Menu for Hope III - Help People in Need, Win Prizes

We food and wine bloggers are admittedly a quirky and obsessive lot. In locations throughout the world, we use our laptops and digicams to celebrate the joys of our local culinary treasures, from Iberian ham to Indian chai, Knoll Farm figs to Vietnamese pho, Pierre Hermé macarons to New Orleans turducken. We swap recipes, share restaurant tips, recommend kitchen gadgets, and generally lavish the internet with our food porn.

Despite (or perhaps because of) our tendency towards excess, we can be generous folks. Led by Pim of Chez Pim, we have made it an annual tradition to offer prizes to our readers in exchange for a donation to a worthy cause. We call our annual raffle and fund raising drive A Menu for Hope. Last year we raised over $17,000 to aid the victims of the earthquake in Kashmir.

This year, we're turning our attention to the 852 million people who do not have enough to eat. Those of us who write obsessively about food (and all of you who read our blogs) have a chance to contribute to those less fortunate than ourselves in a meaningful way that will have lasting impact. Our recipient for this year is the United Nations World Food Programme. The mission of the WFP is to meet emergency needs, particularly to feed the hungry poor, displaced peoples, and victims of natural disasters.

Briefly, here's how the raffle works (more detailed instructions below). For every $10 donation you get a raffle ticket for a chance to win a fabulous prize of your choice. The more tickets you buy, the greater your chance of winning your favored prize. The worldwide list of prizes is listed here and the list of West Coast bloggers contributing prizes is listed here.

For a chance to win my prize, specify UW35 on the donation page. I'm offering

a choice of

An Intimate Dinner Party for 4 in Your Bay Area Home

or

A Cocktail Party for 10
(check for here details)

or

$200 Gift Certificate to Olallie, my upcoming restaurant in San Francisco

As you longtime readers already know, I am working on opening a restaurant - to be called Olallie - at 1320 Castro Street (at 24th Street) in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood. Here's your chance to get a sneak peak of Olallie's menu. I will cater a dinner for you in your home in the San Francisco Bay Area. With my wife N's help, I'll cook 4 courses for you and 3 friends in your home kitchen. You provide the drinks, the dishes, and the setting and we will do the rest, including clean up! We're pretty flexible and will be happy to work with the winner to help craft a party to his or her desire, including accommodating most dietary needs, from vegetarian to meatitarian. And, despite the picture, we promise to not burn your house or apartment down! There's one hitch. If you want the dinner party, the prize must be redeemed by April 30, 2007.

Thereafter, once my restaurant opens, the prize will be converted to a gift certificate to Olallie for $200 with no expiration date. The party is only open to residents of the Bay Area, but anyone planning to visit San Francisco after the restaurant opens (currently projected for summer 2007, but no guarantees on the date) is eligible to receive the gift certificate.

Check back over the next 11 days for tantalizing pictures of some of the kinds of dishes you can expect to be served at your private dinner party and at Olallie. You have until December 22 to buy your raffle tickets.

Click "continue reading" to find out how to buy your raffle tickets.

Once you've looked over the complete prize list and you've decided on the prize you want, here's what you should do:

1. Go to the online donation page at First Giving .
2. Make a donation. Each $10 will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice.  Please specify which prize or prizes you'd like in the 'Comment' section in the donation form when confirming your donation. Tell us how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code - for example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for UW01 and 3 for UW02. * For my Bay Area Dinner Party/Olallie Gift Certificate specify UW35! *
3. If your company matches your charity donation, please remember to check the box and fill in the information so we can claim the corporate match.
4. Please also check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.
5. Check back on Chez Pim on January 15 when we announce the result of the raffle.

If you're still unclear as to how the whole thing works, click here for Sam's informative post "Everything You Need to Know About Menu for Hope III" on her blog, Becks & Posh.

Food|and Drink|Menu for Hope III

Comments

[sam]

ooh - you two have a new picture - so gorgeous.
I am not sure that I can buy tickets this year since I am a host, so I'll just have to find other means of trying to persuade you to cook me dinner.

thanks for the brilliant, inspired prize.

[shuna fish lydon]

Love the new photo of you and N. It's a good thing it's illegal to marry both of you! xo

gorgeous prize, I agree.

[David]

Since Sam and I can't bid, I guess we'll just have to visit Olallie at 'normal' people.

Great prize and whoever wins is certainly going to be very lucky either way!

[Anita]

Hmm... I wonder if our new kitchen will be done by April 30? I suppose I could borrow someone else's kitchen for the evening. :D

Great prize!

[keiko]

What a fantastic prize, Brett - and I'm so excited about your restaurant, already looking forward to visiting there...

Love the photo of you and N :)

[Elise]

What a wonderful, thoughtful, personal prize. I can't wait to come visit your new restaurant. :-)