Charitable News

30 Dallas chefs put themselves up for auction in heroic fundraiser

Get 30 minutes with David Uygur, chef at Lucia and Maicellaio.

Photo by Hoyoung Lee

A slew of Dallas chefs have joined a national campaign that aims to raise awareness and funds for the immigrant workforce of the food industry in cities across America.

Called #AskChefsAnything, it's an auction in which the prize is a 30-minute one-on-one conversation Zoom call with your favorite local food personality.

The Dallas auction page is live for viewing now. Bidding starts at $100, then increases in $20 increments.

Bidding begins at 10 am on Monday, June 22 and ends at 8 pm on Thursday, June 25.

When the auction closes, each winner receives an email from the organizers to coordinate a Zoom call with the chef or tastemaker they won.

The idea for #AskChefsAnything came from two New York food industry veterans, Gaeleen Quinn and Anna Polonsky, who wanted to help the community they felt was most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis within the restaurant world: immigrant workers.

Many immigrant workers are not included in federal relief packages and cannot claim unemployment benefits. Some can't find other jobs because their visas depend on a single employer. They cannot travel to their countries because borders might be closed or they may not be able to return if they had to leave.

The goal is to support 250 families per city connected to community centers in each city.

In Dallas, the charity partner is Harvest Project Food Rescue.

Harvest Project began in the summer of 2014 as a community project focused on assisting underserved communities in Dallas County. The organization’s focus remains committed to providing fresh produce to families in need. In five years, Harvest Project Food Rescue has redistributed more than 5 million pounds of produce and has fed more than 45,000 families in the Dallas area.

Participating chefs include:

Matt Balke, Peter David Barlow, Junior Borges, Keith Cedotal, Katherine Clapner, Bruno Davaillon, Tiffany Derry, Graham Dodds, Michael Ehlert, Dean Fearing, Omar Flores, Monica Greene, Jerelle Guy, Justin Holt, Peja Krstic, Matt McCallister, Misti Norris, Nikky Phinyawatana, AQ Pittman, Kent Rathbun, Teiichi Sakurai, Abraham Salum, Ricchi Sanchez, Donny Sirisavath, Stephan Pyles, David Uygur, and Tre Wilcox.

There are also four media participants you can bid on as well: Eve Hill-Angus, Leslie Brenner, Michaelene Busico, and Jim Schutze.

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Pizza News

Donatos Pizza totes its unique crust to new location in Flower Mound

dallas.culturemap.com

Donatos

A pizza chain with a quirky obsession on its crusts is coming to Flower Mound: Donatos Pizza, the franchise famous for spreading its toppings to the very edge of the pizza, will open a location at 1400 Long Prairie Rd. #160.

According to a release, it'll open on December 17.

Donatos Pizza was founded by Jim Grote in Ohio in 1963 from a single stand, and remains family-owned. Their signature is to place the toppings on their pizzas "edge to edge" — for clueless diners who do not like plain crust edges. (Come on, the crust is the best part.)

Their menu features more than a dozen varieties of pizza such as veggie, four cheese, and pepperoni with hot honey. Their signature crust is a thin-crust but they also offer thicker alternatives as well as a cauliflower crust. Pizzas come in a 7-inch individual and go all the way up to a 14-inch large. Prices range from $15 to $25.

Fans appreciate their better-than-average ingredients and describe it as more flavorful compared to other corporate pizza chains, with a crisp thin crust and generous toppings.

In addition to pizza, Donatos' menu includes oven-baked wings, sub sandwiches, including meatball and Italian cold cuts, plus appetizers and salads.

The Flower Mound location will be a family affair, owned by Lynne and Ralph Pence, whose son Travis will oversee day-to-day operations. The Pence family has deep connections to Donatos including the fact that Lynne's sister used to work for the company, while her brother-in-law still does.

"We're from Columbus, Ohio — it is where our kids grew up and where our family is—it also happens to be the hometown and birthplace of Donatos Pizza," Lynne says. "Our daughter in Oklahoma found out Donatos was coming to Edmond, where she lives, and called us. She was so excited that Donatos was finally coming down south and we wanted to be a part of it."

This is the second Donatos in the Dallas area: a location opened in Frisco in November — the first in Texas.

There are currently 470-plus locations in 28 states. That includes 175 stores plus nearly 300 non-traditional locations nationwide, including select Red Robin restaurants, sports, and entertainment venues.

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