Baron Ambrosia, the Bronx’s culinary boulevardier of stout heart and insatiable palate, made the rounds of Hunts Point recently, sweeping into ethnic restaurants to urge people to come to the big table. Granted, some of the joints he visited were barely big enough to contain his oversize persona. But the table to which he was rallying people was one where food was both on the plate and on the agenda.

The gimmick was a cook-off, where local eateries and kitchens whipped up free eats to attract a crowd. But the real issue before them was discussing how the area’s economic foundation of food — the wholesale markets that feed some 22 million people in the Northeast and employ hundreds — can be protected from weather catastrophes, coexist with the community and offer more jobs and green space.

Hunts Point is among several communities in the region affected by Hurricane Sandy vying for federal financing to achieve those goals in an initiative known as Rebuild by Design. While labor, the wholesale markets and the community have long shared the Hunts Point peninsula, they have rarely met to discuss a mutually beneficial future.

“It’s a really interesting intersection between jobs, manufacturing and economic sustainability,” said Richard Roark, a landscape architect and a principal in the group developing the Bronx plan. “We needed a process that facilitated engagement with people. To work in Hunts Point, you have to have buy-in from people or you’re going to get resistance.”