A Fairytale Foodie Night In The Woodlands Boosts the Pioneering Duncan NRI — Food Network Fave and Brain Health Come Together

Texas Children’s Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) and The Woodlands’ acclaimed Amrina restaurant teamed up for a fairytale foodie night to remember. One that raised more than $410,000 — critical funds that will go towards the groundbreaking work of the life changing medical facility.

This “Once Upon a Time” night brought out more than 115 influential guests who enjoyed a specially curated menu, complete with wine pairings carefully chosen by Food Network’s Chopped champion and Amrina Chef Jassi Bindra. The magnificent backdrop Amrina provides proved to be the perfect setting for an evening full of good food, drinks and bountiful giving.

Barbara and Mike Feigin, longtime supporters of Duncan NRI, chaired the night. Amrina owners Nav and Surpreet Singh, and Preet Singh joined in on the celebration. Attendees heard heartfelt remarks from Texas Children’s Hospital president (and soon-to-be new CEO) Debra Sukin and Duncan NRI founding director Dr. Huda Zoghbi.

Will Murphy served as the auctioneer for the three live auction items of the night: a drink auction, a menu item auction and a paddles up auction for unique bottles of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon and Whistle Pig whiskey.

The winner of the drink auction gets to have a cocktail named after them on the menu at Amrina for one year, with a portion of the proceeds from that cocktail’s sales throughout the year going back to the Duncan NRI. The menu item auction winner gets to create a dish alongside Chef Bindra, with that dish also on the menu for one year.

Bindra showed his own skills off on this dream food night, unfurling a memorable parade of dishes. The first course featured tuna crudo alongside a riesling from Seneca Lake. Truffle Raj Kachori followed, paired with a French chablis. Then a Chilean sea bass served with a Burgundy from the heart of France, and Rosewood Wagyu strip served with a California cabernet sauvignon. Coconut and passionfruit entremets finished things up on a dreamy dessert note.

The Duncan NRI Mission

The Duncan NRI researches and discovers treatments for devastating brain disorders that impact more than a billion people worldwide, including 300 million children. As the largest children’s hospital in America, Texas Children’s Hospital is uniquely positioned to study brain development in kids to understand how the brain changes later in life. The Texas Children’s Duncan NRI spans 344,000 square feet and covers 13 floors in the Texas Medical Center. It is home to more than 400 multidisciplinary researchers who collaborate with doctors for rapid lab-to-bedside discovery, facilitating innovation.

This approach has led to 1,700 published discoveries, the identification of 90 novel disease-causing genes and major breakthroughs in autism, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. Texas Children’s Hospital covers all of the Duncan NRI’s annual operating costs, so every dollar donated directly supports research. For more information, go here.

PC Seen:  Debra and Steve Sukin, Barbara and Mike Feigin, Dr. Huda Zoghbi, Dr. Joshua Shulman, Joan and John Scales, Vijay and Marie Goradia, Missy Herndon, Patricia and Scott Young, Kim and Robert Marling, Jane and Gary Sumner, Lisa and Mark Stewart, John and Angela Wiesenbaker, Claudia and David Walkup, Steve and Stacey Bourque, Lily and Surinder Singh, Taylor and Sterling Dio, and Michelle Little.