Meals on Wheels Changes Up Celebrity Chef Event
Unconventional dining events have become more familiar. The same goes for this year’s Meals on Wheels Delaware Celebrity Chefs’ Celebration. Not missing the opportunity to showcase the goodness of uplifted food, many homespun local restaurants metaphorically propped open the kitchen doors to allow guest chefs into Delaware spots. The pairing is the pandemic version of the spring calendar mainstay Celebrity Chefs’ Brunch that would host chefs from throughout the country for an eclectic Sunday midday adventure of dining adventure. While this year’s event was a hybrid of virtual and in-person options, the payoff feels just as good. The money raised goes to Meals on Wheels’ initiative to provide food insecurity relief for Delaware’s homebound population.
Of note, local Wilmington fave Bardea ‘hosted’ Chef Deb Paquette of Nashville’s Etch and Etc. The long-time Tennessee culinary pioneer of applying dynamic flavors has landed her on the pages of Gourmet as a Top 60 culinary contender.
The atypical approach for the collaboration took Chef Paquette’s menu into the kitchen of Antimo Dimeo for the Bardea treatment. To start, roasted beets were given an up-ended treatment with a pastrami seasoning and garnished with smokey apple-butter. Next up, charred octopus and yellow potatoes in a piquant broth. The last tasting plate brought together braised lamb with serrano-cilantro verde, garnished with cocoa nibs and greens. The tasting menu was paired with a Masala Fog, a rye cocktail with cardamom and mango to bring a kick to the already spirited menu.
Similar culinary collusions were dotted throughout northern Delaware for the week-long spray of Celebrity Chefdom. Local favorite, Buckley’s and Goober’s owner/chef Tom Hannum paired with Brunch stalwart Michael Blackie of Toronto’s NeXT for cheer-worthy approaches on classics like haddock chowder, and a Dark and Stormy pork belly. Also making their way through Delaware (virtually) included Celebrity Chefs’ Brunch icon and Bravo Top Chef contestant chef John Tesar paired with local chef Michael Dibianca at Ciro; Charleston’s chef Don Drake of Magnolia—ooooh, those grits—paired with chef Michael Heeps of Harry’s Savoy; once-local chef and Master Chef winner Jennifer Behm-Lazzirini paired with local icon chef Susan Teiser from Montrachet; former Celebrity Chefs’ Brunch chair and James Beard Award winner chef Alex Seidel paired with chef Brent Chellew at Middletown’s La Banca, bringing some Colorado flavor to the menu collaboration.
Read more about the chefs and the menus (plus recipes!) in the Celebrity Chefs' Celebration Program.
Next up on the Meals on Wheels brunch menu is the annual Beach Brunch on October 3, when we’ll hopefully meet up in person at the Rusty Rudder.
See the events calendar and learn more about supporting Meals on Wheels Delaware.
