Here’s Everything You Need to Know About the 2022 Chef Showdown

on September 29, 2022

Returning for the second year, the It Starts With a Meal™️ Chef Showdown is right around the corner! Our virtual cooking competition is taking place October 3-14 on social media — so, get your aprons ready and prepare to cast your vote!Like last year’s competition, this year’s Chef Showdown will commemorate World Food Day, the annual holiday established by the United Nations, by driving awareness to global food insecurity and our work to address this critical issue. But a few things have also changed since last year!If you tuned in last year, you saw two chefs — Ali Khan and JJ Johnson — create internationally inspired dishes and compete during a live broadcast. This year, we’re stretching the World Food Day celebration over two weeks, from October 3-14, on social media and seven renowned chefs will be competing! The chefs have created recipes inspired by the regions where Rise Against Hunger works to alleviate hunger. In the weeks leading up to World Food Day on October 16, we’ll be sharing cooking demonstration videos from each of these chefs on our Instagram and Facebook pages and asking you and other Hunger Champions to pick your favorite chef by liking, commenting and sharing that video. These engagements will count as votes to determine which chef will win the Golden Whisk Award. Plus, when you engage with the videos, you’ll be helping to share Rise Against Hunger’s mission and the importance of addressing global hunger with others! Here are four things you can do to prepare for this year’s Chef Showdown:

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

If you aren’t already, following us on Instagram and Facebook will be essential for voting in this year’s Chef Showdown. We’ll be sharing each chef’s videos on those platforms. You can then like, comment and share your favorite video to cast your vote for who you want to win the Golden Whisk Award!

Get to know the participating chefs.

We have seven chefs and TV personalities (including Ali Khan, last year’s Golden Whisk Award winner) from across the United States and around the world competing this year. Check out their bios to learn more about each of them. Nacho Aguirre — He is the winner of Food Network’s 2018 “Spring Baking Championship” and co-owner of Délice Chocolatier & Patisserie in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife Susana Mijares.Michelle Adrillana — Michelle is a chef, food and beverage consultant, content creator and Filipino cuisine advocate from the Philippines. Nicole McLaughlin — She is the producer and star of Allrecipe’s food series “You Can Cook That.” From Birmingham, Alabama, Nicole has over 20 years of experience in the culinary industry. Chando Madrigal — Based in Sacramento, California, Chando is the owner and executive chef of Chando’s Tacos, an established restaurant chain with locations in California and Georgia. Chando was also a finalist on Food Network’s “Chopped” in 2021. Chef Yadi — Yadi Garcia, also known as Happy Healthy Latina, is a certified natural foods chef and holistic health coach. She is also a partial owner of Loisa, a company that creates classic Latin seasonings and kitchen tools. Her television show “Naturally Yadi” airs on the Food Network. Chef Yisus — Jesus Diaz, known as Chef Yisus, is the resident chef on Univision’s “Despierta América” morning show and author of the “Cook Deliciously With Chef Yisus” cookbook. Ali Khan — A cook and TV host from Austin, Texas, Ali is known for Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship” and “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” as well as “Cheap Eats” on the Cooking Channel.

Check out the schedule for when videos will be posted.

We’ll be sharing 3-4 chef videos weekly from October 3–14. Now that you’ve learned more about the participating chefs, check out when their videos will be posted below.

Cast your vote!

As we upload the chef videos on Instagram and Facebook, pick your favorite and then like, comment and share that video. And don’t delay; on Monday, October 17, we’ll announce the chef with the highest engagement as the Golden Whisk Award winner!

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.