“This can’t be real”—that was the knee-jerk reaction of Matt Lambert, chef/owner of The Musket Room in New York City, when he heard of the Christchurch mosque shootings this past March, the deadliest mass shootings in modern New Zealand history.
“You become a little distant because it seems so frequent globally,” he continues. “But if you’re a New Zealander, it’s just an unbelievable thing to have happened. You very rarely see a gun unless you endeavor to. To have gun violence to the scale of that attack is really heavy.”
On Tuesday, May 14, the New Zealand native is hosting a six-course dinner at his Nolita restaurant benefitting the victims, with 100% of the proceeds going towards the Christchurch Shooting Victims’ Fund.
Dishes include Ora king salmon with apples and horseradish yogurt; New Zealand beef Wellington; a caviar tart with egg yolk and onions; and a dark chocolate namelaka with banana and rum for dessert. All food and beverages were donated by friends of The Musket Room, including Fulton Fish Market, Regalis, D’Artagnan, Valrhona, Deutsch Family and Supernatural Wine Co., among others. “Everyone jumped in,” he says. “It was a group effort.”
“It’s more about helping people that were put in the [worst possible] situation they could have ever have been put in,” he adds. “Most of these people were refugees who came to our country to escape this [stuff]. I want to make it more about helping people that need help than anything else.”
Reserve your seat for the fundraising dinner by calling 212-219-0765, emailing reservations@musketroom.com or via the restaurant's website.
