Fish with Kitchen on Fire

Yesterday our great friends and supporters Chef Mike C. and Oliveman of Kitchen on Fire came by to cut up 13 pounds of whole fish. Trout, snapper and milkfish were involved. In the end, 20 of our finest Kitchen of Champions trainees left with the ability to carve up a fish... along with to-go containers of freshly made Herb Roasted White Fish with fennel, corn, red onion and arugula relish and Mediterranean Seafood Stew. I have had very few seafood dishes in my life better than that seafood stew. Need the recipe? Email me!

KofC Marinara Sauce Pilot and a... Film Crew?

In the not-so-distant future, the Kitchen of Champions will be making its very own shelf-stable canned goods. Our good friends at Terra Bella Family Farm are supplying us with some of their surplus vegetables this summer and we will make all sorts of delicious goods moving forward. Farmer Joe stopped by yesterday with boxes of tomatoes, eggplants, herbs and more, and 4 hours later we had our very first batch of sauce-- a roasted tomato and eggplant marinara with savory, rosemary, chives, basil, marjoram and tarragon. Not too shabby! In the next few weeks we will be processing over 600 jars of this for distribution in their CSA, so be sure to subscribe to their delicious basket of fresh, local produce!

So while this was happening in the kitchen, a supporter of SVDP called REDF came by with a large film crew to interview one of our trainees named Son. Then I went home and ate a bunch of pasta with delicious marinara sauce.

Field Trip! City Slicker Farms' "Secret Garden"

The group took a field trip to the Santa Fe neighborhood of Oakland to City Slicker Farms' "Secret Garden." This garden produces most of CSF's produce that is sold at their neighborhood market at 16th and Center in West Oakland.

Wells Fargo Check Presentation

Wells Fargo, a supporter of the Kitchen of Champions Culinary Training Program, dropped by to present our class with a $10,000 check this morning. Thanks Wells Fargo for your support!!

Guest Chef Dinner With The Grand Tavern

The Grand Tavern's Kay Eskind came with a couple of her wonderful staff members to produce a delectable 4-course meal for our Guest Chef fundraiser on July 21st. She, along with a little help from our Kitchen of Champions culinary trainees, prepared the following for our program supporters:

• Beef Dumpling dish over yogurt sauce with fresh tomato, onion & pea reduction
• Roasted Eggplant with garlic sour cream sauce & Acme bread
• One-Half Chicken Slow Roasted with Lemon, basmati rice with carrots & raisins in a lamb broth
• Flan

Please support our local contributing restaurants! The Grand Tavern is on Grand Ave, north of the theater:
3601 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 444-4644

Enjoy some photos by Brian Espinosa (www.brianespinosa.net), a fabulous photographer who donates hours of time for a fantastic cause!

Here's a link to our set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51803098@N03/sets/72157624647132458/

Here's the slideshow:


SVdP: Kitchen of Champions - 7/21/2010 - Images by Brian Espinosa

Laney College Culinary Tour

The gang headed to meet with head chef Laurence Jackson of Laney College today, where he gave our trainees a tour of their top notch facility and spoke of culinary career trajectories.

In all of her glory

Chef Jackson and the gang.