James Beard Award-winning chef Ashley Christensen will head up an all-female team of chefs for GLOW’s foundation fundraiser next month, organizers announced this week.
 
The seventh annual Celebrity Chef Events are scheduled for Jan. 20 and 21, including a limited-seating dinner at a private residence and a luncheon at Country Club of Landfall, according to a news release.
 
Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington, or GLOW, has a history of having celebrity chefs visit for fundraisers because of industry ties from the school’s founder Judy Girard, former president of the Food Network.
 
The school, the state’s only single-gender public charter school, opened in 2016 with a focus to work with girls from underserved communities.
 
Other visiting chefs have included Emeril Lagasse Giada De Laurentiis, Guy Fieri, Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine.
 
This year’s culinary team, lead by Christensen, includes Garland owner/chef Cheetie Kumar from Raleigh; Aragosta owner/chef Devin Finigan from Deer Isle, Maine; and Monteverde partner/chef Sarah Grueneberg from Chicago. Grueneberg also previously served as executive chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Spiaggia.
 
Christensen’s AC Restaurants includes Raleigh’s Poole’s Diner, Beasley’s Chicken + Honey and Death & Taxes, among others. The James Beard Foundation named the restauranter and author Best Chef in the Southeast in 2014 and Most Outstanding Chef in 2019. 
 
She participated in last year’s chef fundraiser event with Irvine, which include a combination of an outdoor dining event and virtual sessions with other chefs because of pandemic-related restrictions.
 
Funds raised benefit GLOW Academy’s college-bound curriculum, said officials with GLOW NC, the nonprofit foundation that supports the school.
 
“We are delighted to continue our culinary events and are thrilled to mirror our mission with this outstanding team of accomplished women,” Girard said in the release. 
 
Christensen, Kumar, Finigan and Grueneberg will prepare all of the food on-site and be supported by a team of local food professionals coordinated by Porters Neck Country Club’s James Patterson, who assists the celebrity chefs in sourcing local ingredients and supervising kitchen staff, the release stated.
    
Organizers said that sponsorships are available from $5,000 to $25,000, with a limited number of tables of 10 available for $3,000 each. For more information, email [email protected].