When Chantell Hardin cooks, her son, Prince Wise, 9, often stands beside her in the kitchen learning how to prepare food and sampling spices.
“He always asks questions,” Hardin, 30, of Pittsburgh, tells TODAY.com. “In my seasoning closet, I have over 50 (spices), and he wants to know what (each) tastes like.”
Prince’s love of food led to a sophisticated palate, and he often asks his mom to make a seafood boil or to take him to the sushi bar.
But when Prince developed a serious heart condition in 2021, his stint in the hospital brought this routine to a halt. Prince required a heart transplant, which he eventually received.
Soon after, he connected with Make-A-Wish of Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia and was gifted a trip. A year later, when the organization was looking for someone to help create a new menu item for the Fairmont Pittsburgh’s restaurant, Floor 2, as part of a fundraiser, the team reached out to Prince.
“We got really emotional because it was such a blessing (to be asked),” Hardin says. “It was so breathtaking to know that he actually did this.”
Sudden illness and a heart transplant
In 2021, Prince, then 7, suddenly fell ill.
“Prince passed out on the floor,” Hardin says. “His eyes started to roll to the back of the head.” Worried that he had a COVID-19 infection, his father rushed him to an urgent care clinic where doctors recommended Prince go to the children’s hospital. When Hardin arrived at the hospital, she was stunned to see dozens of staff in Prince’s room.
“I immediately knew something was severely wrong,” she says. “Everything happened so quick. At that time, we were told he had to go to immediate surgery in order to save his life.”
Prince’s heart was enlarged, and doctors used a Berlin Heart — a machine that helps a child’s heart pump when they are in heart failure — to steady Prince’s condition while he waited for a heart transplant. He had something called dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the left ventricle of the heart cannot pump effectively because it is too swollen, according to Penn Medicine. It can cause heart failure.
“It was the worst nightmare ever,” Hardin says, adding that doctors said Prince’s chances of surviving without a heart were low.
“He was in critical condition,” she says.
Prince remained hospitalized while he waited for a heart. Luckily, after three months, one became available, and he was able to undergo transplant surgery. Following that, he needed to recover and undergo rehabilitation to learn how to walk and talk again. When he was finally able to eat without a feeding tube, he noted the hospital food wasn’t up to his usual standards.
“He ordered a cheeseburger with a berry smoothie every day,” Hardin says. “It was one of the only things he liked.”
Prince was relieved when he could finally go home. Immediately, he requested his favorite meal: a seafood boil. While he eventually started cooking again, Prince still struggles with tremors in his hands, making it tough for him to prep and cook sometimes. Still, his love for food hasn’t waned.
“He tends to get frustrated,” Hardin says. “I let him do certain things that I know (are) not putting too much of a (strain) on him. But yes, he’s in the kitchen with me all the time still.”
Last year, Make-A-Wish of Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia granted Prince a wish to visit theme parks in Orlando, Florida and he loved his experience there.
And while Hardin sometimes received general updates from Make-A-Wish, she didn’t expect their relationship to go further than the vacation. So, when the family received an email asking if Prince might want to be involved in creating a dish to raise money for the local chapter of the nonprofit, they were thrilled.
“We burst out in tears,” she says. “This is what he really wants.”
Creating a dish
Prince visited the kitchen of Floor 2 twice. The first visit allowed him to become familiar with the kitchen layout, food availability and to brainstorm ideas. And the second time, he made the dish.
Executive chef Fernando Canales was surprised that Prince arrived at the first meeting with a solid idea about what he wanted to make.
“I was impressed when he said, ‘Oh I love crabcakes,’ because he’s a kid,” Canales tells TODAY.com. “When he told me, ‘Oh I love lobster. I was like, ‘You have expensive taste.’”
Canales had been thinking of adding crab to the menu so when Prince suggested the crabcakes, it seemed like a perfect fit. He showed Prince the vegetables the kitchen stocked, they discussed how to plan around seasonal availability and they talked about sides and condiments to elevate the sandwich to restaurant-worthy status.
Prince knew he wanted avocado to be part of the dish, and Canales backed the idea. He thought the creamy fruit would add depth to the crabcakes. “I am from Mexico so, of course, I love avocado,” Canales says. “(It’s) a really good flavor with avocado and the crab together.”
At their second meeting, the two spent about four hours cooking together to create the crabcake dish. Prince was adamant that the sandwich be served with thin fries, like those at McDonalds. And Canales showed Prince how to make tartar sauce to add something extra to the meal.
“I was helping him and teaching him a little bit,” he says. “But it wasn’t really hard with him because Prince already knows some things.”
Canales enjoyed working with Prince. It reminded him of when he was the same age learning how to make chiles rellenos with his mother. This sparked his interest in becoming a chef.
“When I’m in the kitchen I feel really comfortable, and he feels (the) same. I can see him really (having) fun,” Canales says. “He asked questions about what is this? What is that for? Why are you using butter for the bread?”
The finished dish — Prince’s crabcake sandwich and fries — has two crabcake patties, avocado, tartar sauce and fries. It’s available at Floor 2 until Dec. 21, 2024, and 10% of its profits will benefit Make-A-Wish Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The staff gifted Prince an apron and chef’s hat with his name on it and a set of children’s cooking knives so he could continue practicing at home.
Though Hardin knew her son liked the finer foods in life, even she was surprised by his choices.
“I didn’t know he would go get real fancy,” Hardin says. “I know my child’s taste … I thought he would go more so toward the crab legs.”
Hardin was so impressed when she tasted the sandwich after watching her son working so diligently in the kitchen.
