June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Gordon Ramsay’s smoked kingfish and Danny Meyer’s salt-baked snapper will be enlisted to pry open the wallets of New York’s elite tonight as the Central Park Conservancy holds its annual all-you-can-eat gourmet fundraiser.

This year’s “Taste of Summer” has more than 40 top New York restaurants dishing out an array of palate pleasers. The lineup includes ocean-fresh hamachi from Laurent Tourondel’s BLT Market and pea pancakes whipped up by Bill Telepan’s Upper West Side eatery.

Even with those names and eight of Danny Meyer’s top chefs in the kitchen, the conservancy’s president, Douglas Blonsky, said it’s been a challenge in a shrinking economy to match the $635,000 raised at last year’s event, before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt. In 2007, the party raised $750,000.

“The event is the meat and potatoes of maintaining the park,” said Blonsky, 50, a 24-year veteran of the conservancy. Donations cover about 85 percent of the organization’s $27 million budget to look after the 843-acre space, he said. The remaining 15 percent comes from the New York City government.

Blonsky said he still hopes to sell more than 800 tickets for tonight’s event, now in its 15th year.

The conservancy was founded in 1980 by Betsy Barlow Rogers to revitalize the park after the years of neglect in the 1970s. “Taste of Summer” relies on support from several Wall Street executives and firms, including conservancy Chairman Thomas L. Kempner Jr., executive managing member of Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC; Jay Mandelbaum, head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s strategy and business development unit; and Norman Selby, a senior managing director at private equity firm Perseus LLC.

Tent Tickets

A $350 ticket gives access to the restaurant stalls and open bar in a 10,000-square-foot tent near the park’s Naumburg Bandshell. To sample the same food and drinks at the restaurants would rack up a bill of $1,000 or more, excluding cab fares.

Ticket holders will taste filet mignon slices from Quality Meats, where a double rib steak for two can set you back $55; polpo con insalata from Sirio Maccioni’s Osteria Del Circo; diver sea scallops from Thalassa, Tribeca’s temple of Greek cuisine; and tuna sashimi with sea urchin from the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room.

Those sitting at the $8,000 to $12,000 VIP Café tables will sample dishes from Meyer’s Hudson Yards Catering and eight restaurants from his empire. Hudson, a private catering company that serves food at galas and special events, will serve roasted hen, the salt baked snapper and a peach crumble sundae.

Blue Smoke

His award-winning Union Square Café will dish out grilled lamb chops. Smoked sturgeon sabayon is on tap from Eleven Madison, a fleet of burgers and root beer floats will come from the Shake Shack, and his barbecue joint, Blue Smoke, will present its signature beef ribs and pulled pork.

Blonsky, a confessed foodie, said he has already plotted out a tasting itinerary.

“The Loeb Central Park Boathouse’s crab cakes will be my first stop because they go so quickly, and you know you’re going to catch me at Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke and the Shake Shack stations,” he said with a laugh. “Those burgers just melt in your mouth.”

“Taste of Summer” is tonight at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park in Manhattan from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. (entrance at East 72nd Street, near Fifth Avenue). Tickets are $350 and can be purchased at the door. Information: +1-212-310-6691 or http://www.centralparknyc.org/taste.

(Patrick Cole writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on this story: Patrick Cole in New York at pcole3@Bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: June 3, 2009 01:44 EDT