[Charity Event] 1st ever ‘Cook for New Lives Gala’

Website: http://www.massey.ca/, Massey Centre Facebook page
Event Address:  George Brown College, Grand Atrium 300 Adelaide St. E., Toronto, ON
When I attended: May 4th, 2016

On May 4th, 2016, George Brown College, Hospitality and Culinary Arts Centre hosted the 1st Annual Cook for New Lives Gala to fundraise for Massey Centre.

Formed in 1901, Massey Centre is a Children’s Mental Health centre that helps pregnant and parenting women and their babies who reside at the Centre and in the community.  The young families benefit from a the large array of programs, services and supports 24/7 that respond to their individual mental health, education and transitional housing needs. The young women who call Massey Centre home are one of the highest-risk and most vulnerable groups in Canada.

Being a mom, I know that pregnancy and postpartum can be tough physically and mentally. I can only imagine how challenging it is for adolescent mother’s to take care of a young baby, while trying to build a future for themselves and their child. At the event, a young mom named Kenya told us her tear jerking story of her rough childhood, and how the services at Massey Centre helped her tremendously. Massey Centre has supported a countless number of women.

The tickets to the event were $99 per person and included a cocktail reception, pizza from Pizza Nova, appetizers and cheese platter, desserts from Charmaine Sweets, dishes from the chef teams, as well as a no-host bar and silent auction.

There was a cooking competition with aspiring female chefs from George Brown, who were partnered with top female chef mentors including Alex Feswick, Lora Kirk, Anne Yarymowich and Suzanne Barr. The MC of the evening was the funny Jessica Rae Allen of The Social.

Celebrity Chefs Claudio Aprile, Chef John Higgins, as well as foodie YouTuber Sara Lynn Cauchon were in attendance to judge the dishes. It was amazing that I got to meet and chat with the talented and humble celebrity judges.

The dishes made by the chef teams were delicious! Each component of the dish was well thought out and executed, with an appetizing presentation. The winner of the competition was Chef Anne Yarymowich and Haewon Choi, who made the Korean braised shortribs with sweet potato perogies, pear and mint espuma, with crispy shallots and kimchi as the condiments. Haewon had a tearful acceptance speech which was really nice to see, as she put her heart out on her food. A well deserved win and congratulations to all the teams!

One of the best thing about being a food blogger is being able to tell others about charities that really impact the community. I am thankful for the invitation and I hope that the Massey Centre was able to reach their fundraising goals.

Check out the Massey Centre website to learn more about their programs and how you can donate http://www.massey.ca/. Follow Massey Centre on Twitter https://twitter.com/MasseyCentre.  Use hashtag #Cook4NewLives and join the conversation.

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* Disclosure: My ticket was complimentary but the opinions in the post are entirely my own.