Culinary fundraiser Mama's Day returns with dine-at-home event

Host Sam "The Cooking Guy" Zien and Mama's Kitchen CEO Alberto Cortés at the 2018 Mama's Day event.

April 30, 2021 6 AM PT

After taking 2020 off due to the pandemic, the popular culinary fundraiser Mama’s Day will return on May 7 in its first dine-at-home event.

Now in its 30th year, Mama’s Day raises money each spring for Mama’s Kitchen, a San Diego nonprofit that provides free home-delivered meals to vulnerable people suffering from hunger, HIV, cancer and other critical illnesses.

Instead of the usual gourmet tastings event with dozens of local restaurant chefs at a hotel, Mama’s Day this year will be a catered affair.

Ticket-buyers paying $150 to $250 per ticket will receive a home-delivered multicourse dinner catered by Hyatt Regency La Jolla at The Aventine and a party box.

They’ll also receive access to live streaming entertainment featuring perennial host Sam “The Cooking Guy” Zien and a performance by “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winner Chad Michaels.

The goal is to raise $85,000, which will fund 17,000 client meals. For details, visit mamaskitchen.org.

Pam Kragen

Pam Kragen is a feature writer and critic who specializes in writing dining, theater, opera and human interest stories. She joined The San Diego Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the president and co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in New London, Conn.

Culinary fundraiser Mama’s Day returns with dine-at-home event

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