Paige Ali, 6, happily surveyed the rows of heart-shaped cookies, miniature cupcakes, bowls of colorful sprinkles and pastry bags filled with icing that lined the long table at Blaue Gans restaurant.

“I’m really, really excited,” she said, “I’m going to cook with a famous chef!”

There was more than one famous chef in the room, and even more famous restaurateurs.

This was Taste of Tribeca’s annual launch day. With cars still trapped in heaps of snow, it seemed improbably far from a glorious May afternoon (in 16 years, there has been only one rainy day) when Duane Street is filled with thousands of people sampling the fare of some of the city’s finest eateries.

But inside the cozy restaurant on Duane Street, while P.S. 234 and P.S. 150 decorated cookies and cupcakes and made brioche sandwiches of braised tuna with saffron pickled onions, Taste co-chairs Sean Murphy Turner and Jimmy Carbone were already thanking the assembled restaurateurs for their participation. “Last year was a record number of sales,” Turner said. “People are coming from all over the city and state because of you.”

The principals from the two Tribeca schools, whose parents organize and run this fundraiser, were also on hand.

“It’s so important for our budget,” P.S. 234 principal Lisa Ripperger told the restaurateurs. “Thank you very much.”

“It’s a community event that’s gotten better and better,” P.S. 150 principal Maggie Siena added, “and it all depends on your generosity.”

Carbone noted that many corporate sponsors are on board, but they still need a lead food sponsor for a cooking demo under a big tent on Duane Street. “It’s the best spot!” he said.