Over $200,000 was raised at the United Way of New York City’s 2nd annual “What’s on the Table?” event to benefit anti-hunger programs and healthy eating.

Hosted by Jon Bon Jovi, his wife Dorothea Hurley, Lori Silverbush, Susan Burden, and Avis and Bruce Richards, the event shed light on an issue that struggles to gain attention in the public forum.

“ We have about 40 percent of our population in New York City where the children are either overweight or obese,” said Avis Richards, who held the event with her husband Bruce at their Southampton home. “The other component is getting more nutritious food because most people are overfed, but undernourished.”

Chef and food critic Katie Lee told Red Carpet Network that it is easier than one may think to achieve a more nutritious lifestyle. “ Healthy eating is just about making the right choices and simple substitutions…Little things that you can change day to day.”

In addition to tackling the issue of healthy eating, the night’s event also focused on the hunger problems that plague millions of Americans each year.

Lee said, “This is such an important event, there are so many New Yorkers who are hungry and it’s an issue that we don’t necessarily think about in our country. You don’t think about people being hungry but it’s real. It’s a very real issue.”

Manhattan is the richest city of the richest nation, and yet it has the paradox of hunger that hits hundreds of its population. Food Bank For New York City aims to eradicate hunger throughout the five boroughs.

The charity held its Annual Can-Do Awards Dinner on Thursday, April 7 at Chelsea Piers. The event honored partners who support the Food Bank For New York City in its ongoing efforts to end hunger. As one of the largest fundraising event of the country, the star-studded gala gathered famous celebrity chefs and distinguished television and music personalities. Mario Batali, Jon Stewart, Al Roker, Jon Bon Jovi and Sarah McLachlan all came together to raise hunger awareness.

Bon Jovi brings up the issue of growing disparities due to the economic recession. “The working poor in America are increasing in numbers every day. A lot of people are calling up in the economic downturn. A lot of people lost their homes, lost their jobs. These things are slowly coming back but slowly is not fast enough to feed families”, says the musician.

Co-chairing the Can-Do Awards dinner, Batali insists on tackling child hunger. “The fact that 1 in 5 children in New York City go to bed hungry, even just once a week, seems just intolerable”, stresses the chef. Batali’s family has been involved with the Food Bank For New York City for 25 years. His own charity, the Mario Batali Foundation focuses on feeding, protecting and empowering children. The foundation entitles the kids to dream big while providing them with the necessary tools to become an active force of tomorrow’s world.

Stars recommend initiatives to halt hunger. Anthony Bourdain calls for “money and continue giving overtime. It should not be a one-time thing”. Television personality Hoda Kotb suggests “giving just a little something”. As all of us being member of the civil society, Chef Rachael Ray considers that “community service is everybody’s job”. Everyone must take responsibility to improve social justice and promote equality in meeting people’s fundamental needs. If people cannot contribute financially to hunger relief, then they can volunteer and raise hunger awareness within the greater community.

According to Food Bank for New York City 1.5 million individuals depend on food pantries and soup kitchens throughout the five boroughs. The charity is the life-blood of the city in this combat. Its work is vital for too many of our neighbors. To learn more about how you could contribute to reduce inequalities among New Yorkers, please visit www.foodbanknyc.org.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Chef Yamarone teaches us how to start your day the right way.

Mr. Yamarone is a New York chef, food consultant, instructor and award-winning food stylist. Besides styling food, he is on the Cutco Cutlery Advisory Board, largest manufacturer and marketer of high-quality kitchen cutlery and accessories in the United States and Canada. He regularly attends food programs on Food Network Television. With his background at the Culinary Institute of America and his great experience, Chef Yamarone is surely your best bet to making your day a healthy and energetic one.

In the video, chef Yamarone shows us how to make a high protein feta omelet. The chef uses eggs, feta, potato, smoked salmon and butter. In addition to omega-3, fish and eggs contain high rates of proteins. Proteins are important components of every cell in the body. They strengthen bones, muscles, and cartilage’s structure. They also decrease high blood pressure and give skin optimum health. Proteins can be turned by the body into glucose for energy. That’s why it is essential to have a high-protein meal on the morning as Mr. Yamarone recommends: so fatigue does not affect your performance. Because the body does not store protein, it’s important to eat protein on a daily basis. In the pursuit of weight loss, you should also like to know that proteins increase satiety and decrease hunger.

Chef Yamarone goal is to teach us how to inculcate healthy eating habits through his recipes. Just like the feta cheese omelet, his other recipes are also simple, healthy and delicious.

Chef Yamarone uses his imagination to serve his passion for food. Yamarone never gets bored with the things he eats because he spices up each of his recipes to add that little kick. In this video, Chef Yamarone teaches how to make pineapple salsa, a sweet and savory mix, that is guaranteed to be an exotic gastronomical experience.

Key ingredients used are pineapple, red onion, orange and green pepper, jalapeños, lime, cilantro and chicken. Pineapple can be substituted with mango, papaya or clementine. The idea is to offer you a delectable blend of flavors.

Enjoy healthy and delicious food. The pineapple salsa tastes excellent when paired with chicken breast. Therefore, if you are getting tired of eating chicken breast, try adding Chef’s Yamarone’s pineapple salsa on top. The salsa will add zest to the otherwise bland chicken breast.

Emeril Lagasse is one of the most recognizable chefs of the American culinary scene. He is also a popular TV personality and the creative mind behind the Emeril line of home cookware. The culinary celebrity uses his passion for food to help others. Emeril and his wife have been involved with the Food bank for five years.

