It’s one of the most anticipated announcements of the year for Sacramento’s culinary crowd — who will be the chefs for the 2024 Tower Bridge Dinner? The dinner itself is one of the most popular annual events in the Capital Region, drawing 800 lucky diners, some of whom entered by lottery, who get to feast on a farm-to-fork dinner with food locally sourced from our surrounding agricultural region.
The chefs were announced this month at Visit Sacramento’s annual Hospitality Lunch, where CEO and President Mike Testa gave an update on the association’s successes in the past year.
Brock Macdonald is the executive chef of Beast + Bounty, LowBrau
Bierhalle and the doughnut shop Milk Money.
The chefs for 2024 are:
- Yekaterina Balagian of Seasons Kitchen & Bar (Davis)
- Cecil Rhodes of Nash & Proper
- Pedro Depina of The 7th Street Standard
- Jamie Rathburn of Ella Dining Room & Bar
- Brock Macdonald of Beast + Bounty
Shawn Kahan, founder of YellowBrickGroup, a Sacramento event production and creative group, said he wasn’t always a supporter of the Tower Bridge, but his opinion changed once he got to interview the chefs who make up this year’s team.
Cecil Rhodes is the chef and co-owner of Nash & Proper, the food
truck that jump-started the hot chicken trend in the Capital
Region.
“I realized it’s not about me being able to attend or anyone else; it’s about honoring our amazing lineage of amazing chefs in Sacramento. It’s about their hard work and dedication to bring us amazing dining experiences.”
The Tower Bridge Dinner began 11 years ago and was one of the first major new events to bring national attention to Sacramento. The Farm-to-Fork Festival that accompanies it is attended by thousands of people each year — 120,000 in 2023, according to Visit Sacramento CEO and President Mike Testa. In the decade since, Visit Sacramento has grown Sacramento’s national image by adding the Aftershock and Golden Sky concerts and Ironman competition, which altogether draw more than 100,000 visitors from around the U.S.
Jamie Rathburn is the chef de cuisine of Ella, a downtown
restaurant owned by the Selland Family restaurant group.
“It’s a fact conventions, food festivals and conferences, music festivals, amateur and professional sporting events and other major events are changing our city,” Testa of Visit Sacramento in his keynote address. “These new hallmarks of Sacramento tourism have influenced and changed the conversation about Sacramento, and that conversation drives real impact. Because when our profile increases, so does the interest, and more importantly, outside investment in our region.
Pedro Depina is the chef de cuisine of The 7th Street Standard, a
restaurant in Sacramento’s Downtown Commons.
The Tower Bridge Dinner also funds a series of scholarships for CAMP (College Assistance Migrant Program) students at Sacramento State who are the children of migrant farmworkers.
Yekaterina Balagian is the chef of Seasons Kitchen & Bar in
Davis, a California-style restaurant with Middle Eastern
influences.
Registration for the random drawing for the chance to purchase two tickets to the 2024 dinner will begin on Monday, July 15, and close on Friday, July 26. Visit farmtofork.com for details on how to enter the random drawing. After that, we await for the chefs to unveil their menu for the dinner on Sunday, Sept. 8.
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