CCVI FOOD FIGHT :: PART ONE

Monday night, I had the wonderful opportunity to photograph a fundraiser for The Children's Center for the Visually Impaired.  The fundraiser, CCVI Food Fight, was held at the Liberty Memorial/World War I museum.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the mission of the Children's Center for the Visually Impaired, is to prepare children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities, to reach their highest potential in the sighted world. CCVI is a place where disabilities become abilities. It's a place of acceptance and love, and gives children and their families a hope for their future.
The Food Fight was an Iron Chef inspired event, with three of Kansas City's finest chefs battling it out in the spirit of supporting the children at CCVI.
Here is a list of the chefs who competed in the cook off:

Ted Habiger from Room 39 http://www.rm39.com

Colby Garrelts from BlueStem http://www.bluestemkc.com

Debbie Gold from The American Restaurant http://www.theamericankc.com

The chefs had one hour to create a dish based on a pantry of preselected items, and on one secret ingredient.  The secret ingredient, which was Anise, was introduced only moments before the competition began.

I was so honored to be a part of this evening, and was able to capture many images, thus there will be a second part to this blog post in the next few days.  Here are some of the moments experienced at Monday nights fundraiser.

It was hard to stay focused on photographing... I was drooling over all the amazing food!

Audrey is one of the students at CCVI, and came out on stage to draw the winner of the raffle prize, as well as help to introduce the secret ingredient.

I loved the set up on stage.... Looked just like the show!

30 minutes into the competition, Colby from BlueStem realized he had plenty of time left, 

and decided to take a little wine break :)

And now to the best part!

Lon Lane of Lon Lane's Inspired Occasions http://www.inspiredoccasionskc.com was one of the judges for the evening, as well as one of the main organizers for the event.  He did an incredible job of bringing everything together.
Lon, I know CCVI thanks you greatly!

In the end, Debbie Gold won the cook off.  

This was such a fun evening, and for a very worthy cause!  Look for part two on this event in the next few days.  I'll share more images from the event, as well as a list of local restaurants that participated, and provided us with many tasty and delicious dishes.