Social Circuit

It was a master chef smackdown at the Loews Hotel Philadelphia last Tuesday when four teams with four Loews Hotel chefs duked it out in front of 300 foodies for top culinary honors and for charity. Each of the four teams, led by captains Barbara Albert, Ronna Hall, Dee Page and Claire Rose, were given 45 minutes to whip up a tasty dish using a convection oven and the same fish and beef ingredients. The winning whisk went to the Killer Chefs, aided by Loews chef Tom Harkins, for their Moroccan surf and turf concoction - dates and kumquat relish over salmon and sauteed chanterelles and cipollini onions over beef tenderloin - with roasted fingerling potatoes garnished with black olives and Vermont goat cheese. Rumble in the Kitchen raised $100,000 to be evenly split after expenses between Project H.O.M.E., Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and MANNA.

A sure sign of spring (usually) are the several antiques shows held around the city in mid-April. The 46th annual Philadelphia Antiques Show, held Saturday through today at the 33d Street Armory, got into full swing Friday night at the Preview Gala. The gala's 1,350 party-goers enjoyed cocktails, dinner and serious browsing among the 56 high-end antiques dealers and galleries that are offering everything from 18th-century furniture to folk art. Since 1962, the Philadelphia Antiques Show has raised nearly $15 million for patient care at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Proceeds from the 2007 show will benefit the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care. The amount will be announced in the fall.

There's no place like home - especially for the 20,000 children who have been adopted through the National Adoption Center since its founding in 1972. The center, which held its annual gala Thursday night at the Crystal Tea Room, honored Philadelphia Media Holdings CEO Brian Tierney and The Inquirer for publishing the paper's weekly column, "Monday's Child." The column, which has run for 30 years, has featured more than 1,600 children hoping to be adopted - 1,350 of whom have found families. The gala, which drew 400 guests, raised more than $350,000 for the center.

The Opera Company of Philadelphia pulled out all the stops at its second annual gala Saturday night at the Four Seasons Hotel. Evantine Design turned the ballroom into a cabaret where the 250 guests enjoyed gourmet grazing from the comfort of cozy couches, dancing to the 12-piece Eddie Bruce Band, and bidding on such high-end auction items as a week in Brittany at a chateau that sleeps 16, which went for $10,000. Taking to the stage before dinner were opera singers Meredith Arwady, Evelyn Pollock and Matthew Rose, who serenaded the gala's honorees, Drexel University president Taki Papadakis and his wife, Eliana. Rose toasted the couple with a solo rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening." The gala, cochaired by Ellen Berman Lee and Georgette Ciukurescu, raised more than $220,000 for its opera productions.

It was an all-star lineup at the Settlement Music School's 99th Anniversary Gala Saturday night at the Loews Hotel Philadelphia. Opera stars Wilhelmenia Fernandez and Florence Quivar, musician Michael Bacon, author Lorene Cary, jazz saxophonist Andy Snitzer, documentary filmmaker Louis Massiah, and philanthropist Carole Gravagno, and Peter Benoliel, chair emeritus of the school's central board, were among 20 of the 40 honorees who attended the black-tie benefit. Chaired by Peg and Ralph Wellington, the gala drew 560 guests and raised more than $345,000 to support the school's financial aid program. The school, which has six branches in Philadelphia and Camden, provides on-site and outreach music programs for 1,500 students per year.