Play for Life International (PFLI) would like to invite you to participate in our largest fundraiser of the year, the Fourth Annual Season Opener: The Best of the Ball Park, on Friday, April 1, 2011. We are looking for four of Chicago’s hottest chefs to face-off in the Best of the Ball Park cooking contest, creating their own twist on ball park fare. Guests will be able to sample each chef’s creation, and, at the end of the night, one chef will be crowned The Best of the Ball Park.  But the real winners will be PFLI and the children it serves.  With your help, we will raise money to help support our programs all year long.

How it works: PFLI will provide a $500 budget for each chef to prepare ball park style food for 300 guests. Special guests (TBA) and children from our programs will serve as contest judges.  We will provide all materials needed for food preparation.

Why participate? You will be helping children who sincerely need fair chance at life. PFLI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses sports to engage and empower at-risk youth. For us, it’s not just about winning, it’s about empowerment: the power to live a positive life, the power to treat others with respect, and the power to make responsible choices. Every day, we’re reminding these kids that they’re not victims of circumstances – they’re contenders.

Participating chefs will receive recognition in all event printed materials, press releases, and the event website, reaching tens of thousands in Chicago and nationwide.

Interested in participating? info@playforlife.org

The Southern’s Executive Chef Cary Taylor already knows the way around the kitchen of the former Chaise Lounge, where he cooked for two years after holding cooking and management positions in some of Chicago’s finest restaurants.

Upon graduating from college, Taylor began his culinary resume working as a prep cook at Trotter’s To Go under the tutelage of Chef Graham Elliot Bowles while completing culinary classes at The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago. Taylor completed his studies with a three-month stint at Charlie Trotter’s eponymous restaurant in Lincoln Park. Following his internship, he traveled to San Sebastian, Spain, where he worked at three-star Michelin legends Restaurante Arzak and Restaurante Martin Beresategui.

Upon his return to Chicago, Taylor joined the line at Blackbird, studying under renowned Chef Paul Kahan. Taylor’s next move was to Avenues in the Peninsula Hotel, where he rejoined with Bowles, now a Food & Wine Best New Chef.

Prior to Chaise Lounge, Taylor worked under Chef Christian Eckmann at Chicago’s legendary Ambria, creating seasonal Basque-inspired food. When Ambria closed its doors after 27 years, Taylor began looking for an outlet for his own culinary vision. He found that place at Chaise Lounge in a rising culinary neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. When Chaise morphed into The Southern, Taylor’s creative American fare took on a hearty Southern character, allowing him to “create the food that I always wanted to make: reminiscent of my Georgia roots, exuding comfort and tradition while still being unique,” he says.

Executive Chef Sean Cunneen is a Chicago native and has been a Chef for 14 years. Café Too is the job training arm of Inspiration Corporation’s Café Too Restaurant program. Open to the public, Café Too provides a contemporary restaurant experience while teaching homeless and ex-offenders the skills they need to handle the pressures of working in the food service industry. Chef Sean comes from a family of social workers and spent many holidays of his youth handing out plates and washing dishes at local churches and soup kitchens. Chef Sean’s passion for food and cooking comes from his family and a love of building. He prides himself on his authentic use of cooking styles and flavors. With a global vision of cuisine, he translates menus into common themes and elements that are easy and simple for cooks getting their first taste of cuisine, yet complex and varied in presentation to suit a knowledgeable clientele. A graduate of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, Chef Sean cut his teeth in traditional French cuisine, working at Lebouchon and Vong. He was Sous Chef of Rita’s catering (now Limelight) and Head Chef of Rawah Ranch in Colorado before Becoming Executive Chef of Café Too. He is married to Elizabeth Cunneen and is the father of 2 girls, Evelyn and Abigail. In his spare time, Chef Sean is a sourdough bread baker, avid astronomer and award winning telescope builder.

Grand Slam Sponsor: $5,000

• Recognition as Grand Slam Sponsor on event website and invitation
• Private table for you and your guests at The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park
• Ten tickets to The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park
• Ten Raffle Tickets

Homerun Sponsor: $2,500

• Recognition as Homerun Sponsor on event website and invitation
• Six tickets to The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park
• Five Raffle Tickets

Triple Sponsor: $1,000

• Recognition as Triple Sponsor on event website and invitation
• Four tickets to The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park
• Five Raffle Tickets

Double Sponsor: $500 donation

• Recognition as Double Sponsor on event website and invitation
• One ticket to The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park
• One Raffle Ticket

Single Sponsor: $100 donation

• Recognition as Single Sponsor on event website and invitation
• One ticket to The Season Opener: Best of the Ball Park

• Brand prominence in pre-fundraising communications including press releases and emails
• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide
• Establishment of two summer sports scholarships in company’s name for two years
• Prominent signage at event
• Acknowledgement on Play for Life’s home page for one year with link to website
• Invitations for twenty individuals from your firm/organization to the event

