Newswise — The Cancer Research Institute hosted the 27th annual "Through the Kitchen" Dinner at The Four Seasons Restaurant on May 3, 2009, where 225 guests helped raise $505,000 for the organization. Broadcast journalist Perri Peltz and her husband Eric Ruttenberg hosted the memorable evening along with event co-chairs Margaret and Andrew Paul and Lara and Remy Trafelet. Sotheby's Jamie Niven drove a very successful live auction that brought in $160,000 to top off the $345,000 in ticket sales. Event décor guru DeJuan Stroud masterfully created 24 NYC museum-themed tables or centerpieces.
The evening began with cocktails in the Four Seasons' famous Grill Room, where NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg & Diana Taylor, Evelyn & Leonard Lauder, NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein & Nicole Seligman, Princess Firyal of Jordan, Marlene Hess & James Zirin, mingled with other political and social dignitaries including Jessie & Rand Araskog, Liz & Jeff Peek, NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and his wife Veronica, Leslie & Brian Brille, Jill & Lyle Wilpon, Stacey & Matthew Bronfman, Anna-Maria Kellen and her family members Caroline, Denise, and Michael Kellen, Deborah Norville & Karl Wellner, and a host of other distinguished attendees. The event's founder, Cancer Research Institute trustee Lauren Veronis, who was joined by her husband John Veronis¸ once again delivered a festive and memorable evening in support of a good cause.
When it was time for dinner, the doors to The Four Seasons' legendary kitchen were opened up to guests, who each donned red chef's aprons before lining up along the buffet to help themselves to museum-themed dishes like SKETCHpad Thai, EggsABITION tamago sushi rolls, PigMENTs in a BLANKet CANVAS, TROMP L'OEILsters, and other delights prepared on-site.
Plates in hand, guests entered the restaurant's famous Pool Room, where floating in the bubbling centerpiece pool was a large model of the historic Intrepid Sea Space & Air Museum, replete with paper airplanes and a thread of twinkling lights strung end-to-end across the imperial ship. Surrounding the center pool were tables displaying representations of 23 other New York museums, each decked out in amazing detail:
The Mayor was seated—where else?—at the Museum of the City of New York table, complete with iconic Broadway theater playbills as place mats including "Three Penny Opera," "Man of La Mancha," and "Things that Go Bump in the Night." Lally Weymouth & Richard Meyer, Jackie & Ken Duberstein, Evelyn and Leonard Lauder, Nancy Silverman, and Lauren Veronis dined around a pop-up cityscape centerpiece surrounded by miniature taxi cabs, iconic Greek coffee cups, and even tiny black garbage bags through which gummy rats rifled for food.
Being a dinner to benefit cancer research, we have to mention the New York Hall of Science table, where Diana Taylor, Princess Firyal, Victor Ganzi, Jill & David Gilmour, Paola & Michael Schulhof, Nicole Seligman & Joel Klein, and John Veronis had their fill of scientific adventures with a lab bench centerpiece, glass test tubes and flasks filled with electric blue and green mystery gels, and a large periodic table of the elements.
The Museum of Modern Art table was a mod-pop-kitsch smorgasbord evoking the works of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Campbell's soups cans were stacked in the center, along with orange toilet paper, primary-colored daisies springing from porcelain milk cartons, and flexy magnetic jumping men. The table itself could be subjected to a curator's artful eye. Trying to figure out the meaning of it all here were Polly & John Espy, Marlese Hess & James Zirin, Sheila Labrecque, Nancy & Joe Missert, and Lisa & David Schiff.
Diners at the New York City Transit Museum table could have expected the river of yellow in tribute to New York's army of taxis, but they might have not expected the little tree car air fresheners in "New Car," "Royal Pine," and "Ice Blue" scents, or the array of lollipops decorated as traffic signs. Hopefully, Charles Gargano & Marilyn Alfeld, William Haseltine, Joan & Irvin Levy, Anita & Sam Michaels, Judy Ney, and Paula & Leon Root, all seated here, weren't confused by the many directional decisions: Stop, slow down, or skip dinner and go straight for the miniature ice cream truck?
