Roth’s Sea & Steak Hosts James Beard Foundation for Celebrating Land & Sea Benefit in Colorado Springs
Venu Holding Corporation (NYSE American: VENU), an owner, operator, and developer of premium live entertainment destinations, has announced the successful conclusion of Celebrating Land & Sea, A Friends of James Beard Benefit®, held October 9 and 10 at Roth’s Sea & Steak in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The two-night event marked a major milestone for the restaurant, delivering the largest culinary gathering in its history and welcoming the prestigious James Beard Foundation® just over a year after the restaurant opened.
The event brought together fine dining, live entertainment, exceptional wines, and culinary storytelling to celebrate the independent restaurant industry and support a more equitable and sustainable food system. Proceeds from the benefit will support Good Food for Good® and the James Beard Foundation’s mission and programs dedicated to strengthening independent restaurants and advancing a thriving food industry.
The James Beard Foundation is a national nonprofit organization known for its work supporting culinary professionals and the restaurant industry, as well as presenting the James Beard Awards®. Through its Friends of James Beard Benefit® series, the organization partners with hosts across the country to raise critical funding for its initiatives.
For Venu Holding Corporation, hosting the foundation at Roth’s Sea & Steak highlighted Colorado Springs’ growing reputation as a destination for distinctive culinary experiences and premium entertainment.
“Colorado Springs has always had the talent and the appetite for this kind of event. It just hasn’t always had the national spotlight,” said JW Roth, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of VENU®. “Having the James Beard Foundation in our house, alongside Chef Ricky, Stewart, and our team, was something special. It told people across the country what we already knew about this city.”
Two Nights of Fine Dining and Live Entertainment
Celebrating Land & Sea was designed as a two-part experience that brought together hospitality, music, and an innovative culinary program. The weekend began Friday, October 9, with Caviar & Cocktails, an exclusive pre-concert gathering at Roth’s Sea & Steak.
Guests enjoyed Champagne, caviar, cocktails, and passed appetizers before being escorted to VIP seating for a live performance at the award-winning Ford Amphitheater. The opening event combined the restaurant’s upscale dining atmosphere with Colorado Springs’ live entertainment offerings, creating an experience that extended beyond a traditional restaurant gathering.
The concert at Ford Amphitheater provided a distinctive setting for the first evening, connecting the culinary program with VENU’s broader focus on premium entertainment destinations. The combination of fine food, beverages, and live music established the tone for the main benefit dinner the following evening.
On Saturday, October 10, guests returned to Roth’s Sea & Steak for the centerpiece of the event: a formal benefit dinner featuring a 10-course tasting menu created by Executive Chef Ricky Biswas.
The evening began with a red-carpet arrival and Champagne reception before guests took their seats for a culinary experience that reflected the chef’s personal journey, influences, and creative direction.
Chef Ricky Biswas Shares His Culinary Story Through a 10-Course Menu
Rather than presenting a collection of unrelated dishes, Chef Biswas developed the tasting menu as a series of chapters inspired by his life and experiences. Each course represented a different part of his story, connecting ingredients, culinary techniques, and personal meaning.
The menu opened with “Where I Come From,” a lobster dish featuring winter curry, coconut, and green mango. The course introduced guests to the flavors and influences that helped shape the chef’s culinary identity.
As the dinner progressed, the dishes explored additional stages of his journey, including the relationship between personal heritage and the environment in which a chef develops a distinctive style.
One of the menu’s defining courses was “The Land That Found Me,” which featured Colorado elk accompanied by beet, black currant, and juniper. The dish reflected a connection to Colorado’s regional ingredients and landscape, reinforcing the event’s central theme of land and sea.
The tasting menu concluded with “Tomorrow,” a dark chocolate and smoked milk creation titled “Two Fires.” The final course brought the dinner’s narrative to a close while looking toward the future, completing a menu built around the chef’s past, present, and aspirations.
Through this approach, the benefit dinner offered guests more than a sequence of carefully prepared dishes. It presented a cohesive culinary narrative that combined personal expression with a sense of place.
“Every course on that menu is a piece of where I’ve been and where I’m going,” said Ricky Biswas, Executive Chef of Roth’s Sea & Steak. “To share that story with this room, with the James Beard Foundation here to see it, is a moment I’ll carry for the rest of my career.”
Carefully Selected Wine Pairings Enhance the Experience
Stewart Prato, General Manager and Wine Director of Roth’s Sea & Steak, developed the wine program specifically to complement Chef Biswas’s 10-course menu. His selections were designed to reflect the flavors, ingredients, and character of each dish, ensuring that the food and beverages worked together as a unified experience.
