Chef Dinner at Umi Raises $24,000 for Charity on May 1

A sold-out, all-star chef dinner hosted by food writer Kate Parham Kordsmeier and photographer Heidi Geldhauser, held May 1 at Umi, raised nearly $24,000 for charity. The inaugural event for the Emily Cameron Art Scholarship, honoring the late photographer Emily Cameron, gave $10,000 to Atlanta-based painter Natalie Escobar. Kordsmeier and Geldhauser, along with Cameron’s parents, established the scholarship to change the life of a service-industry worker pursuing a career in the arts. The remaining $14,000 in proceeds was donated to The Giving Kitchen to go toward crisis grants for members of Atlanta’s restaurant community facing unanticipated hardship. Some of Atlanta’s most-celebrated chefs, including Fuyuhiko and Lisa Ito of Umi, Gerry Klaskala of Aria and Joey Ward of Gunshow, united to prepare the multi-course meal at Umi. To toast the occasion, Gunshow’s Mercedes O’Brien mixed a signature cocktail named “The Emily,” featuring bourbon, SHISO liqueur, honey, lemon, seltzer and strawberry absinthe ice pearls.