National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation Celebrates Food and Fashion With Food Network Star Ted Allen at Salute to Excellence Gala

CHICAGO, May 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation is hosting their annual black-tie fundraiser Salute to Excellence. This year's affair will be a tremendous start to the NRA Show season featuring Food Network star Ted Allen hosting an exclusive presentation, TREND -- a one-of-a-kind fashion show starring the latest trends and styles in restaurant and foodservice apparel and gear and benefiting the NRAEF Scholarship Program. Decked out in cooking couture, models will walk the catwalk emceed by Ted Allen and outfitted in anything from a custom leather jacket worn by Chef Guy Fieri to a dress made of recycled plastic bottles.

Industry icons and trendsetters like S. Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A will attend the event to celebrate as well as award-winning educators and student scholarship recipients. During the welcome reception, the room will have been transformed to showcase the winning restaurant design from the National ProStart Invitational student competition as well as appetizers hand-crafted by the winning culinary team.

WHAT: Salute to Excellence Gala and TREND Fashion Show to Benefit the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation and Youth Development Programs

WHO: Ted Allen, Food Network Television Personality and Culinary Expert

National ProStart Invitational Management and Culinary Winning Teams from Louisiana and Kansas, respectively

S. Truett, Dan and Andrew Cathy, Three Generations of Chick-fil-A Leadership

Dr. Jerald Chesser, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Ferdinand Metz, CMC, President Emeritus, The Culinary Institute of America

Alice Elliot, The Elliot Group

Denise Fugo, Sammy's

WHEN: Saturday, May 22, 6:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. CDT

WHERE: Hilton Chicago, 720 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois

About the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation

As the philanthropic foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation (NRAEF) enhances the restaurant industry's service to the public through education, community engagement, and promotion of career opportunities. The restaurant and foodservice industry is comprised of 945,000 restaurant and foodservice outlets and a workforce of nearly 13 million employees, making it one of the nation's largest employers. The NRAEF is focused on working with the Association to lead America's restaurant industry into a new era of prosperity, prominence and participation by providing the valuable tools and resources needed to educate our current and incoming employees. For more information on the NRAEF, visit www.nraef.org.

View this news release online: http://www.nraef.org/media/releases/20100504.aspx

More news and information from the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation: http://www.nraef.org/media/

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SOURCE National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation