IN THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON

AREA CHEFS COOK FOR THE HUNGRY

A grand Christmas Eve banquet is in the offing, catered by more than 60 of Washington's leading restaurateurs.

The food will be sumptuous, the buffet tables set with sliced hams and turkeys, sweet potato casseroles, greens, cranberry sauce and cornbread. The planned party spot is the Great Hall in the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, the time 5 p.m. And the guest list will be 1,500 of Washington's homeless.

This first-of-its-kind evening has been the brainchild of Denise Hengst, wife of Ype Hengst, corporate executive chef of the American Cafe. Denise Hengst has had a gnawing desire to help, to catch the "many people falling through the cracks."

Restaurateurs, whose livelihoods are spent providing food -- albeit to the more fortunate -- seemed a logical support group. "It's one thing to put a beautiful plate together," said Ype Hengst. "But I think we {chefs} have a bigger responsibility than that."

The idea for a restaurant-provided banquet gained momentum after Carol Fennelly and Mitch Synder of the Community for Creative Non-Violence and Dominque D'Ermo, owner of Dominique's, were contacted. Philip Carr, senior vice president of the Oliver T. Carr company and president of Occidental Restaurant Inc., who had also been contemplating organizing a collective of restaurateurs to help the homeless, jumped on board.

A committee was organized, including Hengst, Carr and D'Ermo, plus Suzanne Reifers, owner of Suzanne's restaurant, and Paolina Blanc, formerly of Chez Grandmere. A mass mailing was sent to area restaurateurs, follow-up calls were made and the event started snowballing.

What's been promised includes 100 pounds of short ribs from J.T. Ribbs, sweet potato casserole to serve 1,500 from Helen's, a case of 30 chickens from Marrakesh, 55 gallons of pigeon peas and 40 pounds of curry chicken from The Islander, brioche from Le Pavillon.

And turkeys. Twenty from the Hyatt Regency, six from the Vista, four from the Caspian Tea Room, two from the Mayflower, one from Cafe Berlin.

Not all the gifts are in the form of food. Several restaurateurs -- including Tony Greco, owner of Maison Blanche, and his family -- are donating their time to help serve the dinner.

Several restaurants have donated generous amounts of money, too, to be used toward purchasing a gift for the CCNV -- a badly needed van to transport food to homeless shelters. The Occidental, Mr. K's, the Lunch Box and the former owners of Chez Grandmere are among those who are donating $500 each. Dominque's has given $1,000.

Petitto's restaurant took a clever approach to fundraising by holding three "Sing For Your Supper" nights (one of the evenings' proceeds will go to St. Anne's orphanage) during which about 15 carolers sang Christmas tunes outside the restaurant. Shannon served the carolers a free dinner and the three nights garnered $515.20 in donations, an amount that the restaurant plans to match.

Not all the gifts will be from restaurateurs. L&M produce wholesalers, for instance, is providing 750 pounds of collard greens, Ehrlich Poultry wholesalers is donating 500 pounds of chicken leg quarters and Les Dames d'Escoffier, the professional women's culinary society, is donating cookies.

In addition, the Stott Paper Company is providing the paper goods, the Kennedy Center is providing the banquet tables and linens, chairs will be delivered by the fire department from the D.C. Armory, and the American Textile Co., has agreed to donate 1,500 pairs of tube socks.

It's one job mobilizing the restaurateurs to give food. It's another getting all the food from so many different places, cooking it and transporting it to one banquet hall.

The huge task begins tomorrow, when Denise Hengst will use a truck to gather the donations of raw food -- the chickens, greens, turkeys, etc. Cooked food will be transported by restaurateurs themselves on the evening of the 24th.

From there, the food will be taken to the American Cafe's central kitchen headquarters in Brentwood, Md., where Ype Hengst and about a dozen volunteers, including the sous chefs from Helen's and Cafe Berlin, will spend the next two evenings cooking.

Unlike other affairs, for which the menu is planned and the food ordered from purveyors, this event will work the other way around, said Ype Hengst. The menu was planned after it was determined what food would be available.

Fennelly initially feared that the food prepared by restaurant chefs would be too fancy, but after meetings with Hengst, the menu featuring turkey, greens, cornbread and barbecued chicken was agreed upon.

"People will love it, I know it," said Fennelly, of the "down-home" menu.

Although the banquet is a one-night event, Carr wants to make it an annual one, along with raising money and presenting a needed gift to another shelter. However, both he and Denise Hengst hope to get area restaurateurs more involved in helping to feed the homeless year-round. There are restaurants which contribute to charity during the year on a one-on-one basis, but no collective network exists, according to Carr.

"Every restaurant of any decent size has leftovers," said Ype Hengst. Hengst contends that many chefs don't realize how much they throw out -- the day-old bread, the lettuce that may look unacceptable for restaurant diners but is perfectly fine to eat.

"We {restaurateurs} throw too much food out," agreed Addie Green, owner of The Islander restaurant. Green, who said that she sometimes leaves leftover food in Styrofoam containers outside her apartment building, would "love" to be able to donate it on a regular basis.

Shannon of Petitto's agrees that there could be more creativity expended on the part of restaurateurs to think up uses for trimmed or leftover foods. For instance, Shannon said her restaurant uses about 200 pounds of potatoes a week and throws away all the skins. Although she "feels funny" about offering potato skins, they could possibly be fried like french fries, she said.

Caterers seem to be better equipped to donate larger amounts of food than restaurants, said Fennelly of CCNV, adding that Ridgewell's has frequently given the group "leftover party stuff."

In fact, fresh food donations to homeless shelters from caterers, restaurants and corporate cafeterias appears to be a growing national trend, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. In New York, for instance, Wall Street corporations such as Chase Manhattan, American Express and Merrill Lynch have become regular contributors of leftover food, according to the article.

Dominque D'Ermo waxes philosophical about the homeless situation: "In America, where billions and billions of dollars are made, we shouldn't have people dying in the streets because they are hungry," he said.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.