Top chefs, winemakers team up for a fundraising benefit to aid Big Sur.

You can’t easily visit Big Sur right now, but you can still show its residents and businesses some love on Tuesday, May 7 at the Big Sur Disaster Relief Fund’s benefit event. Guests at the event will be wined and dined at the historic La Playa Hotel in Carmel. 

Chefs and representatives from 10 of Monterey County’s finest culinary establishments will be on site preparing an unbeatable array of dishes, to be enjoyed with wine from over 20 local wineries and vineyards. 

This will be no ordinary food and wine gathering. They will be pulling out all the stops—consider an oyster and caviar station, large format wines and Champagne imported from the only place you can call it Champagne.

Big Sur has suffered through some hardships of late. Highway 1 has been closed to most traffic at Rocky Creek since the end of March due to a slip-out of the road, one of four locations where slides are currently blocking complete highway access. (Convoy travel is permitted through slides on both the south and north sides of the Big Sur community. Public access through the northern convoy, at 7am and 5pm daily, was allowed starting Monday, April 29.) State parks in the region remain closed. Then on Friday, May 3, Big Sur Bakery erupted in flames.

Given that the area’s parks, eating and drinking establishments, hotels, stores, and employees of said businesses rely heavily on revenue from visitors, time have have been difficult. Hundreds of workers are unable to work.  

The goal of this event is to raise over $1 million to go directly toward the people in Big Sur who have been affected by the ongoing road closures. There will be a live auction with some once-in-a-lifetime prizes, like a trip for six to Paris, a lunch and tasting of Dom Perignon for six, a private dinner by Chef Justin Cogley from Aubergine with Thacher Wines, and many more. 

Participating chefs include Cal Stamenov of Cella Restaurant, Tim Wood of Woody's Restaurant, Nicolaus Balla of Coast Big Sur, Justin Cogley of Aubergine, Jonny Black of Chez Noir and more.

Tickets are $500 per person. One-hundred percent of proceeds from tickets, donations and silent auction bids will go to those who need it in the form of grants delivered via the Community Foundation for Monterey County to the Community Association of Big Sur.

The benefit takes place 5-8pm Tuesday, May 7. To register or make a donation online, click here. To bid on items in the silent auction (which ends at 8pm Tuesday, May 7), click here.