Tom Colicchio Chef's Roast A Well Done Benefit For Chef Action Network & Food Policy Action Group

UNION MARKET-- The (chef's) tables were turned on Monday night for the second annual Chef's Roast at Union Market, with famed chef/restaurateur Tom Colicchio the one on the chopping block for a change.

MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner, the benefit's emcee, was joined by Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi and chefs Richard Blais and Kerry Heffernan in playfully skewering the owner of Craft Restaurants (think Colicchio & Sons, craft, craftbar, craftsteak, and withcraft).

The beneficiary of the evening was the Chef Action Network, an organization dedicated to building the next generation of chefs advocating for good food policies, and Food Policy Action, a group cofounded by Colicchio that seeks to change the national dialogue on food policy by educating the public on how elected officials are voting on a full range of food policy issues.

The some 400 guests to yesterday's culinary celebration were greeted at the door by the musical stylings of the Bumper Jacksons and then subsequently treated to a reception and dinner catered by some of the District's best chefs and mixologists, including Spike Mendelsohn, Erik Bruner-Yang, Robb Duncan, Lee Anne Wong, and Gina Chersevani.

The 2015 Chef's Roast also honored Senator Patrick Leahy and Senator Thad Cochran for their leadership on childhood nutrition. Joining them at the event in a show of support were several of their colleagues in Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Tim Ryan.

Colicchio and 30 other chefs, representing 34 different states, will head to Capitol Hill today to meet with lawmakers about the Child Nutrition Act that is currently under consideration by Congress. Still hundreds of additional chefs will participate in the day of advocacy via social media, using the hashtags #realschoollunch, #saveschoollunch, #chefslead, and #votefood.

No doubt heads will roll (and stomachs will growl) soon after.