On Wednesday night about 500 people crammed the third floor of the Gardiner Museum for Empty Bowls 2010. The premise: choose one of the hand-crafted ceramic bowls specially made and donated for the event for you to take home, but before you do, fill your bowl at one (or many) of the stations serving up deeply satisfying soup.

This year was the 18th year of Empty Bowls. All proceeds go to the Anishnawbe Health Centre and many of the city's well-known restaurants and culinary figures came out to support it: Cowbell, Scaramouche, The Healthy Butcher, Terroni, C5, Frank, Oyster Boy, The Wine Bar, and of course Jamie Kennedy's Kitchens to name a few.

There was a great variety of the humble restorative we call soup on offer. From Pangaea's BC Spot Prawn Bisque, Cowbell's Elk and Barley Soup, Pantry's Chilled Sorrel Soup with Smoked Ontario Whitefish & Bacon Fritters, or Frank's Gingered Duck Consomme with Duck & Crab Wontons.

While everyone was happy to have the wonderful weather, it was a little warm to be sipping on hot soup (there were only a couple of chilled options) and had me thinking this would be a wonderful winter fundraiser.

People moved fairly slowly as they tried to find places to stand and sip their soups, and though it was tough to get around but nobody seemed to mind - I heard many "mmmmmms" and "what have you gots?"

Empty Bowls is a great way to start building a functional ceramic collection while supporting not only the Anishnawbe Health Centre, but also the local artisans who craft the bowls and local chefs. Plus with a price tag of $45, it's one of few charity fundraisers that's actually affordable.

Photos by the author.