Set aside stuff and give the gift of experience this year: Tickets to the Cooking for a Classic event, where eight chefs compete to win a classic truck!

Send the food-loving recipient of your unique gift to one round of this competition, or all of them: Starting Jan. 22, the paired chefs will meet knife to culinary knife, each preparing an appetizer, entrée and dessert.

Secret ingredients will make the competition even more challenging for them — and more delicious for you and your guest!

Best of all, Cooking for a Classic benefits the Lucy Daniels Center, headquartered in Cary and providing mental health treatment for children and their families.

For the chefs, who moves on to the next round, and the grand finale on Feb. 7? That depends on the popular vote — this means you — and an expert judge vote, plus a silent auction of chef-provided gourmet meal packages that you won’t find anywhere else.

The last chef standing will win the grand prize, a restored classic 1949 GM pickup! 

Chef competitors include Jonathan Ballard, Dean’s Kitchen and Bar; Trey Cleveland, Top of the Hill; Nick Fay, Coquette; Matt Hannon, Ironwood Café; Aaron Matyac, Whiskey Kitchen; James Patterson, McConnell Golf; Troy Stauffer, City Club Raleigh; and Dean Thompson, Concord Hotels.

All Cooking for A Classic events will be held at 1705 Prime, 1705 E. Millbrook Ave., in Raleigh. Find tickets and more details at lucydanielscenter.org/special-events/cooking-for-a-classic/.