’s a trickle effect with the whole thing. If you eat better in school, you become a more wholesome adult.”
Although each dish will be executed individually, Cage says that the chefs have been in close contact over the past few weeks to ensure that all of the courses will fit together nicely. Like Howell, she notes the opportunity to work collaboratively with the other chefs as a highlight.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun to just be out of my element for a few hours,” she says. “And to be able to see what the other chefs are working on and talk to them about it. At the end of the day that’s what makes you feel good—seeing how one cause can bring a group of people together.”
Tickets for The Food Market event have since sold out, but guests can still make donations to No Kid Hungry, and the organization is planning more Baltimore events in the future.
“Obviously the food scene in Baltimore is growing, but it’s still a small scene,” Howell says. “So getting together, bouncing ideas off of each other, and helping each other out is only going to make the food scene stronger.”