Celebrity chef ‘kicks it up a notch’ for charity lunch

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington all-girls charter school got some serious support from a celebrity of the culinary world today at a charity luncheon here in the Port City.

Chef Emeril Lagasse prepared several courses at the Landfall Country Club in support of the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington, or GLOW. The school is targeted toward at risk girls and it it looking to provide young women with the opportunities they need not only to graduate but to go on to colleges and successful lives.

Helping kids is something that this chef is extremely passionate about, both through the Emeril Lagasse Foundation and in helping projects like GLOW.

He said there is a lot students can learn through the culinary arts.

“There’s mathematics, there’s so much that goes with it. There’s geography, there’s the soil. There’s all of this, formulas and recipes, so it really makes the brain want to think,” Lagasse said.

The lunch raised more than $260,000 for the school which opens this fall and will have 100 students.

School leaders told us that Emeril believes in the program so much that he has already talked about coming back for another luncheon in 2 years.