Chefs Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse appear at Beacon Celebrity Chef event in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Two celebrity chefs were in the port city for an event that will benefit the Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington.

Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse were the featured celebrity chefs at the Beacon Education Celebrity Chef breakfast and lunch.

This was Lagasse’s fourth visit to Wilmington, and the first for Rachael Ray.

The two prepared selected dishes with assistance from students of GLOW Academy’s culinary program.

The event raises money for Beacon Education, which supports both Glow Academy and Spark Academy, the first of several co-ed and mixed-income early childhood education centers, set to open this summer.

“They’re learning life skills, and they’re getting trained with the best of the best, and they’re getting inspired. I salute everything they’re doing here, and my friend for being an intricate part of that, –for helping them grow and fertilizing this entire community here,” said Rachael Ray.

“You know, it may not be necessarily that they may want to be a chef or in the restaurant business, but for them to have the life skills, –of understanding what cooking is about,” said Emeril Lagasse.

Production crews were also on-site to capture scenes of the chefs engaging with the students and audience, and has plans to share them on a later episode of the Rachael Ray Show, which airs on WWAY ABC.