Actor Will Smith popped in virtually Monday to honor big hearted Manhattan Chinatown chef and restauranteur Patrick Mock.
As AsAmNews first reported in May, Mock has kept his kitchen going at 46 Mott Place through the pandemic largely by providing free meals to seniors who line up for blocks for the meals. Mock also makes deliveries to hospitals.
Hearing this, Smith Monday featured Mock on his Snap Original series, Will from Home: Holiday Special. Not only did Smith do Mock a solid by featuring him on the program as part of his Everyday Heroes spotlight, he heard Mock enjoyed Karaoke and surprised him with a Karaoke duet partner, Grammy winning artist Alicia Keyes.
You can watch a bit of the surprise here.
According to Respect Magazine, Smith also presented Mock with a new Phat Scooter and presented him a check from Asian Americans for Equality for $10,000 to support Patrick’s efforts. In addition, Google gave him $50,000 from 1863 Ventures, along with a free year of coaching from Google.org and cooler backpacks to help get out his deliveries.
“ I’m doing what I can to make things easier for everyone,” Mock told AsAmNews in October. “I like that the different organizations are doing different things to help. At the same time, I want to connect everyone together, so they are on the same page to cover more ground as a collective than as individual groups or organizations.”
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Yesterday he had marshalled 7 volunteers to weatherize traditional Chinese lanterns to be hung up tonight on Mott St. They worked past midnight. That’s when the last subway was operating…