Chefs Vedrinski and Gras partner up for charity dinner to support the fight against cancer

Beginning the day with a charity bike ride and ending it with a charity dinner, chefs Ken Vedrinski of Trattoria Lucca and Laurent Gras of Chicago’s famed L20 Restaurant will spend Sunday, October 24th, supporting the fight against cancer.

That morning, Vedrinski and Gras will join hundreds of cyclists at Charleston’s Jerry Zucker Ride for Hope, a 100k bike ride that begins and ends in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. The chefs will then join eight-time Olympian, George Hincapie, at a charity dinner at Vedrinski’s restaurant, Trattoria Lucca. The intimate, four-course meal begins at 7 p.m. and will feature two courses prepared by each chef with wine pairings.

The idea to invite Gras came to Vedrinski after both chefs were recently named in Food & Wine’s America’s 10 Fittest Chefs. Vedrinski says of the event, “like many Americans, my family has been affected by cancer, so to participate in a sport I love and host a dinner with a world-renowned chef such as Laurent is an amazing way to give back to cancer charities.”

Chef Gras, a native of France, worked in several Michelin-starred restaurants before moving to the U.S. Once he was stateside, he took the helm of prestigious restaurants such as Peacock Alley in the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City and Fifth Floor in San Francisco, where he was awarded Best New Chef by Food and Wine magazine in 2002. Gras opened L2O in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood to much acclaim in 2008.

Tickets to the charity dinner are $125 each, with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Jerry Zucker Ride for Hope – which raised more than $130,000 last year for local cancer charities. The event is open to the public, with a total of 54 spaces available in the restaurant’s dining room. To reserve a table, call (843) 973-3323.

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