Richard Pratt (owner of Catering by Chef Richard) from Texas.
Susan Ruffins (co-author of Eating Royally) from California.
David Tiller (husband of Martha Tiller who co-ordinated the event) from Texas.

Restaurant Chef’s have to be invited to cook at Beard House and to each it is an honor. For a personal chef like me, even more so because very few personal chefs get invited to cook at Beard House. I may even be the first.

James Beard is recognized by many as the father of American gastronomy. Throughout his life, he pursued and advocated the highest standards, and served as a mentor to emerging talents in the field of the culinary arts. For over forty years, James Beard operated a cooking school out of his apartment in New York, wrote dozens of books on cooking and food, and hundreds of articles on food for many different magazines.

After Beard's death in 1985, Julia Child had the idea to preserve his home in New York City as the gathering place it was throughout his life. Peter Kump, a former student of Beard's and the founder of the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's New York Cooking School), spearheaded the effort to purchase the house and create the James Beard Foundation.

September 16th 2007 I arrived at 167 West 12th Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village - with my team of chefs - to prepare a “Buckingham Palace Tea Party” . It is North America's only historical culinary center, a place where Foundation members, the press, and the general public are encouraged to savor the creations of both established and emerging chefs from across the country and around the globe.

On the menu of my Buckingham Palace Tea Party was the following;

Sandwiches of; Baked Ham and English Mustard on White Bread Sage Derby Cheese with Vine-Ripened Tomato on Grain Bread Cucumber, Mint, and Cream Cheese on Whole Wheat Bread Croques Monsieurs

Pastries of; Scones with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Jelly Iced Caramel–Banana Cake Queen Elizabeth’s Chocolate Birthday Cake Fruit Tartlets with Lemon Cheese Traditional Shortbread

Beverages; Darjeeling Tea Earl Grey Tea Pimm’s Cup Lemon Refresher

Click to see the above photo collage at 1200 x 850 - 1800 x 1280 - 2740 x 1950 Pixels