Hale & Hearty Chef Series Heats Up The City

Hale and Hearty launched its first ever “Chef Series” on Wednesday at its 40th Street and 7th Avenue location in Manhattan. The “Chef Series” is a 6 week competition featuring 6 of New York City’s top Chefs. The chefs participating in the series are David Burke, Michael White, Chris Bradley, Nick Anderer, Michael Anthony and Bill Telepan. Each Chef put together their own soup for Hale and Hearty that will be served for 1 week at a time starting Oct. 29th. At the end of each week a portion of the soup’s sales will go to the charity of the chef’s choice.

I had the opportunity to taste some of the soups and there were three that really stood out to me. All of the soups were amazing but my taste buds were buzzing with delight when it came to Chef Anthony’s, Chef Telepan’s, and Chef Burke’s soups.

Chef Anthony prepared a Kabocha Squash Soup which consists of “slowly simmered Kabocha and Butternut Squash with a wonderful combination of spices…shiitake mushrooms, Italian grain emmer and dried cranberries.”

Chef Telepan put together a Winter Vegetable Soup which is a “delightful vegetable soup made with a unique combination of winter root vegetables and tender cannelloni beans, and topped with Parmesan cheese.”

Chef Burke served up a Crazy Corn Soup with a side of Pepperjack Cornbread that definitely lives up to its name. Burke created “this creamy, lush, soup by blending farm fresh corn with Monterey Jack cheese and Yukon gold potatoes then adding even more corn.”

The Crazy Corn Soup was by far my favorite, so much so that I went back for seconds. It was sweet with a little kick, and it was very filling. The cornbread was a great addition and it helped solidify the Crazy Corn Soup as a must have for me in the very near future.

I got the chance to sit down with Chef Burke briefly and he gave me some incite into how he came to be a part of the Hale and Hearty “Chef Series”. Chef Burke stated “I got a call from Bruce, the Executive Chef at Hale and Hearty, and was asked if I would make a soup for charity, the keyword for me was charity…I’m on the board of Table to Table and I thought it was a pretty good idea, it’s good exposure for us and it’s great to build relationships with places like Hale and Hearty.”

When asked how he came up with the name Crazy Corn Soup Chef Burke said “it’s something that will stick in your head more than cream corn soup, crazy means zany or different and this soup is just that. The name will definitely stand out on the board.”

While speaking with Chef Burke he let it be known that his number one reason for getting involved in the “Chef Series” was the huge role that charity plays in the competition. The sales from his Crazy Corn Soup will benefit Table to Table “a community based food rescue program that collects prepared and perishable food that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it to organizations that serve the hungry in Bergen, Hudson, Essex and Passaic counties.”

Overall from what I can see Hale and Hearty has something special on their hands. I know that the “Chef Series” will be a great success. Not only will customers get to have some remarkable soup but they will also be able to support some very deserving organizations. Make sure you stop by Hale and Hearty and try one, two, three or all six soups between October 29th and December 16th. Below is the schedule of which soups will be featured each week. Enjoy!