HEARTS FOR HAITI: AN AMERICAN DINING RELIEF BENEFIT LAUNCHED BY BRAVO TV’S TOP CHEF CONTESTANT

• Top Chef Ron Duprat Teams with three Fellow Contestants & Fine Chefs Across the USA Valentine’s Day to raise funds for Haiti
• Up to ten percent of all funds raised will be donated equally to Hollywood Unites for Haiti and Kinship Circle Disaster Relief

Hollywood, FL – Haitian-born Ron Duprat, perhaps best known from Bravo’s hit TV series “Top Chef” has teamed up with three fellow contestants, Mattin Noblia, Hector Santiago and Michael V.  to welcome other fine chefs across the country in an all-chef Relief Benefit on  St. Valentine’s Day for his native land.  On February 14, all participating chefs and restaurants will donate up to 10 percent of their receipts to Hearts for Haiti: An American Dining Relief Benefit.   The donated funds will be divided between two charities: Hollywood United For Haiti and Kinship Circle Disaster Relief.  One hundred percent of the donated funds will go directly to on-the-ground relief efforts.

“Food always brings people together,” Duprat says.  “I hope that this St. Valentine’s Day, every community will have at least one restaurant where people can dine out with their loved ones and share their hearts with Haiti.”

Early participants include:

Andrew Black at Skirvin Hotel’s Park Avenue Grill, Oklahoma City;

Ron Duprat of  Latitudes Beach Café at the  Hollywood Beach Marriott in Hollywood, FL;

Sean Gavin of Graves Restaurant, Fort Myers, FL;

Adam Greenberg of Barcelona Wine Bar (several locations in Connecticut);

Mattin Nobilia of Iluna Basque Restaurant in San Francisco;

Niranjan Perera of Nilus Delights Bakery in Hollywood, FL;

Hector Santiago of Pura Vida – Latino Tapas Restaurant & Bar, Atlanta;

Florida Restaurant and Lodging in Miami

Top Chef Winner (Season 6) Michael V. of The Dining Room, Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena.

“Chefs always care,” Duprat adds.  “I hope chefs across the country will join us in this heartfelt effort for Haiti.  One hundred percent of their donations will go directly to Haitian relief efforts for both people and animals. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

For more information on becoming a participating chef or dining at a participating restaurant, call 415-461-9300 or visit  www.chefronduprat.com

Charitable Beneficiaries:

Hollywood Unites for Haiti is a Los Angeles-based non-profit founded in 2008 by Jimmy Jean Louis, a star of NBC TV’s hit series, “Heroes”. This charitable non-profit organization focuses on enriching the lives of Haitian children.  HUFH has established a relief fund to support the victims of the 2010 Haitian earthquakes.

Kinship Circle Disaster Relief is a St. Louis, MO-based non-profit that deploys volunteer teams certified animal aid workers to disaster-stricken areas with necessary animal food, equipment and veterinary supplies.

For additional media information only; to set up interviews, etc., please contact:  Valary Bremier

PO Box 412, Kentfield CA 94914, 415-686-7470 or valary@mindspring.com

I help companies find their ad agency –An Agency Search Consultant.  It’s a great gig.  I love it.  I’m good at it.

Usually I hear from CMOs, Marketing VPs, start-up companies, established brands.  Today I got a call from a Top Chef!  After the surprise wore off, we had a great chat.

Since we try to keep searches confidential, I’ll decline to say who it is.  For now, I’ll just call them “Chef”.

I enjoyed watching Chef this season as they moved through the competition and was sad to see them eventually go.  But, that’s the way the cookie crumbles.  (I’ll try to avoid any more bad food puns.)

Suffice to say, Chef is talented, engaging, has a great story and is smart.  Smart because Chef wants to capitalize on their recent fame and continue to build their personal brand–and now is the time!  Besides that, I’m always up for a new challenge–and heck, it sounds like a lot of fun!

At this point I’m reaching out beyond my agency network to connect with specialists to help find “Chef” the right person, persons, or firms to pump up their brand.

This is completely preliminary. I’ve not had a detailed discussion yet to know “Chef’s” goals.  At this point, I’m just trying to find out who’s out there in preparation for our next call.

I envision getting “Chef” connected with a speaking bureau, an agent, a social media consultant, a public relations specialist, a publisher (think we may have a writer already), perhaps even a few brands who’d be interested in sponsorships.  At this point, all ideas are on the table.  I’ve already reached out to some folks I know, but perhaps I should know about you?

Email me if you’d like to discuss this further: david [at] marketinghitch dot com.

The Bravo hit series Top Chef launched a new Masters spin-off last week.  With a nod to the original show, the world’s real top chefs compete in various challenges to advance in the series and ultimately win $100,000 for their favorite charity.  Being addicts of the original Top Chef show in all its train-wreck reality TV shtick, we tuned in.

It was interesting that this show had none of the manufactured drama of Top Chef which probably had to do with the players.  Unlike the original, this was not a field of relative unknowns, but some of the most well known culinary artists in the world.

Besides Hubert Keller’s Dorm Room Mac and Cheese, made partly in a dorm-room shower (ewww), what was most striking about this show was the humility of these chefs.  Having become tops in the restaurant industry, they still competed with vigor but were self-effacing and amiable.  They ran into similar challenges that the chefs in the original series do, but it washow they approached the challenge that was different.

Contrast that with the backbiting, posturing and puffery that is the regular Top Chef competition and an interesting comparison begins to emerge.  The great chefs don’t gloat, the greats just do. Sure, they have problems like all of us but they literally turn mush into masterpieces.

Maybe their ease is because they have nothing left to prove?  If anything, the greats have more to prove.  In cooking, you’re only as good as your last dish.  But once you know that you know–experience breeds confidence.

The same is true in marketing.  When choosing the right marketing firm, experience and confidence are helpful.  Ego is not.  Sometimes it’s a fine line, but frankly, I’ll take uncertainty over cockiness any day.  In a room full of people I question why one person in the room is talking louder than everyone else.  Maybe he or she is the top, best choice, but generally speaking, the loud people are shouting to drown something out.  The great ones don’t have to say a word.