All Over Albany

Jackie Baldwin Memorial Scholarship Gala

There's a fundraiser at the Franklin Terrace Ballroom this Monday, June 19 for the newly formed Chef Jackie Baldwin Memorial Scholarship at at SCCC's Culinary Arts Program. The new fund is in remembrance of the longtime local chef who died last year.

The event will include more than 15 tasting tables from a lineup of prominent local chefs. The list is below.

Tickets are $60 each -- $100 per couple -- and available online (see the link above).

Chefs' tables

Chef Michael Niccoli, CEA, CCA; Restaurant Navona
Chef Jamie Ortiz, Executive Chef; CEC; Mazzone Hospitality, Albany
Chef Robert Payne, CEC; Bears Steakhouse, Duanesburg
Chef David Campbell, CCC, CCE; SUNY Cobleskill
Chef Melissa Doney, CEC; Browns Brewing, Troy
ACF Capital District Central New York
Chef Larry Schepici, Jacks' Oyster House, Albany & Chef Mark Graham, Founder of Chef Mark Graham Cuisine
Chef's Michael Cunningham, Rachel Bozzella and Ganna Fedorova, Provence, Albany, Milano, Latham
Student Chef Table, Schenectady County Community College
Chef Darren Alvaro, RPI SODEXO
Chef Gerald Oriol, UALBANY SODEXO
Chef Gillian Manna, Sage Colleges SODEXO
Chef Yono Purnomo, CEC; Executive Chef; Yono's, Albany
Chef Dale Miller, CMC, WGMC, AAC Consulting
Chef Jim Rhodes, CEC, AAC
Rocco DeFazio, DeFazio's Pizza, Troy
Chef Rich Matthews, The Shop, Troy
Chef Michael Kennedy, The Hilton, Troy

Dessert tables

Bella Napoli, Troy & Latham
The Placid Baker, Troy
Pretty Sweet Bake Shop, Averill Park

About Jackie Baldwin

From the event press release:

On March 18, 2016, the late Jackie Baldwin died shortly after being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer in January. She was in her early 50s and lived in Troy, where she had worked as executive chef of RPI for 14 years prior to her promotion in 2015 to area executive chef for Sodexo, supervising food service at 32 college and university campuses in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

A native-born Trojan and graduate of Troy Schools and Russell Sage College, Jackie acquired a culinary degree from Schenectady County Community College in 1983 becoming one of the few premier women chefs in the Capital District. One of the highlights of her career included hosting dinner at the James Beard Foundation in New York City in 2006 and 2007.

Friends say Baldwin dedicated her life to service, contribution, and improvement and that her open heart, kindness and boundless energy was a gift to all who knew her.

Local celebrity Chef Ric Orlando said Baldwin was "a testament to professionalism and poise."