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Noshing for a cause
Benefit offers samples from area chefs
By Linda A. Odum food@hippopress.com
On Thursday, April 10, some of the area’s top chefs will cook up their specialties for a good cause — this year’s Taste for a Cure to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Now in its second year, the event was conceived by Paula Garvey, whose nine-year-old daughter, Rosie, has the disease. Garvey heard about how the Texas CFF chapter held a chef-themed fundraiser, but at first didn’t think it would work in New Hampshire. Her neighbors thought differently.
“I live in Amherst and have some fantastic neighbors,” Garvey said. “It started from nowhere. I was talking about it to one neighbor and she suggested we could do it. Then the whole neighborhood pitched in. It is a combination of everyone’s work. We’ve been lucky that people with the right talents were available at the right time.”
The Garvey family is from Ireland. There Rosie had part of her intestines removed when she was two days old, and was diagnosed with CF soon afterwards. Her lungs produce more mucus than normal, which means she must take antibiotics at the first sign of a cold. She also has to take medicine so she can digest food properly.
Garvey’s husband works for a U.S. company and the family decided to come here for three years, primarily because of the higher level of medical care. Garvey said, “The life expectancy for someone with CF in Ireland is 19. Here it is into the 30s. Rosie was healthier here.”
Tickets for the event cost $50, and 90 cents of every dollar raised by CFF goes into research. “CF is called an orphan disease,” Garvey said. “There are only about 30,000 people with CF in the United States, so none of the big drug companies are interested in investing money to develop new medicines for the disease. CFF helps finance the development of new medicines, and every penny they spend will make a difference to Rosie. She is healthier now than she was a year ago because of a new medication developed by CFF. It is possible there will be a cure for Rosie in the next 10 to 15 years.”
Last year’s event, held while a snowstorm raged outside, brought in $73,000.
“It was an intimate and elegant affair,” said chef Chris Kozlowski of Orchard Street Chop Shop in Dover. He prepared his filet mignon au poivre in a brandy cream sauce and plans to make something similar this year. Initially, he participated as a way to promote his restaurant to Manchester-area residents, but “after I got involved, after I got to know Rosie, I realized it was a good cause.”
“I was so impressed with the turnout,” said Emeran Langmaid from A & E Coffee Roastery in Amherst, who also participated last year.
The other restaurant participants include the Tap in Grill at the Amherst Country Club, Frederick’s Pastries, Wentworth By The Sea, Piccola Italia, Eden Restaurant and Lounge, Unum, Z Food and Drink, Damian’s on the River, Peddler’s Daughter, and Giorgio’s Ristorante and Meze Bar. Each guest will receive a goodie box that includes a dozen Lindt chocolate truffles.
The evening will also feature a silent auction. Only 250 tickets will be sold for the event. To purchase tickets, go to newengland.cff.org/taste or call the CFF Northern New England Chapter in Nashua at 598-8191.
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