Our sponsors at the Class AAA-level ($5,000) are entitled to:

• Brand prominence in pre-fundraising communications including press releases and emails
• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide
• Acknowledgement on Play for Life’s home page for one year with link to website
• Establishment of one summer sports scholarship in company’s name for two years
• Invitations for fifteen individuals from your firm/organization to the event

Our sponsors at the Class AA-level  ($2,500) are entitled to:

• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide
• Acknowledgement on Play for Life’s home page for one year with link to website
• Invitations for ten individuals from your firm/organization to the event

Our sponsors at the Class A-level  ($1,000) are entitled to:

• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide
• Acknowledgement on Play for Life’s home page for six months with link to website
• Invitations for five individuals from your firm/organization to the event

Our sponsors at the Rookie League-level ($500) are entitled to:

• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide
• Invitations for two individuals from your firm/organization to the event

Our Friends of Play for Life International-level ($100) are entitled to:

• Brand prominence in all printed materials including program guide

When you meet Chef Paul Virant, you first notice his intensity and focus, complemented by his genuine warmth and geniality. Learning more about his background, it becomes quickly evident that this dynamic young chef is living and sharing his life’s passion every time he steps into the kitchen.

Food has played an integral role in shaping Virant. His earliest childhood memories are dominated by family traditions such as baking pies and sourdough bread interspersed with weekly visits to the local smokehouse and farmers market. Virant has always been driven by his natural curiosity for food, cooking and the outdoors. As a young boy growing up in Missouri, he foraged for mushrooms with his siblings, preserved fruits and pickled vegetables with his grandmothers and visited local wineries with his parents. All of this instilled a deep-rooted respect for seasonality and tradition, ultimately shaping him as a chef.

After graduating from Wesleyan College with a degree in Nutrition and working in several local kitchens, Virant enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America. While pursuing his culinary degree, he was drawn to the Cascade Mountain Winery where he first put his wine knowledge to the test in the vineyards and then honed his culinary skills in the kitchen. Culinary degree in hand, Virant left the Hudson Valley and moved to Manhattan where he worked under Wayne Nish and Hilary Gregg at March. Two years later, Virant returned to the heartland to work at Charlie Trotter’s and later Ambria. After a brief stint in Honolulu opening Padovani’s Bistro and Wine Bar, Virant made his final return to Chicago. There, he joined the culinary team at Everest, followed by the top toque position at Outpost. Before opening Vie, Virant worked at Blackbird. Virant’s cuisine reflects the seasons, local harvests and the world becoming a smaller place. The menu supports local family farms while at the same time, it takes advantage of the increased availability of specialty foods from across the globe. Best described as Seasonal Contemporary American cuisine, the menu is strongly influenced by Western European cultures and rustic fare.

Virant’s ultimate mission is to use high-quality, fresh ingredients for every component on the plate. Vie, appropriately named after the French word for life, reflects many of the personal beliefs and experiences that Chef/Owner Paul Virant has collected throughout his life’s journey. Fulfilling a life-long dream to own his own restaurant, Virant looks at Vie as an expression of himself and his passion: “I wanted to create an extension of my home, where people can come and enjoy good food and drink in the company of people whom they care about. My goal is to help them enjoy every morsel and drop of life.”

• Awarded Three Stars by Phil Vettel, Chicago Tribune
• Named Best New Chef by Chicago Magazine
• Named Rising Star Chef by Restaurant Hospitality Magazine
• Named Rising Star Chef by StarChefs.com
• Named Jean Banchet Rising Star Chef
• The Go List: Hottest Restaurants in the World, Food & Wine Magazine
• Staff Pick, Gourmet Magazine
• “Heating Up The City”, Travel + Leisure Magazine
• Best Restaurant Dishes of 2006, Food & Wine Magazine
• Best New Chef 2007, Food & Wine Magazine
• Rising Star Chef 2007, Chicago Social ‘CS’ Magazine

Executive Chef Troy Graves opened Tallulah in spring 2008 in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago to rave reviews from guests, food writers, and industry tastemakers. It prompted Graves and his team to open Eve.

Graves began his career from an unlikely path: He served in the Gulf War. A son of the American Midwest, Iowan Chef Graves learned to take pride in doing a job with efficiency, exactness and, most importantly, pride. After the Gulf, Graves earned a different set of stripes cooking under the tutelage of Kent Buell at his restaurants in New Buffalo and Kalamazoo, Michigan. Kent’s was a special place and Buell had a special way with food. “Simple food,” Buell would say. Graves adapted that theory to his own cooking.

He has worked in Chicago restaurants for the better part of the last 15 years, mostly at Meritage Café and Wine Bar, where he was Executive Chef for four years, and Sous Chef for several years before that. Meritage spawned several offshoots during Graves’s time there, including Echo and Fixture, with Graves spending time as consulting chef at both whenever possible. Graves continues to woo his diners with his refined, simple, yet powerful contemporary cuisine.