Super Hunger Chef Challenge set for Jan. 21 at the Four Seasons

by Sandra Miller
Back Bay Sun

Four Seasons Chef Brooke Vosika has been running the Super Hunger Chef challenge, a sort of Iron Chef type of competition using only ingredients stocked by the Greater Boston Food Bank.
Scheduled to be held January 21 at The Four Seasons Hotel Boston, the event features cocktails and hors d'oeuvres for guests as they watch the competition heat up among Chef Anthony Susi of Sage, Chef Gabriel Frasca of Straight Wharf, Chef Will Gilson of The Garden at the Cellar, and Chef Evan Deluty. These chefs aren't only competing for culinary bragging rights, but vying to set the record for raising the most money of any Super Hunger Chef event ever.
The chefs use the ingredients from the food bank, but Vosika and his team are in the back, recreating recipes using their own supplied ingredients, to serve to 150 guests who will choose the winner.
This is Vosika’s third year hosting the challenge. “It’s not a serious competition. We’re having so much fun, that it’s not about the winning and losing. What’s so great is we take products from the food bank, and the chefs each have a basket to work with to make appetizers and entrees. The real challenge is that my kitchen has to reproduce any dish. … This year it is tuna and chicken for the appetizers, and salmon and beef for the entrees. Judges come up with some witty comebacks on what they taste.”
There’s also a live auction, and the master of ceremonies this year is the Phantom Gourmet.
“We do two events a year for the food bank,” said Vosika, who competed against Mistral during the first year he held the event. “I thought it was a good way for people to get together during the cold weather months.”
The series of January food events to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank began 18 years ago when Davio’s Steve DeFillipo and Frank Bell started the brunch series, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the food bank.
The brunch was always popular, but three years ago they decided to grow the fundraiser with the support of the Boston restaurant community, said Greater Boston Food Bank’s marketing director, Marion Kassler.
The brunch is January 24 and 25, where more than 20 Boston restaurants donate their time, food, and services to offer brunch for $25, $35 or $50. All proceeds go directly to The Greater Boston Food Bank.
Despite the economy, about the same number of restaurants are participating in the brunch. “We have great friends in the restaurant community who are very generous and dedicated to helping us fight hunger. They’ve really stepped up,” said Kassler.
Kassler added the food bank hopes to raise the same as last year, $125,000.
Yes, it’s a hard time to ask people for money, never mind to ask people to go out to eat for charity. But Kassler said many people who otherwise would go out to eat, can choose one of these events for a win-win meal. “I think in some cases everyone’s looking at their budget, but you want to go and do something, this makes you feel good, so it motivates you to say, ‘Oh wow, I can do something to help others.’ When you hear about the increase in need for food and people who are asking for help from agencies is up 30-40 percent, people can feel good about going to lunch for $25. They can go out with friends and help out other people.”
The Greater Boston Food Bank distributes approximately 30 million pounds of food and grocery products annually to more than 600 hunger-relief agencies in a dedicated partnership to end hunger in eastern Massachusetts. The Food Bank serves 83,000 people every week through soup kitchens and meal programs and food pantries.
Even a dollar helps. “I think one dollar donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank provides $4 worth of food,” said Kassler. “It’s the way we’re able to distribute food from donations and things like that. That’s the kind of lean, mean fighting machine we are here.”
They can also use volunteers, although the biggest need right now is in the warmer months. On their website, the food bank also offers ways everyone can help out painlessly, such as doing a can drive at work and bringing them to the food bank, host events at their home, and organizing a day where everyone in the office skips a meal and donates what they would have spent for lunch, like $5. “Every little bit counts,” said Kassler. “You don’t have to be the big corporation. We’re doing well, but the need is up so much.”