The Food Bank for NYC and the Culinary Counsel joined forces for the cause. Mario Batali, one of the most popular chef in America, thought Emeril would be an invaluable asset to raise hunger awareness and asked him if he “would go a little bit deeper with the Culinary Counsel and elbow some people to be a part of it.”

In addition to the ideological aspect of the event, the night was a chance for all culinary stars to meet up and enjoy a holiday evening together.

Besides his enrollment into the Culinary Counsel, Chef Emeril is very engaged with world progress. He established Emeril Lagasse Foundation in 2002 and it supports non-profit organizations that provide educational programs, life skills development, culinary training and cultural enrichment, creating opportunities in the communities where Emeril’s restaurants operate. As people have contributed to his success, Emeril puts up with time, passion and resources to give it back. He is proactively looking to make a positive difference in the lives of people in need. The stomach has a heart. Being a chef implies that one gives somebody else the chance of tasting delicious flavors. Successful chefs are maybe those who have the most generous heart.

On October 13, 2010, E! Entertainment Television launches a six-episode documentary about what’s eating you, starring men and women that experience severe disturbances in eating behavior. Participants share their true stories of food as an obsession and fear. These individuals invite the audience to explore how food behaviors are consuming and threatening their lives. As they struggle against eating disorders, the TV program gives hope and brings a path for recovery with the help of medical professionals, therapists and nutrition specialists.

Foods.tv met with Dr. Redcross who joins the show as a board-certified physician in internal medicine, from his practice at Manhattan’s Physician’s Group Inc., in New York City. Dr. Redcross points out that food is presented as “…an interesting drug, one of those things that’s on the street, it is legal and it is something that we will always face with everyday. So there are some really big decisions you need to make when you have eating disorder. It is not always that easy.”

Dr. Redcross wants to raise awareness about food as an addiction. He intends to focus the audience’s attention on the destructive behavior that this physiological and psychological dependence may generate. Sharing an inner perspective of what those people suffer from, stating that “food gives them all the emotions that people who love food can kind of control but they can’t. They get the urges, the passion with eating, and then they have a tremendous guilt afterwards. That’s when you kind of get into a vicious cycle that turns into pathologic and no longer just enjoying food.”

As any kind of addiction, the first step of the healing should be reached by the realization and acceptance of the problem. Conscious realization is in fact the start for recovery. The show aims at breaking the taboo. It encourages victims to speak out. “America is ready for it […] Food is no longer a little dirty secret in America,” the doctor says. The show has a preventive effect. It engages the public into the victims’ battle. Being witness of such harmful disturbances, we hope people will learn the lesson well and protect themselves from being eaten.

On December 7, 2010, Eat, Celebrate, Support gathered the Food Bank for New York City and the newly formed Culinary Council to raise funds and awareness on hunger. A good cause paired with delicious delights brought out the best of the culinary world.

Guests enjoyed dishes and hors d’oeuvres made by the Culinary Council’s well-known chefs. Among the most famous participating chefs for the night, were Yann de Rochefort, David Burke, Masaharu Morimoto, Cesare Casella, Marisa May and Tim Buma. Double Crown prepared butternut squash custard with milk chocolate caramel and cranberry gelee among the suggested delicacies. Anthony Bourdain was really enthusiastic about the pork and black pudding pie. “I am just tumescent with expectations, my wife will be very very very happy also,” he said.

Well known for his straightforward and often offensive food reviews in the show “No Reservation” on Travel Channel, Anthony Bourdain is an American chef, writer and world renown television personality. A lot of ink has also been spilled over his consumption of exotic ethnic dishes. The chef has indeed a passion for food of every kind. For instance, he enjoys and claims the tastiness of animal part that are usually not eaten such as Moroccan sheep testicles or Vietnamese cobra. These adventurous spirit and broad passion for food have made Anthony Bourdain gain millions of gourmet fans around the world. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it takes all kinds to make a world.

Gaining media attention, celebrity chefs have built sustainable relationships with their public. Having such a worldwide credibility, chefs are the new influencers for hunger relief today.  Hopefully, their followers will get engaged and participate to end hunger. Sometimes, the power of accomplishing an action is attained in and by a process of imitation.

Once again, Chef Yamarone beats the challenge of offering succulent food. To reinvent chicken wraps, you will need tortillas, black beans, jack cheese, white cheddar, mole and chicken.

With this recipe, Chef Yamarone will make you feel like you’re tasting chicken for the first time in your life.  He helps revitalizing your food habits. Yamarone proves to be a creative and food innovator at each shoot. For his chicken wrap preparation, he elevates the taste with mole sauce. In Mexico, mole is the undisputed national sauce which results from a blend of chocolate, chillies, garlic, onions, nuts and some other ingredients depending on the family or region local culture. This ingredient holds particular significance for Mr. Yamarone as he lived in Mexico.  Mole marries well with the chicken. It gives the meal an authentic and exotic taste. You will happily eat every bit of the tender chicken.

This recipe could be reused with different stuffing and still be equally tasty. It is so easy and so enjoyable to make that it will empower everyone with the confidence to create food. “And even better than anything, is the fact that you can actually make this individually, put them in a tupperware container and freeze them,” Chef Yamarone recommends. You can store it in a fridge at home or your office for a quick and delicious meal at any time.

As   Asa New York chef, food consultant, instructor and award-winning food stylist, Mr Yamarone regularly attends food programs on Food Network Television. Besides styling food, he is on the Cutco Cutlery Advisory Board, largest manufacturer and marketer of high-quality kitchen cutlery and accessories in the United States and Canada.