Coordinating wine pairings across a multi-course dinner requires careful consideration of flavor intensity, texture, acidity, and the progression of the menu. Prato and the restaurant’s service team worked to ensure that each course and its corresponding wine arrived together, allowing guests to experience the intended combination.
The preparation extended beyond choosing appropriate bottles. The front-of-house team spent weeks organizing the service and coordinating the timing of the dinner, helping maintain a smooth progression from the opening course to the final dessert.
“A dinner like this only works when every plate and every glass arrives at the same moment,” said Prato. “I chose each wine to meet Chef Ricky’s courses where they were, and our front-of-house team spent weeks preparing so guests could simply enjoy the night.”
The carefully orchestrated service underscored the importance of collaboration between the kitchen, wine program, and hospitality staff in delivering a high-end dining experience.
James Beard Foundation Recognizes the Event’s Distinctive Approach
The Saturday evening program concluded with remarks from Anouska Biswas, Director of Finance at the James Beard Foundation; JW Roth; Stewart Prato; and Chef Ricky Biswas. The speakers reflected on the event’s culinary achievements and its role in supporting the foundation’s mission.
The evening also featured the premiere of “Two Fires,” an 11-minute documentary exploring Chef Biswas’s culinary story and his work at Roth’s Sea & Steak. The film extended the dinner’s central narrative beyond the menu, giving guests an additional perspective on the experiences and creative influences behind the chef’s cooking.
For the James Beard Foundation, the event demonstrated how culinary talent, hospitality, and entertainment can come together to create a memorable benefit while raising support for independent restaurants and the broader food system.
“Every Friends of James Beard Benefit is special, but Celebrating Land & Sea was truly unique. Pairing an extraordinary tasting menu with live music and the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains created an experience our guests won’t soon forget,” said Anouska Biswas, Director of Finance, James Beard Foundation, who is not related to Chef Biswas.
“Talent and vision were on full display, and it has been a privilege to work alongside Chef Ricky and the entire Roth’s team to support the Foundation’s mission.”
Her remarks highlighted the collaborative nature of the event and the role of distinctive regional venues in supporting the foundation’s work.
Supporting Independent Restaurants and a Sustainable Food System
Celebrating Land & Sea, A Friends of James Beard Benefit®, forms part of a broader series of events hosted by partners outside the James Beard Foundation. These gatherings help raise essential funding for the foundation’s programs, which support the independent restaurant industry and contribute to a more equitable, sustainable, and thriving food system.
Independent restaurants play an important role in local economies, culinary innovation, and community identity. Events that bring chefs, hospitality professionals, suppliers, and diners together can help increase awareness of the challenges and opportunities facing the sector while providing financial support for industry initiatives.
By hosting the benefit, Roth’s Sea & Steak connected its premium dining experience with a larger purpose. The event showcased the capabilities of its culinary and hospitality teams while supporting an organization focused on advancing the restaurant industry.
The gathering also demonstrated the potential for culinary events to complement live entertainment destinations. By combining a concert, a Champagne and caviar reception, a multi-course tasting menu, and a documentary premiere, the two-night program created several opportunities for guests to engage with food, music, and storytelling.
Industry Partners Help Bring the Benefit to Life
The event was made possible through the support of numerous foodservice, beverage, wine, and hospitality partners. Participating organizations included Performance Foodservice (PFS), S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, Black River Caviar, What Chefs Want, CS Wines, Natural Wine Co., The Sorting Table, Johnson Brothers Maverick Colorado, Kermit Lynch, Empire Distributors, Vocal Vineyards, Grapejuice Group, and Breakthru Beverage Colorado.
Their involvement supported the ingredients, beverages, and service elements that contributed to the overall dining experience.
The successful benefit represented a significant achievement for Roth’s Sea & Steak, which welcomed the James Beard Foundation shortly after its first anniversary. It also provided a national platform for Colorado Springs’ culinary talent and demonstrated how collaboration among restaurants, entertainment venues, suppliers, and nonprofit organizations can support a shared industry mission.
For Venu Holding Corporation, Celebrating Land & Sea underscored the value of bringing exceptional dining and live entertainment together in a destination designed to deliver distinctive guest experiences. Through the event, Roth’s Sea & Steak celebrated culinary creativity while helping advance the James Beard Foundation’s efforts to build a stronger and more sustainable future for independent restaurants and the broader food system.
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