Retired Air Force Col. Dick Hum recounted old war stories Wednesday as he sat down to his potato leek soup.

He recalled the red phone in the Oval Office that played host to numerous early-morning conversations between himself and President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

He remembered his advice to the young president: Unveiling satellite photos was the key to telling the world about the missiles pointed at the United States. Hum told of the privilege of briefing three presidents in his lifetime, and watching the tradition of service continue with his son in the Air Force and grandson in the Air Force Academy.

And then, it was on to the grilled filet mignon.

Local Veterans Day events

Hum was just one of 1,100 at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville Wednesday, during the Third Annual Celebrity Chef’s Luncheon, where local restaurants served vets free, five-course meals in recognition of their service to the United States.

Chefs from Ad Hoc, Bistro Jeanty, Bouchon, Hurley’s Restaurant & Bar and Napa Valley Grille were among the 70 volunteers at the event. Yountville Mayor Cynthia Saucerman buzzed through the room serving coffee and greeting veterans.

“Everybody wants to do something for the veterans, but nobody really knows what to do,” said Chef Bob Hurley, who has been involved with the program since its inception. “Veterans are really underappreciated. You can sit down and have hours and hours of great stories, wisdom and life experiences.”

Providing a five-course meal, he said, is the least the community can do to honor history’s heroes.

Gazing at the busy room, at councilmembers weaving in and out among tables, Saucerman said the community’s efforts “never cease to amaze me.”

“Everybody steps up,” she said.

And with good reason, said Veterans Home Director Marcella McCormack, pointing out just a few of the notable veterans in the room. Among them, Frank Dibartolo, who remembers the first lights over Normandy on D-Day, the sound of German 88s and the ferries of wounded American soldiers. Or Dorothy Elliott, who stood on the front lawn with her 15-month-old son at Pearl Harbor in December 1941, smoke billowing around her, planes soaring overhead, the loudspeaker announcing that this was not a drill, that Pearl Harbor was being attacked.

Veterans Day brings back those memories, said Elliott. “You think back on the things that happened through the years.”

After a moment of remembering, Elliott looked around the room, where the jazz band played and wine glasses were full. American flags dotted the room. And Chef Hurley looked on as veterans dined on his hazelnut praline ice cream, a small token of his appreciation for the smoke and the planes and the red telephone in the Oval Office.