For Friday night's 20th annual Meals on Wheels Celebrity Chef Ball, held on the seventh floor of Macy's on State Street, event co-chair John Abels said that the use of online promotional tools such as blogs and Facebook helped attract a set of "newer, cause-oriented" guests this year.
"New methods of social networking and marketing [have become] a great tool for gathering data," said Abels, adding that the celebrity chefs also helped draw some 900 guests to the event. "They [have given us] a wider base from which to promote the event and, more importantly, the Meals on Wheels cause."
In keeping with the name of the event—and the mission of the charity it supports, which is to provide meals for the elderly and the disabled—food factored heavily into each aspect of the evening. More than 55 chefs from local and national restaurants participated in the ball, including three local Top Chef contestants: Stephanie Izard, Valerie Bolan, and Radhika Desai. Throughout the evening, the chefs' roles involved manning food stations at the cocktail hour and after-party and helping to prepare a four-course dinner that was served in Macy's Walnut Room.
Abels said that apart from landing sponsors, securing the chefs' participation was the most time-consuming aspect of event prep, but roping them in didn't prove particularly challenging. Since the event has taken place for the past 20 years, "It does have a tremendous following," he said. "And because of [its] popularity, many chefs have come to us saying that they have to do it." Along with Abels, fellow co-chairs Sarah Eck-Thompson, David Loiselle, and Chandra Ram, spent roughly nine months producing the event.
