Guy Fieri hosting Sonoma County fundraiser to support 'Top Chef’ star Shirley Chung’s battle with cancer

Food Network star Guy Fieri is inviting a dozen famous chefs to Santa Rosa next month for what he calls a “once-in-a-lifetime culinary experience” to benefit a former “Top Chef” contestant battling cancer.

Fieri, a longtime Sonoma County resident, announced the fundraiser to benefit chef Shirley Chung Monday on social media.

In addition to premium wine and food, the Sept. 14 event will include silent and live auctions and culinary demonstrations from chefs like Stephanie Izard, Crista Luedtke (owner of Guerneville restaurant Road Trip), Antonia Lofaso, Maneet Chauhan and Jet Tila, who have all appeared on Fieri’s locally made game show, “Guy’s Grocery Games.”

“Great chefs and friends will be coming together in wine country to create an evening that no one will ever forget,” Fieri wrote in the post.

Tickets cost $2,500-$4,500.

Chung, who competed on seasons 11 and 14 of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” announced on social media on July 26 that she had been diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer in May.

That same day, she announced in a separate social media post that her Culver City restaurant Ms Chi Cafe would close Aug. 4 while she receives radiation and chemotherapy treatments at the University of Chicago’s cancer center.

Money raised at the Sept. 14 benefit will help pay for Chung’s medical bills, according to the website set up for the event, chefsforshirley.com.

The $4,500 platinum ticket includes a pre-event party at The Matheson Restaurant Rooftop in Healdsburg that includes appetizers and wine, as well as transportation to the private estate where the main event takes place from 4-8 p.m., the website said.

On Monday’s social media post announcing the fundraiser, Fieri said “the amount of surprise chefs showing up should be pretty epic! Omg!!”

In 2022, Fieri held a similar benefit in Sonoma County for another former “Top Chef” contestant, Minnesota-based chef Justin Sutherland, who was injured in a boating accident.

For more information, go to pdne.ws/46XTaSB.