by Davinia Buckley

On Tuesday, December 7, the Food Bank For New York City achieved an “orange empire state of mind” by gathering 200 guests, including celebrity chefs, restaurateurs, TV personalities and Food Bank supporters like you atop the Empire State Building to launch its Culinary Council and raise funds and awareness for hunger relief. This newly formed council is made up of 36 of the best- known names in the culinary world including committee chair Mario Batali, Emeril Lagasse, Anthony Bourdain and Ted Allen to name a few.

Presented by the Condé Nast Food, this magical event kept true to it’s name: Eat. Celebrate. Support. Guests were treated to dishes prepared by the Culinary Council’s well-known chefs themselves. Delicacies included Pappa Col Pomodoro prepared by SD26 and butternut squash custard with milk chocolate caramel and cranberry gelee prepared by Double Crown. All participating chefs for the night included, Yann de Rochefort, David Burke, Brad Farmerie, Andrew Carmellini, Michael Schlow, Masaharu Morimoto, Tom Colicchio, Cesare Casella, Marisa May and Tim Buma.

The spirit of the night was captured perfectly with nothing less than the color orange. The Empire State Building was glowing orange inside and out (literally), bringing hunger awareness to all of New York City, by lighting up in orange for the seventh year in a row. Inside, the room had a warm orange glow, and in the words of Mario Batali himself, as he raised a toast, making orange not the color of hunger awareness, but the color of ending hunger all together.