Every once in a while on this forum we discuss tasting menu dinners. Some people like them, some don't. My DH and I are in the "maybe" category: when it's a chef we like or are really interested in, it's okay; but we don't applaud them automatically (having experienced a couple of pretentious flops).

Every year for the last seven years, Christopher Kostow of Meadowood Restaurant in St. Helena/Napa County invites a roster of guest chefs who prepare a tasting menu dinner for one of his 12 Days dinners in mid-December.

Meadowood Resort has two on-site restaurants, The Grill (casual, if you can treat a $100/pp dinner as casual) and The Restaurant. Both are in the same building but have separate kitchens since an extensive recent remodel. The Restaurant is one of two Michelin 3-star restaurants in California (French Laundry being the other).

Kostow mixes local and international chefs, and except for himself (he prepares the 12th night dinner) there are never any repeat invites. He says, "We always look forward to working with and learning from them, in the benefit of a good cause for our community."

As is tradition with the 12 Days series, there's a bit of a charity component: Meadowood will donate $2,000 in honor of each participating chef, plus 20 percent of every dinner ticket, to be split between two local charities: The Holly Cranston Memorial Fund and the Napa Emergency Women's Services.

Tickets start at $395 per person for dinner (plus tax and gratuity); the chef's counter is $750 per person. An overnight package costs $1375 for weekday dinners and $1450 for weekend dinners (plus tax and gratuity); that pricetag is for a single night's dinner for two, one night's lodging at Meadowood, and a copy of Kostow's upcoming book, "A New Napa Cuisine."

The 2014 line-up of chefs came out 7/15 and is already mostly on waiting-list status. This Dec 2014 event will include Grant Achatz of Chicago; Blaine Wetzel of The Willows Inn, Lummi Island, WA; Corey Lee of Benu in SF (Michelin 2-stars), and Alexandre Gauthier of La Grenouillere/France.

After each yearly event, our local paper details each night's dinner with a slideshow. I'd forgotten they do this, but ran across the page with the links to the 12 different dinners, showing the various tasting menus. Here's the link from Dec 2013, and I'll try to remember to post the 2014 page when it comes out around Christmas.

Here is a link that might be useful: 2013: 12 slideshows for the 12 Days of Christmas, last year's event