Meet Nate Griffin, Nobu's Chi Fan for Charity Host

Celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, Chi Fan for Charity is the Beijing-bred annual charity event that brings diners and restaurants together for an evening of altruistic eating. This year, the bash takes place across town on November 2, with dinners offered by more than 50 of Beijing’s top restaurants. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to two selected charities.

At every participating restaurant, each table of ten is hosted by one engaging member of the community. This year, Nate Griffin and his wife Shelly will be hosting the table at Nobu. Read on for why they chose Nobu and Mr. Griffin's tip on where to get foie gras paired with an espresso martini.

Want to snag a table with the Griffins? Tickets (RMB 500-1,000, varies by venue) for Chi Fan for Charity are available for purchase here. (The Beijinger’s Dining Editor Cat Nelson will host the magazine’s table at The CUT at the Fairmont Beijing Hotel. Managing Editor Steven Schwankert will host a separate table at Café Sambal.)

Would you please introduce yourself in a few sentences?
For most of the last decade, I've been a creative producer for both film and live environments. To be honest, sometimes I have trouble describing what exactly it is that I do because my job description changes so dramatically from project to project.

I do know that recently I found myself in the very interesting predicament of trying to build detailed computer models of an environment for a movie premier amid frequent bouts of chills and rolling sweats due to malaria. I had just returned from producing a documentary in the jungles of Papua New Guinea.

I'm currently launching a film and television development brand called Vigilante Productions. And for the last several years, I've been the executive producer for Grateful Inconvenience Inc. I firmly believe that you just never know unless you try!

Why did you choose to host a Chi Fan for Charity table and why Nobu?
Michael and Joanna Crain (co-founders of the event) are good friends of my wife's and mine, so that is motivation enough for us to be involved. However, I personally believe each one of us has a responsibility to give from the things that we have been blessed with. Having grown up in a very poor country in Africa, I often got to see first hand how even a simple act of charity can make all the difference in the world to a person in need. How much more amazing is it that with Chi Fan we have the opportunity both to have an amazing night out with new and old friends and also to directly benefit real people with real needs?

I am often in LA and New York and, for me, Nobu is an industry staple when it comes both to making deals or just kicking back with colleagues after a long day on set. I have so many great memories of too-late evenings at Nobu, waxing philosophical or scheming about the next big adventure! Of course, the center piece to all of these get-togethers has been "a couple more than a few" lychee martinis ... shaken, not stirred!

What are you looking forward to most about the evening?
There is a unique energy that happens when a group of people who come from all walks of life get together for a common purpose. I love drawing from that energy. It's refreshing! Also, the martinis ... shaken, not stirred.

What’s your dream table of diners? Who would be the best company?
That's a hard question to answer because I feel like in the normal course of my work I'm constantly getting to meet and interact wtih truly extraordinary people. I don't know that I have a specific list of people that would make this evening ideal.

For me, it would be more about the kind of people that I would conjure to the table. I love sitting at a table full of people who are actively embracing life. Maybe they're spending a lot of energy just trying to figure out who they are or what they want to do in life, or maybe they are firmly entrenched in a career and either enthusiastic or frustrated by it. Either way, these are the kind of people I like to spend an evening with – ones with polarizing or outspoken ideas about life, themselves, or others!

Good food and drink just enhances the already-colorful cacophony of conversation that is bound to take place.

What’s your most memorable memory of a night dining out?
Without a question, one of my most memorable nights out was the first time I came to china about eight years ago. I was producing an indie music tour in Sichuan that was being hosted by the cultural exchange bureau. As is the generous custom of our government hosts, we were picked up at the airport and whisked straight-off to an elaborate dinner of hot pot that I'm fairly certain included the entirety of fowl and fauna varieties. Most certainly for me, the most entertaining part of the evening that ensued was observing the various, not-so-subtle reactions of my much-less-traveled compatriots as our hosts delightedly lavished us with platers of brains, tripe and chicken feet among many other things!

What's the number one dish from a Beijing restaurant that you crave?
Hands down, the foie gras from Mosto in Nali Patio. I love it with an espresso martini.

Photos: courtesy of Kristen Lum and Nate Griffin