Dine with the Chefs

I love a good food event. I love it even more when the event is raising money for a good cause. I attended a phenomenal event last weekend that hit both - fabulous food and a very worthy cause, Meals of Wheels of Northwest Indiana.

Meals on Wheels holds a special place in my heart as I was a volunteer baker for several years with a Meals of Wheels group in my old hometown of Lansing, IL that was run out of a church and serving about 70 individuals - run completely by volunteers and funded entirely by donations. I know many of the volunteers cooks and drivers and wrote about the group several times over the years.

Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana covers a larger area and serves a larger segment of the population, serving those in need and those who are elderly and depend on the nutritious meals to provide sustenance and their delivery drivers for social interaction on well check-ups. It’s a wonderful organization that was founded in 1977. 

Their offices in Merrillville are a hub for seven counties, from which 2,000 meals are served a day.

The Dine with the Chefs event was held on March 2, 2025 at Avalon Manor Banquet Hall in Merrillville with about 450 individuals in attendance, plus an amazing team of chefs and staff.

10 local chefs presented some amazing recipes - everything from cocktails to appetizers to different components of the sic-course plated meals. 

Everything was so delicious and beautifully presented - with so much care and creativity going into the feast.

Favorites of mine were the Elysian Fields Salad that had hydroponic lettuce, marcona almonds, pistachios, Persian cucumbers, pomegranate arils, whipped feta and micro mint with a lemon-honey vinaigrette and the Deconstructed Beef Wellington of filet mignon with wild mushroom, robuchon potatoes, butter herb carrots, bordelaise and puff pastry.



A post popped up in my feed the next day saying that they raised around $160K at the event. Some of that was from the auction of a painted created by a speed painter on-site in about 10 minutes, which was super impressive.

Keep this event on your radar for next year - it takes place each spring!