The table for the stars of the evening was The Paley Center for Media, giving each fabulous guest his or her time in the spotlight with a colorful microphone and lime green boa. Virginia Coleman & Peter Duchin, Patti Harris & Mark Lebow, Beth & Harry Lebow, Lee & Jamie Niven, and Deborah Norville & Karl Wellner snacked from flutes of popcorn while they and their fellow performers basked in the fabulousness oozing from every pixel in the photos of former mega-celebs like Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.
Not to be overlooked is the humble, yet historically rich Tenet Museum table. Pat & Gil Caffray, Zoe & Ernesto Cruz, Osvert Hood, Jeffrey Leeds, Eric Ruttenberg, Ariadne & Mario Platero, and Anna Ponder sat on mismatched wooden chairs, which recalled the courageous spirit of those who left everything behind, including their matching furniture sets, to start a new life in America. The few treasures immigrants could bring were displayed in a small chest at the table's center: blue and white china, a silver pitcher, sienna-toned family photographs, and tickets for the ship across the Atlantic.
Other museums featured at the dinner included: the American Museum of Natural History, the Toy Museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, El Museo del Barrio, the Noguchi Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Children's Museum of the Arts, the New York Public Library, the Museum of African Art, the New York Historical Society, the New York City Police Museum, the Museum of American Finance, the Asia Society and Museum, and the New York Fire Museum.
Once guests had their fill of dinner, Jamie Niven of Sotheby's took the stage to drive the auction. The hot ticket item of the night was an internship donated by Mayor Bloomberg. When Ernesto Cruz and Dailey Pattee became engaged in a bidding war, the Mayor brought on applauds of approval from the crowd for throwing in a second internship, making both high bidders a winner. Mr. Niven was also able to help raise $100,000 from 14 generous donors, led by Leonard Stern, who pledged to buy a share of not one, but two years of a Cancer Research Institute postdoctoral fellowship. Other auction items included an impossible-to-get table and dinner for six at Rao's restaurant, won by Leonard Lauder, and an NBA Ball Kid Experience, donated by CRI trustee Heidi Ueberroth, which Ernesto Cruz also slam dunked with the highest bid.
After dinner, the Pool Room Terrace was opened to reveal a richly laden dessert buffet, which included cleverly named desserts like ROCOCOnut layer cake, BENDAY berries, and SURREAL strawberry shortcake, to name a few.
"Through the Kitchen," now in its 27th year, is one of New York City's favorite annual charity events. The benefit supports the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute, which provides funding to postdoctoral fellows continuing their professional training in the world's top immunology and tumor immunology laboratories. Their basic research helps contribute to the development of new ways to treat, control, and prevent cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases.
Photos of the event are available from Cancer Research Institute.
About the Cancer Research Institute
The Cancer Research Institute (CRI) is the world's only non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the support and coordination of scientific and clinical efforts that will lead to the immunological treatment, control, and prevention of cancer. Guided by a world-renowned Scientific Advisory Council that includes five Nobel Prize winners and thirty members of the National Academy of Sciences, CRI supports cutting-edge cancer research at top medical centers and universities throughout the world. The Cancer Research Institute is ushering in a new era of scientific progress, hastening the discovery of effective cancer vaccines and other immune-based therapies that are providing new hope to cancer patients.
The Cancer Research Institute has one of the lowest overhead expense ratios among non-profit organizations, with the majority of its resources going directly to the support of its science, medical, and research programs. CRI has earned the coveted four out of four stars from Charity Navigator, an 'A' grade for fiscal disclosure and efficiency from the American Institute of Philanthropy, and top marks from other charity watchdog organizations. www.cancerresearch.org
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