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Chef Rick Moonen and Las Vegas Hospitality Association Help Three Square

The Las Vegas Hospitably Association’s (LVHA) July buffet breakfast meeting with Chef Rick Moonen as guest speaker at his famous RM Seafood Restaurant in Mandalay Bay on Thursday, July 28, 2011 was also a fundraiser for Three Square (Photo credit: Las Vegas Photo and Video).  

LVHA member brought non-perishable, child-friendly foods and donated 201 pounds of food. Chef Moonen stayed after the meeting to sell and sign his cookbook “Fish Without A Doubt: The Cook’s Essential Companion” and donated a portion of the proceeds to Three Square.

Chef Rick Moonen autographing books for LVHA members

Photo credit: Jackie Brett.

Chef Moonen is an advocate for sustainable fishing and seafood. His passion for conservation has led him to national acclaim and it all started by accident. He was a young chef in New York City at a time before chefs were celebrities. He and a click of chefs as he said were gathered for a tourism event when a reporter asked about genetically engineered foods. His answer, “I think Mother Nature does a fantastic job,” was a sound bite that resonated to nationwide portions and began his claim to fame. This resulted in a Chefs Coalition for the Pure Food Campaign back in 1992.

As an industry leader, Chef Moonen has testified for environmental and sustainable policy issues in Washington, D.C. and New York. He is a founding member of the Seafood Choices Alliances, which named him “Seafood Champion” in 2006, as well as an active member of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Seaweb, and a chef’s advisory board member of Ecofish.

Chef Moonen is most famous for his memorable appearance in 2009 as a contestant on Bravo’s hit TV series “Top Chef Masters,” followed by a stint as a judge on “Top Chef Las Vegas” where his eponymous restaurant served as the location for the show’s popular “Restaurant Wars” episode – which led to an invitation to participate in the second season of “Top Chef Masters” where Moonen finished as runner-up and raised $22,500 for Three Square, a local non-profit organization with many programs to feed the less fortunate in our community.