Do they have to leave a tip?
We have to admit, we were surprised by chef Charlie Trotter's generosity at the Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation Chicago fundraiser Monday night at the River East Arts Center. After all, he was on-site to pick-up his award as Chicago's most sustainable chef from SOS, but he threw attendees a curve ball by auctioning himself, sort of. Trotter put an eight-course sustainable ingredient-focused dinner for 10 (served at his house) on the auction block, and he sweetened the deal by adding courses prepped by Graham Elliot Bowles (Avenues) and Michael Kornick (MK), plus guests get to raid his personal wine cellar with master sommelier Serafin Alvarado, and they'll get to meet Tallgrass Beef founder Bill Kurtis. Deep-pocketed foodies went in for the kill- the dinner netted $16,000. But we were kinda confused by the final results - sounded to us like Trotter ended up adding two more dinners for 10, but in the bidding frenzy it was hard to tell. Event manager Pam Gross settled the issue for us this afternoon; three lucky groups of 10 scored dinner at Sir Trotter's casa, shelling out a fat grand total of $48,500, which will go towards ending childhood hunger (SOS supports local agencies like the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Vital Bridges).