The Heart Foundation Honors Celebrity Chef Wolfang Puck with The Steven S. Cohen Humanitarian Award

Los Angeles, CA – The Heart Foundation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, dedicated to raising awareness of heart disease, will honor celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, businessman and philanthropist Wolfgang Puck with The Steven S. Cohen Humanitarian Award on May 30, 2009, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.  The evening will include a spectacular culinary experience with appearances by special guest chefs and surprise entertainment.

“Wolfgang Puck truly embodies all of the qualities The Steven S. Cohen Humanitarian Award recognizes,” said Mark Litman, Chairman of The Heart Foundation and close friend of the late Steven Cohen.  “We are honored that he has agreed to accept this prestigious award.”

The name Wolfgang Puck is synonymous with the best of restaurant hospitality and the ultimate in all aspects of the culinary arts.  The famous chef has built a gastronomic empire that encompasses three separate Wolfgang Puck entities: Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining, Wolfgang Puck Catering and Wolfgang Puck Worldwide.  Concurrently with his restaurant and catering operations, Wolfgang Puck has made a name for himself as a communicator.  He has written six cookbooks and has been a regular guest on ABC’s Good Morning America since 1986.  Wolfgang’s syndicated newspaper column, “Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen,” appears in over 30 newspapers in the United States and Canada, reaching more than 5.3 million people each week.  The chef is known to tens of thousands of television viewers who see him regularly on Home Shopping Network (HSN) where he demonstrates recipes using his growing line of Wolfgang Puck branded housewares.

Central to all of Wolfgang Puck’s endeavors is his Wolfgang’s Eat, Love, Live® (WELL) philosophy.  This stands for culinary passion for eating and dining WELL which means a commitment to provide food made with only the freshest and healthiest natural and organic ingredients available, to celebrate local farmers and seasonal ingredients, and to use only humanely-raised animal products.

Puck is actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors and charitable organizations, including his own Puck-Lazaroff Charitable Foundation which has raised over $10 million for Meals-on-Wheels programs of Los Angeles.  He is also a major supporter of the American Cancer Society, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Special Olympics, the Cystic Fibrosis Society, Race to Erase MS, Children’s Diabetes Foundation, Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program and Mazon.

The Heart Foundation’s goal is to prevent, cure and eradicate heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States today.  To further that end, the foundation supports the groundbreaking cardiac research of Dr. P.K. Shah and his colleagues at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  Dr. Shah and his colleagues are currently in discussions with the FDA to obtain permission to launch human testing in the last quarter of 2009 of the heart disease vaccine they have developed.

The Heart Foundation was established in 1996 in memory of Steven S. Cohen, an incredible husband, father, son, brother and friend, who lost his life to Sudden Cardiac Death at the age of 35 with no warning signs.

The Steven S. Cohen Humanitarian Award, named for the man whose sudden death transformed a community, recognizes outstanding individuals who effect change within their communities and demonstrate a commitment to the betterment of humankind.  Past recipients include: Berry Gordy, Kirk and Anne Douglas, Norman R. Brokaw, and Marshall Ezralow.

Individual tickets for this event are priced at $1,000, and sponsorships are available.  For more information on The Heart Foundation or this event, call (818) 865-1100 or visit www.TheHeartFoundation.org.

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CONTACTS:

Katy Sweet/Pam Giangregorio
Katy Sweet & Associates
(323) 852-0772

Catherine Erlinger
The Heart Foundation
(818) 865-1100

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