'Art of Food' fundraiser supports Chefs for Humanity efforts

Nation's Restaurant News, June 12, 2006 by Gregg Cebrzynski

CHICAGO -- Food wasn't the only thing chefs were serving during the National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show.

The group Chefs for Humanity hosted the "Art of Food" fundraiser, which featured four galleries of artwork created by such nationally recognized chefs as the organization's president, Cat Cora, and noted chefs Ming Tsai, Art Smith, Robert St. John, Grant MacPherson, Gale Gand, Charlie Ayers and others.

To show the NRA's support for the chefs' efforts, the association sponsored a news conference that included members of Chefs for Humanity. NRA president and chief executive Steven C. Anderson represented the association.

Cora said Chefs for Humanity was "thrilled" to partner with the NRA for the fundraiser to support emergency and humanitarian aid projects, hunger mission work and nutrition education projects.

After Hurricane Katrina last year, the organization sent chefs to hard-hit Gulfport, Miss., to prepare meals for survivors.

"We're super proud of that," Cora said. "The greatest thing is to feed people."

Tsai, who made the trip to Mississippi, said he saw an eerie sight: a Waffle House that had been destroyed, and amid the rubble stood two chairs and a table as if awaiting customers.

The people for whom the chefs cooked were extremely grateful, Tsai said. "I've never been so thanked, so appreciated in my life until I went down there," he said.

The chefs had to make meals with whatever food was available and not spoiled. That meant serving a lot of king crab legs and prime rib to the police, he said.

Tsai didn't want to overplay his role or that of other chefs in helping the hurricane survivors and rescue crews, saying that it was "an opportunity to make food." He added, We are not God s gift to the world."

Ayers, who also went to Gulfport, said it was "tremendously inspiring" to help out.

gcebrzyn@nrn.com