Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (GLOW) officials have announced the celebrity chefs who will participate in the academy’s annual celebrity chef fundraising event next year.

In a combination of virtual and in-real-life appearances, chefs Emeril Lagasse, Guy Fieri, Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine will interact with guests attending the event on GLOW’s Wilmington campus, where classrooms will be decorated and set to host no more than 20 guests each, dependent on sponsorship level.

GLOW is North Carolina's only single-gender public charter school. The school opened in August 2016, with its inaugural sixth-grade class, adding a new sixth-grade each successive academic year. 

With a focus on providing a single-sex educational choice for girls from predominately underserved communities who are often the first in their families to attend college, the sixth- through 12th-grade school is part of The Young Women’s Leadership Network, a nationwide network of 19 schools focused on academic rigor, personal responsibility, leadership and college preparedness.

Irvine will be on campus to welcome GLOW guests, while chefs Lagasse, Fieri and Florence will be streaming live from their homes, test kitchens and restaurants via Zoom. Each chef will introduce their recipes as guests are served a four-course meal.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, January 23, 2021, at 7 p.m., with sponsor events beginning earlier in the evening. 

Guests will be limited to their classrooms and outdoor patios, in keeping with social distancing guidelines and other public health requirements as outlined by the state of North Carolina at the time.  

“We are delighted to continue our celebrity chef events and can only do so because these chefs fell in love with the school and what we’re doing here,” said Judy Girard, founder of GLOW, in a news release. 

This will be the third visit to the school for Lagasse and Irvine, who attended the grand opening of the academy’s new campus last October.

Lagasse hosted the inaugural celebrity chef event in 2016, with chefs Giada De Laurentiis, Fieri, Irvine and Florence headlining events each successive year, respectively.

The celebrity chef events reflect the career of Girard, who was president of the Food Network from 1994 to 2004. 

The food for the 2021 chef event will be prepared onsite under the direction of chef Irvine and chef Christi Ferretti of Pine Valley Market, who for the past three events has worked with the celebrity chefs to source local ingredients and supervise kitchen staff. 

Each classroom/dining room will have a dedicated attendant to serve and clear each course, which will be prepared onsite in GLOW’s cafeteria and culinary lab.  

Sponsorships are available from $5,000 to $50,000 with individual tables available for $3,000 each at a later date, not yet determined. For more information about sponsorships, contact GLOW Development Director Sarah Brickels at [email protected].