Music City Signature Chef's Auction 2010

This year's Music City Signature Chef's Auction will be held on Monday October 25th at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs, and, as always, benefits the Tennessee Chapter of the March of Dimes. This fundraiser event begins at 5:30 and allows guests to sample a wide variety of signature offerings from the primiere chefs of the greater Nashville area. There will also be live music and a silent auction including a variety of culinary themed items and experiences.

As much as I love food, this event is close to my heart for a different reason: as some of you know, in January of 2009 my son was born premature and spent time in the NICU. It was one of the most profound and challenging experiences of my life, and I will be forever grateful to the March of Dimes for the support they provided us directly during our time as parents in the NICU, and for the pathbreaking research they fund to help ensure healthy pregnancies, healthy births and healthy babies. I have a 30% chance that future pregnancies will also result in premature birth, but fantastic new research funded by the March of Dimes shows that I can cut that risk dramatically by taking a prenatal vitamin daily for a year before getting pregnant. That is an amazing source of hope that we won't have to watch any future children of ours struggle to learn to breathe and eat in the NICU, and it wouldn't be possible without the March of Dimes.

Participants include Amerigo’s Italian Restaurant, Daily Dish Cafe and Catering, Dulce Desserts, Franklin Marriott Cool Springs, Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, Prime 108 at Union Station Hotel, Red Pony Restaurant, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Schakolad Chocolate Factory, The Standard at The Smith House and Watermark.

Individual tickets to the fundraiser begin at $175 and are available on the Tennessee Chapter website, or if you are feeling a little more flush with cash, rumor has it that you can sponsor a table or VIP table ($2500 and $5000 respectively) which seats up to 10 people and includes a variety of plush amenities. If you are not local, or not quite up to the price tag, please consider stopping by the March of Dimes donation page and giving a donation to help fund the mission. Even small gifts add up to big change.