2 famed Cleveland chefs team up for special benefit dinner

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Jacques Pépin birthday dinner tour is continuing, and two known Cleveland chefs are teaming to celebrate the famed French chef.

Cordelia chef-partner Vinnie Cimino and Michael Symon will hold a dinner at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23. The dinner is sold out, but you can register to be notified if spots open. Cordelia, which opened in 2022, is in the former location of Lola Bistro, which Symon ran.

Restaurants across the country are celebrating the famed French chef, who will turn 90 on Dec. 18. The dinners benefit The Jacques Pépin Foundation. The foundation supports community-based kitchens that offer culinary training to adults with high barriers to employment, including those affected by the justice system, homelessness or addiction.

Pépin’s career extends beyond the kitchen. He is a chef as well as an author, teacher, television personality and artist.

The night at Cordelia will start with a Champagne toast upon arrival. All proceeds from the four-course dinner benefit the foundation.

The Cimino-Symon dinner is not the first for Pépin in Cleveland. In January, Brandon Chrostowski of Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute hosted a dinner, guiding a wine-paired five-course affair in the chef’s honor. Then, in July, Chrostowski was asked to cook for a private dinner of 24 people in New York in Pépin’s honor.