Besides being born 'n raised in the Garden State, I didn't think I had a thing in common with Alice Waters (look at my spare pantry, watch me burn toast), but it turns out the humble lady received my dream birthday gift: a photography shoot with maximalist photographer Todd Selby, aka The Selby. The jetsetting New York-based shutterbug writes, "Chez Panisse turned 40 this year, and to mark this anniversary they organized a series of dinners around the bay area. The dinners helped raise money for the Edible Schoolyard. I stopped by the edible schoolyard in Berkeley and then went to 14 of the dinners to cover the event for T Magazine." Lucky guy.

Naturally, several of the baker's dozen or so dinners took place in Berkeley, where Chez Panisse is located, but a few were also thrown right here in San Francisco. At his studio in SoMA, chef and blacksmith Angelo Garro served wild boar (roasted on site) and fusilli with peas and pecorino, with the help of Melissa Fernandez, an alumna of the storied restaurant. And over in Pacific Heights, Bill He, of Milpitas's South Legend Sichuan (1720 N Milpitas Blvd., 415-934-3970), joined Cecilia Chiang, founder of the famed (and shuttered) restaurant Mandarin, to serve a Chinese banquet for guests including food writer Ruth Reichl.

There has, of course, been a lot of buzz about some of these events, but the perspective of Selby's lens is always a welcome one. If anything, scanning through all of his photos is making me hungry — too bad I don't have an edible garden in my San Francisco apartment to forage through. Check out The Selby's stellar photographs from the feasts; there are dozens to instill envy in you. And read up at T Magazine to hear about what you missed, unless you're in the in-crowd (Jake Gyllenhaal, you reading this?), in which case, report back!