Gluten-Free Cooking Spree Takes Over CNN

ATLANTA -- Prominent chefs, medical professionals and CNN news personalities will take over the kitchens at the CNN Center on Friday, Oct. 19, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. to compete in the creation of unique gluten-free meals in an effort to raise awareness of celiac disease and the gluten-free diet. The competition will be hosted by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) and moderated by CNN newsroom anchor Heidi Collins, a fellow celiac disease sufferer and the NFCA spokeswoman.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune digestive disease that damages the villi of the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. Celiac sufferers can maintain a normal lifestyle by following a gluten-free diet, which means excluding wheat, barley and rye.

NFCA will pair prominent Atlanta-area chefs with medical professionals and CNN news reporters for the competition onto teams of three. Each team will be tasked with cooking a delicious gluten-free meal. The judges for the event will be Joy Johnston of Atlanta.About.com, Cynthia Rudert of the Atlanta Women’s Medical Alliance and Riley Collins & Ryan Flynn (children with celiac disease). Instead of a cash prize awarded to the winning team, a donation will be made to advance local celiac disease awareness projects.

The Gluten-Free Cooking Spree is open to the general public and tickets are available through the NFCA Web site: www.celiaccentral.org.

VIP Admission: $150
General Admission: $75
Student/Child: $35

The participating chefs include: Lamar Thomas of East West Bistro, Robert Gerstenecker of Park 75, Eric Mulville of Maggiano’s Little Italy, Ritter Jones of Ritter’s Restaurant, Chris Lee of The Real Chow Baby and Leeann Chin of Leeann Chin Restaurants.

The participating medical professionals include: Spencer Rozin of Gwinnett Health System, Andrea Welter of Dekalb Medical Center, Gerald Erickson, Jr. of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Jeffrey Lewis of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Lisa Robbins of Robbins Healthcare Alliance, Glen Lewis of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Ronald Ito of Gwinnett Internal Medicine.

The participating CNN news personalities include: CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers, CNN newsroom anchor Don Lemon, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, CNN.com anchor Reggie Aqui and VP of CNN productions Mark Nelson.

All attendees will watch the teams prepare their meals and will be able to taste all of the dishes. Gluten-free food, dessert, beer and wine will be served.

Other event sponsors include: Bob’s Red Mill, CNN, Anheuser-Busch, Pamela’s Products, Whole Foods Market, Wegmans, Revolution Health, Quest Diagnostics, Bell & Evans, The Brazilian Cheesebread Company, SOYJOY, TH Foods/Mr.Krispers, Thai Kitchens/Simply Asia, Mary’s Gone Crackers, PureFit, Foods by George, and Gluten-Free Passport.

The National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising celiac awareness and funds for research. NFCA is made up of professionals, medical specialists, and volunteers — all dedicated to working with leading researchers around the world to better understand celiac disease. Visit www.celiaccentral.org or call 215-692-2639 for further information.

Source: National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

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