Chef David Burke Returns to Hazlet with Box Lunches for Storm Survivors

While his eponymous restaurants – Kitchen in lower Manhattan and Fromagerie in Rumson – were shuttered without power for the past 10 days, Hazlet native and celebrity Chef David Burke and his staff prepared take-out meals for New Jersey’s hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy. 

On Friday morning, David Burke Fromagerie, which had just had its power restored, quickly turned from a fine dining restaurant to a commissary making, assembling and packing 500 Burke in a Box lunches for families in Keansburg and Union Beach. 

Chef Burke, and RAINE Foundation volunteer/fellow Raritan High School graduate Linda Deering, coordinated the two deliveries from Hazlet Township’s Cullen Center staging area. 

Ms. Deering and Rev. Nancy Correa of Middletown Assembly of God Church, took 250 lunches to Keansburg, while Chef Burke with his parents Joan and David Burke Sr. met Union Beach’s Gigi Dorr, owner of Jakeabob’s Bay, who coordinated food and donations at the town’s municipal complex.

Chef Burke, who reminisced about his childhood stomping grounds with Deering said “Since we weren’t sure if when power would return we prepared lunches in our Burke in the Box take-out containers and delivered to Staten Island earlier this week.  Today, we wanted to get food to people here, so they can focus on cleaning up and rebuilding.”

In addition to delivering meals, Fromagerie Chefs Phil Deffina and Stuart Marx cooked for Sea Bright residents sheltered at Rumson-Fair Haven High School.