by Steven Doyle
photos by Robert Bostick
This past Sunday the Crave staff attended the second annual Chef’s on Fire and this year was bigger and brighter than last years. So big it was necessary to move the event to bigger digs and the event was relocated from the parking lot of Abacus to an area with larger access the Shops @ Park Lane. This made for a good move and the event planners were able to use the facilities at the Art Institute for judging and other behind the scenes matters.
Crave ran into chef Sharon Van Meter of the Milestone Culinary Arts Center in her Texas Chef’s Association booth who were selling t-shirts for the event and helping visitors with any questions they might have had.
“Besides moving to this new location, we added many more chefs and other activities,” said van Meter as she busily helped a few children with water.
The annual event raises funds and awareness of the Parkland Hospital Burn Center which is considered one of the finest in our area. But the event also enables the public to sample some of the firemen’s specialties they work side-by-side area chefs. The group of cooks had plenty of help with the assistance of several of the Dallas’ culinary schools including the Art Institute, Cordon Bleu and El Centro.
Besides a great reason to take the family out to listen to bands, eat chef-driven samples, and nibble on corn dogs and ribs, Care Flight was on hand to give everyone rides in their helicopter for a more panoramic view of Dallas.
We spotted a few other chefs visiting the event including chef Kent Rathbun who was spotted riding his bicycle by the crowd and Bryan Luscher owner of The Grape who was out enjoying the warm breeze with his daughter.
Also spotted was a group from Pink Heals, a combined fireman and police organization that is dedicated to raise awareness and needed funds to fight cancer in women. The organization makes a year-long across country tour with their bright pink fire truck and attends events like Chef’s on Fire. These brave men are not afraid to don a pink helmet if they are able to bring attention to this wonderful cause.
Chef Van Meter promises an even bigger event next year to help raise even more for our local Burn Unit.
Useful info. Hope to see more good posts in the future.