by contributor Tamara Buchwald
Photo credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty
It’s Thursday night at The Anthem and the crowd is roaring. Spotlights slice through the smoky air. A booming voice echoes over the speakers: “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… WELCOME TO THE TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL… CAAAAPITAAAL FOOOOOOD FIGHT!”
The arena erupts. Cameras flash. Champagne glasses clink like steel chairs. This isn’t your typical D.C. charity gala — this is culinary combat, part gourmet showcase, part WWF showdown, and all in the name of a cause that matters: supporting DC Central Kitchen’s mission to fight hunger and create opportunity through food.
There are no tuxedos or polite applause —this is an event, a showdown! There is a sea of food lovers moving from station to station tasting signature bites from 70 plus top DC restaurants. From Pastis to Rocklands and everything in between, it was pure joy for foodies to sample a vast array of delicious bites including salads, mini main courses, soups, desserts including ice cream sandwiches from the Captain Cookie and the Milkman. Not only was there an abundance of food, there was an open bar, samples of delicious cappuccino martinis and a fun arcade with pinball and Pac man courtesy of Continues Arcade.
Matthew Price and Suresh Sundas, each wielding sharp knives step into the culinary ring. The lights drop. The music hits. And one by one, they make their entrances like wrestling superstars. Behind them, a Jumbotron blazes with fire graphics and their culinary stats — Michelin mentions, signature moves and favorite secret ingredients.
(L-R) Ryan Zimmerman, Rocco DiSpirito, Roy Yamaguchi and Eric Adjepong
When the dust (and smoke) settles, the panel steps up: Roy Yamaguchi, Amanda Freitag, Eric Adjepong, and Rocco DiSpirito — culinary titans turned color commentators — score the dishes on flavor, creativity, and showmanship. Tommy McFly plays the hypeman, stirring the crowd between rounds. Every time a chef scores high, lights flash, music blasts, and the audience whoops like a wrestler has gone down. And the winner is……..Julia Cortes!
(L-R) Julie Cortes and Mike Curtin
And through it all, the mission of DC Central Kitchen to combat hunger and poverty through job training and job creation stays center ring: every cheer, every bite, every dollar raised powers DC Central Kitchen’s work across the city.
Mike Curtin
DC Central Kitchen was founded in 1989 by Robert Egger, originally a nightclub manager, who grew frustrated with traditional volunteer/charity responses to hunger and homelessness. Mike Curtin Jr., the current CEO of DC Central Kitchen, said “My job is the absolutely best in the world because I get to stand up here and talk to people like you representing the tireless work of my 319 colleagues at DC Central Kitchen.” Egger’s idea was to collect surplus/unused food, turn it into balanced meals for shelters and nonprofits, and simultaneously train jobless adults in culinary arts. In 1992, DC Central Kitchen moved into a 10,000 sq ft commercial kitchen space in the basement of a homeless shelter to scale operations (meals went from ~400 to ~2,000/day) per earlier history. Most recently (2023), DC Central Kitchen moved into its new headquarters at the Michael R. Klein Center for Jobs and Justice in Southwest DC, establishing a larger facility and urban food hub. As of 2024, the organization celebrated serving over 50 million meals since its founding. The exceptional part of DC Central Kitchen is that The organization is a social enterprise rather than only a charity: It runs revenuegenerating ventures (e.g., catering, cafes) which provide livingwage jobs and hire from its training graduates. The best part of the evening is that 100% of the revenue from this event goes to DC Central Kitchen. This would not be possible without the exceptional generosity of the wonderful DC community!
