Celebrity Chef David Burke to appear at at this year's Wine and Roses

NEWTON - Restaurateur and celebrity chef David Burke will be a featured guest at this year’s An Evening of Wine and Roses charity event, Burke will be the featured guest at Wine and Roses VIP room. An unnamed celebrity guest will also attend the after party. Burke, who has published two cook books and operates restaurants throughout the country, appeared on the second season of the American-television cooking show, Iron Chef America. He will compete later this year against 14 other world-renowned chefs on Top Chef Masters, a reality show on Bravo. This is the fourth year that a celebrity chef will attend An Evening of Wine and Roses, This year, the event will be held March 25 at Morris County Crossroads Corporate Center in Mt. Olive, in Morris County. All proceeds raised from the event will benefit the 2010 Annual Giving Program which supports capital equipment, technology, programs and services at Newton Memorial Hospital. Burke received his education at the Culinary Institute of America and perfected his skills with French chefs Pierre Troisgros, Georges Blanc and Gaston Lenôtre. At age 26, , he won France’s coveted Meilleurs Ouvriers de France Diplome d’Honneur for his skill and creativity with his native cuisine. Burke has also received Japan’s Nippon Award of Excellence, the Robert Mondavi Award of excellence and the CIA’s August Escoffier Award. National Restaurant News named Burke one of the 50 Top R&D Culinarians and Time Out New York honored him as the “Best Culinary Prankster” in 2003. In May 2009, Burke was inducted into the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. Later that month, he also won the Menu Masters award from nation’s Restaurant News as one of the nation’s most celebrated innovators. Star Chefs, the magazine for culinary insiders, awarded Chef Burke with the “Contribution to American Cuisine Award” at the 2009 Star Chefs Congress. In 2003, Burke opened a business now known as David Burke Townhouse. He later developed David Burke at Bloomingdale’s, a dual concept restaurant offering both a full service “Burke Bar Café” on one side and a “Burke in a Box” take-out and eat-in concept on the other side. He also opened David Burke’s Primehouse in the James Chicago Hotel and a Burke in a Box at Foxwoods Resort & Casino. His collection continued to grow with the purchase of Fromagerie in Rumson and David Burke Las Vegas, which he opened in 2007 at Venetian Resort, Hotel Casino. In New York City, he owns Fishtail by David Burke and David Burke Prime at Foxwoods Casino & Resort. Among his creations are Pastrami Salmon (now available at Perona Farms) and flavored oils. He also developed GourmetPops, ready-to-serve cocktail lollipops, and Flavor-Transfer Spice Sheets and “Flavorsprays,” both designed to eliminate fat while keeping the flavor. His cookbooks include Cooking with David Burke, published in 1995, and David Burke’s New American Classics, by Alfred A. Knopf, published in April 2006. The event includes opportunities to win a variety of prizes, including a trip for two to San Francisco and a $1,000-per-ticket contest to win a Mercedes E350C. Tickets cost $125 per person; VIP-room tickets are $200 per person or $350 per couple. Call the Newton Memorial Hospital Foundation office at 973-579-8309 for more information.