Chef Kelly McClay at the 2019 Atlantic Cape Restaurant Gala.
MAYS LANDING The Atlantic Cape Foundation has announced that retired Academy of Culinary Arts Dean, Chef Kelly McClay, and the Mullock Family of Cape May will be the honorees at the 39th annual Atlantic Cape Restaurant Gala being held March 31 at Harrah's Atlantic City Waterfront Conference Center. This year's theme is Immersion.
McClay, this year's Culinary Arts Honoree, began working as an adjunct professor at the academy in 1994 and rose through the ranks over the years. She was promoted to dean in 2007. She has a passion for culinary arts and education, leading and managing several events featuring academy students, including the Miss America Luncheon, Savor Borgata Food and Wine, NJ Food and Wine Festival. She also instituted the study abroad programs for academy students, traveling to Italy and France. During her tenure, she instilled the concepts of food sustainability and using locally sourced farm fresh food, and brought the college's greenhouse back to life.
An Atlantic City native, McClay began her culinary career at Trump Marina Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City and quickly moved up the ranks becoming the first woman sous chef in the city. In 1994, she began teaching at the academy as an adjunct instructor and was appointed to a full-time position, then to assistant director the following year.
She studied culinary arts at Drexel University in Philadelphia where she received her bachelor's degree in 2004. She went on to earn her MBA at Rutgers University-Camden in 2012.
The Mullock Family of Cape May are this year's Community Honorees.
The Mullock family, this year's Community Honorees, have been an integral part of the success of Atlantic Cape and the students here for more than two decades. They own several popular properties, including Cape May National Golf Course.
The family patriarch, Robert Bob Mullock, has been described as an entrepreneur, a history enthusiast and a preservationist over the years, but he is also a philanthropist and a former politician.
He has served on the foundation's Board of Trustees since 2005, and hosts the annual Scramble FORE Scholarships Golf Tournament at his Cape May National Golf Club. He is a retired first lieutenant in the United States Army, a former Cape May Point commissioner, and owner of The Chalfonte Hotel in Cape May.
Over the years, the Mullock family has dedicated their efforts to humanitarian causes around the world, including building orphanages in Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Honduras, Haiti, Chile and Ecuador. Last year, they worked with the Macedonia Baptist Church to open the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May.
The family's next challenge is to save the historic St. Mary's in Cape May Point from demolition and to establish a world class environmental ecology and marine science center there, working with Atlantic Cape Community College.
The 39th annual Atlantic Cape Restaurant Gala, with its theme Immersion, will feature samples of signature dishes, beverages and desserts from the area's best eateries, live entertainment from the Dirty Dance Band, and the culinary talents of Academy of Culinary Arts students as they train to become the area's next great chefs. Academy alumnus Peter Slavin, owner of Ice Sculpture Philly, will perform a special ice carving presentation.
Tickets are now on sale for the scholarship fundraiser to benefit students in the Academy of Culinary Arts, now in its 40th year.
For more information about this year's gala and to purchase tickets, visit www.atlantic.edu/gala.
