Messier and Mizrahi make magic with new healthy enterprise online
Celebrity chef Dafna Mizrahi has teamed with hockey great Mark Messier on Instagram to bring healthy food and fitness tips to the public. She is pictured here during a cooking event from her children’s cooking show. Photo submitted

Messier and Mizrahi make magic with new healthy enterprise online

MILLBROOK — In times of need, sometimes worlds collide in a positive way, and just recently a star chef and a world famous sports star came together to bring fitness and healthy eating together, online and free of charge. 

Hockey legend Mark Messier and celebrity chef Dafna Mizrahi have joined together to create a program, available through Instagram, that brings the best of both worlds to the public.

Messier played 25 years in the National Hockey League  (NHL) with the Edmonton Oilers, the Vancouver Canucks and the New York Rangers gaining international fame, and winning the Stanley Cup in 1994. He retired in 2005, but has kept active, including through a recent venture with partner Isaac Chera of Honeycomb Fitness Centers, designed to promote physical and mental health, wellness and fitness. Celebrity trainers Stacey Griffith, David Kirsch and Tracy Carlinsky are also on board. 

COVID-19 prevented the brick and mortar opening of the proposed centers, but did not deter Honeycomb from bringing the programs to the public through Instagram.

Mizrahi gained local popularity as chef-owner of Monte’s Local Kitchen and Tap Room in Amenia; she also won the hit TV show, “Chopped,” on the Cooking Channel. Since then, she was at the upscale Silo Ridge development in Amenia, and has started a cooking school for children in Millbrook, the extremely popular “Kids to Table,” which had to temporarily suspend operations due to COVID-19.

With both operations in limbo for the present, Messier and Mizrahi, who have been acquainted for several years, came up with the idea of joining forces, bringing a holistic approach to fitness, offering an online resource to the public, blending healthy living with fitness training and cooking lessons for those who want to get through the pandemic and its stress with a healthy body and mind. 

Messier shared his thoughts with viewers recently.

“The concept of Honeycomb struck me as an opportunity to share my passion for high-level performance with like-minded people,” he said online. “Building a community to help people reach their full potential is something that I feel very fortunate to create with the help of my partners.”

Mizrahi is known for her passion for local and farm fresh foods. 

“Dafna’s Kitchen will spearhead and lead the culinary program at Honeycomb right now virtually and hopefully one day in the free-standing locations,” she said, adding, “I will be hosting live shows introducing new recipes to the community and kitchen tips.” 

She and Messier recently did their first show together using a split screen. More than 500 viewers were counted. Feedback was immensely positive, with comments about how easy the lesson proved to be for both the avid cook and the less experienced.

An unlikely combination of talents? Not at all, according to Messier and Mizrahi. 

“Both brands… emphasize the same idea of wellness not only through being physically fit but also fit in the mind and the soul,” said Mizrahi. 

Found now only on Instagram, the hope is that once the threat of COVID-19 has passed, the brick and mortar locations will open in the New York area; the pair is planning on designing and selling their own line of products as well.

For details, go to www.honeycombfit.com; for more information on Dafna’s Kitchen, go to Instagram.com/dafnaskitchen.

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