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Voltaggio Brothers Team for Cause
Summary:
September 27
Voltaggio Brothers Team for Cause
Politico
September 24, 2010
The Voltaggio brothers, Bryan and Michael of “Top Chef” fame, will enter the kitchen together on Tuesday for the first time in a while. They’ll be at Bryan’s Frederick, Md., restaurant VOLT to prepare an eight-course meal with wine pairings.
This time, they’re not competing against each other. Instead, they’re teaming up to help raise awareness about hunger and nutrition during a charity dinner with proceeds going to Share Our Strength, a national organization that aims to eliminate childhood hunger.
It’s a cause that’s close to both brothers’ hearts.
“With the recent recession, it’s only getting tougher for families to feed their children. As a chef, it makes it really difficult,” Bryan told POLITICO. “I have people come in everyday and have these elaborate dinners, but then you know that there are children out there who won’t get enough nutrition to get through the day.”
About one in four children in the nation is at risk of hunger, according to Courtney Smith, the No Kid Hungry program director for Share our Strength.
“From more recent poverty and unemployment data coming out, that number may be significantly higher,” Smith said.
Michael, who is based on the West Coast and is set to open a restaurant there early next year, said that he initially got involved with the group because, well, his brother did. But when he heard about these stats, he said his commitment strengthened.
“It actually brought tears to my eyes. And it became bigger than a rivalry with my brother,” he said. Still, Michael may have one-upped his brother on the dedication front. Earlier this year, he tattooed Share Our Strength’s logo (an apple with a bite out of either side that forms the silhouettes of children’s faces) onto his leg. That too was an act of charity; an L.A. tattoo artist volunteered his time and created Michael’s ink on a picnic table in the back of catering hall.
“They feed people for a living; this is their commitment, their passion, their lives,” Debbie Shore, co-founder of Share Our Strength, said of the brothers. “They’re a terrific example of when chefs care about something as compelling as kids going hungry, they really put their full commitment into it.”
Both Bryan and Michael tip their hats to their mother, a single mom who worked full-time, for teaching them good nutrition and making sure that they always had a family meal together.
“Our mother is not an avant garde chef, but she always put dinner on the table every night. The expectation is that you were at the dinner table at dinner time. Now, it’s a lot easier to just grab something and throw it at your kids and say, ‘Come on we’ve got to get to basketball practice,’” Michael said. “Even families that have the resources to feed their kids nutritious meals don’t always because it’s easier to find something fast.”
Their mother, in fact, will be honored at Tuesday night’s meal. She’ll be hosting a table in a private room.
“She’s the typical mother. She’s like ‘Oh my God, what am I going to wear?’,” Bryan said. “She’s excited. She’s proud of both of us. And we thought there would be nobody better to give guests a sense of where we came from.”
The menu for Tuesday night is still in the works, making the sommeliers nervous, Bryan said. But it will be very true to their contemporary styles with a focus on local ingredients.
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