However, with only days to go, we are about $1,500 short of our goal!

ANY contribution can make a difference and help keep us going to plan future trips to targeted communities including Mississippi, New Orleans, Rwanda and Haiti. [To view our response on the recent disaster and our role, please click HERE].  We realize this may be a hard time to give but sending us your well-wishes and support works for us too!

To donate, please visit our online donation portal.

CulinaryCorps is 100% volunteer run, and all donations go directly to planning and launching our trips. Donations are collected via our fiscal sponsor, FJC.

$2, $10 or $25 really does make a difference. Thank you!

Culanthropy: Two years ago, the New York City chef Christine Carroll was painting a New Orleans high school with a post-Katrina volunteer group when she realized that she was no painter. But she could cook; so could everyone she knew. And New Orleans needed nourishment. Once home, she started organizing CulinaryCorps, a charity that recruits squads of chefs and culinary student for weeklong trips to New Orleans, where they might be asked to cook dinner for a Habitat for Humanity crew one night and the still-stoveless residents of the Lower Ninth Ward the next.
Mornings are spent volunteering: teaching elementary-school kids about growing vegetables or helping to recover flood-damaged cookbooks from venerated restaurants. The focus is not just on feeding the hungry but also on keeping the city’s food traditions alive. “We give them our version of shrimp and grits, and then when they come back for seconds, they share their secret family recipes,” says Carroll.

Of the 75 chefs who have gone through the program, two have moved to New Orleans to make culinary philanthropy — or “culanthropy” – a full-time project. Next year, Carroll says, she hopes to take her Sauciers Sans Frontieres idea to places like Appalachia and Puerto Rico.

The fourth CulinaryCorps trip to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast has just returned from their week of “culanthropy” in the city and beyond. The week was an incredible amalgamation of cooking, learning and connecting. And although we have all returned to our homes exhausted, we are proud to have contributed to the widespread recovery efforts.

As always, the success of this trip relied on three core actions:

1. The dedication of our volunteer cooks

2. The soul-warming hospitality of our community project and event partners

3. And donations from people like you! Without your monetary help, CulinaryCorps would not have been able to…

…Create a fundraising “Brunch Without Borders” for the Holy Angels Farmers Market, the only source of fresh produce in the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward. The menu included Heuvos Rancheros using market fresh cilantro pesto, sweet potato rostis, spiced crepes with Praline sauce and lots of local citrus….

Annie S. and Chris C. work on the Spiced
Crepes with Praline Sauce

…Design and launch the “St. Rose Holiday Food Fest”, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The evening welcomed nearly two hundred hungry guests gathered to thank their local volunteers working tirelessly through the St. Rose Outreach and Recovery initiative to rebuild homes in the area. Extra revenue was created through the sales of our cookbook, “From Our Kitchen to Yours”, a collection of the recipes executed that evening….

The efforts of the St. Rose Outreach Initiative
have helped put dozens of residents back into
their homes.

…Feed three hundred Habitat for Humanity volunteers at Camp Hope, the housing facility hosting thousands of volunteers dedicating time to build homes from the ground up across the city. We once again had the opportunity to work side-by-side with an incoming AmeriCorps NCCC kitchen crew, teaching these amazing young volunteers how to cook in large quantities and put a little bit of love into every bite.

Deb F., Duke A. and NCCC volunteers getting ready
to deep fry oysters, generously donated by
P&J Oyster

…Lead the third grade class at Samuel Green Charter through an “Edible Scavenger Hunt” at the Crescent City Farmers Market in conjunction with The Edible Schoolyard NOLA…

Donovan and second time CulinaryCorps
volunteer Lamont S. discover
edible wonders at the market.

…And then turn those ingredients into a beautiful meal in the classroom!

A busy Samuel Green cook

…Learn first-hand about the history of one of the city’s oldest restaurants, Antoine’s, by cleaning and archiving memorabilia damaged in the storm under the guidance of The Southern Food and Beverage Museum…

Maria N. sorts through old
menus in Antoine’s
Japanese Room

…Co-design the menu specials at Cafe Reconcile alongside their students – a talented group of budding young cooks. The dining room filled up and the Cubano Sandwich sold out!

Third time volunteer and co-leader
Viviana A. with a budding chef

…and connect with the food, the chefs, the stories, the foodways, the recipes and the fate of Louisiana and Mississippi. In the end, your dollars went further than you’ll ever know.

Thank you for your generosity to CulinaryCorps and please remember that our work has just begun.

With warmth and thanks,

Christine, Founder

The competition was fierce but friendly and in the end, the most traditional of all the entries pulled ahead.

Congratulations LR for winning the hearts and stomachs of our discerning judges. And even more thanks for sharing your secrets with us…ham hocks, starting the day before, Esposito’s handmade sausage and of course, love. Spoken like a true New Orleanian.

Enjoy your spoils…a class at ICE, a gift set from OXO and one of the best t-shirts we’ve ever seen. And for all of you who couldn’t join us but would like to contribute, visit our on-line fundraising page by clicking the icon below.

Thanks and see you at the Second Annual Red Beans and Rice Competition next year!

FIRST ANNUAL
RED BEANS AND RICE COMPETITION

Monday, May 14th from…

6pm-8pm at…

DBA New York (41 First Avenue).

$20 per person (tax-deductible). Includes…

A free beer…

A vote in the competition and

A chance to win some wicked cool door prizes like

Dinner for two at Houston’s and

Pickled okra.

So come enjoy the dish Louis Armstrong made famous and…

Sir Mix-a-lot made infamous.

TASTEFULLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
CulinaryCorps and The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE)
WITH GENEROUS DONATIONS FROM:
DBA New York, OXO, The Hillstone Group, Union Square Hospitality Group, ICE
IN SUPPORT OF:
The CulinaryCorps/ICE June Outreach Trip to New Orleans, LA
WITH SPECIAL GUEST
Elizabeth Pearce, Curator, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum

(T-shirt image courtesy of www.metrothree.com)

Your donations DO make a difference.  Last trip’s fundraiser put 20 pounds of Orleans Coffee into Emergency Communities breakfast line-up, $250 dollars worth of seasonal produce into Edible Schoolyard’s Iron Chef Competition and 300 tasty french-toast samples into hungry mouths at Crescent City Farmers Market. 

Any amount is greatly appreciated!  Click on the button below and pass the word…