Garlic Festival Chef Feeds Sandy Victims

Contributed by the Gilroy Garlic Festival:

Chef Michael Giletto, a Cook-Off Theater favorite of the past two Gilroy Garlic Festivals, is actively involved in feeding Emergency Service personnel and displaced victims of October’s Hurricane Sandy in the New Jersey and New York regions.

Giletto, the Executive Chef of the Bayonne (NJ) Golf Club and a rising TV personality, joined emergency recovery units near his residence on the Jersey Shore immediately after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast of Oct. 29.

“The first few days focused on recovery aspects,” Giletto explains. “Then it became immediately apparent that the recovery teams required sustenance and that more and more people were left without homes in the aftermath of the destruction.”

Giletto organized a “Chefs Survival Team” with two other area chefs. The trio coordinates daily food service for groups from Toms River, NJ to Atlantic City and Far Rockaway.

“We set up several shelters and kitchens,” Giletto says. “There are a lot of area restaurants with inventory in their freezers and we’ve secured as much raw protein as possible.”

The three teams fed Thanksgiving meals to over 3,400 victims and emergency workers.

Giletto anticipates that his crews will continue their services for “at least three more weeks.”

Chef Michael posts updates on his group’s effort to his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/michael.giletto.9