Descriptions and pictures after the jump:

A CHRISTMAS DINNER IN CAYEY

The day we all first meet as a team is often one wracked with nerves.  Each of us has those butterfly feelings that harken back to the “first day of school” jitters .  Will people like me?  Will I like the group?  Am I a good enough cook to be part of this trip?  Am I ready for this challenge?

Over the years, we have found the best way to move past these unfounded hesitations is by sitting down to a meal together.   This trip’s first meal happened to be filled with a lot of pork, a surefire way to cut the tension in a roomful of cooks.  The evening started with a trip up the tropical mountains of interior Puerto Rico, about a half-hour south of San Juan, to the town of Guavate.  Also known as the “roast pig route” Guavate is a pork lover’s paradise with roadside restaurants of whole-roasted pigs lining the streets like street lights.

Walking into one of these joints feels like you’ve arrived in porcine heaven.  There are steaming hot trays filled with every cut of succulent roasted pork (from loin to tail) all clinging to crispy bits of caramel-colored skin.  Plus, large quantities of sausages in every shape, size and color, rice, beans and plenty of hot sauce.   We bought about 8 pounds of roasted meat, chopped via machete in front of the crowd, for our dinner later that evening.

While some could not tear themselves away from the rotisserie, a few of us explored the small stands by the underpass run by local entrepreneurs selling artisan food products.  There was local honey, coconut and orange candy and a unique fermented drink called mavi.   Made from the bark of an indigenous tree, the beautiful pink liquid is reminiscent of a very sweet Kombucha.

Our climb into the mountains continued, and we finally reached the beautiful estate in Cayey that was our destination for the evening.  Our co-leader, Viviana, had graciously invited us into her family’s home to share in a traditional Christmas meal. The platters of pastelillos (crescent-shaped fried turnovers filled with meat and guava paste respectively) and sausages (both morcilla and a smoked variety that contained hunks of pork and cilantro) first graced the table.  We dug right in.

After a taste of the local moonshine or Pitorro (a flavorless rum that was then steeped in prunes and spices for several months) as well as a few cans of Medelia  (the ubiquitous beer of the island) we sat down to a richly nuanced Puerto Rican feast.  We tucked into our roasted pork, Spanish rice with pigeon peas, banana-leaf wrapped lllame pastelles (sweet potato-like dumpling), fricase of chicken with olives, and fresh-from-the-oil tostones (fried, green plaintains).

We also talked about the unique sticky “savoriness” of Puerto Rican rice, and the foundation of all good Puerto Rican cuisine, sofrito.  Most home cooks make their own version from sweet peppers, garlic, onion, herbs and oil but the refrigerated section of any local supermarket will yield dozens of pre-made sofritos of varying degrees of quality.

For dessert, we were pulled generous shots of strong Puerto Rican coffee by our host, which proved to be a bitter antidote to the sweet and rich coconut tembleque, a wobbly flan-like dessert that “trembles” when you eat it.  Over steaming cups of coffee, the merits of the traditional calderos were discussed, the aluminum cooking pots that get all the credit for the perfect rice all Puerto Ricans seem to be gifted at making.

A TRIP TO THE MARKET WITH A TROPICAL NATURALIST

On one of the first evenings of our trip, we met up with Chef Rebecca of Afrodita catering at the Santurce market.  A Puerto Rico Slow Food member, chef-instructor and island caterer, Chef Rebecca specializes in vegetarian Puerto Rican cuisine.   Without meat, she uses the wonderful array of indigenous Puerto Rican produce and products to create dishes that taste wonderful and boast medicinal properties as well.

Our tour of the market started with a description of the incredible variety of root vegetables Puerto Ricans use in their cooking.  For those of us who are most familiar with potatoes and their kin, these hairy, gnarly, tubular (and often huge) specimens were a sight to behold.  We were shown two different types of taro, batata, llame, yautia and cassava, and quickly explained the nutritive properties of each.  Many of us also took a keen interest in the hanging bunches of plaintains in varying stages of ripeness.  Chef Rebecca explained that the green, hard plaintains are eaten in a savory manner, used for frying (especially in mofongo) or in stews and plaintain balls.  The yellow or black plaintains are a popular breakfast food when baked and sprinkled with sugar.  Interestingly, she recommended that green plaintains be eaten before the sun sets as they are slightly harder to digest, and will not sit well in your stomach while sleeping.  We also took a closer look at papaya, noting that the peppery seeds are great for cleansing the body.  Finally, we left with a giant hunk of Puerto Rican pumpkin, or calabaza.

After our market rounds, we made our way back to Chef Rebecca’s cooking studio for a hands-on cooking class.  First, she showed us some staples of Puerto Rican cuisine including annatto seed as well as a few plants she finds to be underutilized in the country including the wispy, outer husk of the coconut (great to use as a strainer instead of cheesecloth) and lemongrass, almost a weed on the island and a lovely tea when steeped with ginger in hot water.

With a little help from the group, Chef Rebecca made a wonderful rendition of the classic tuber stew, sancocho.  Typically made with meat, this vegetarian version combined root vegetables, plaintain dumplings and lentils,and  made up in richness what it lacked in meatiness.  For the only time on the trip, we were served brown rice to go with our meal – a reminder on how sacred white rice is to this culture -  as well as baked batatas.   And to round out the meal, we enjoyed mojito (a traditional garlic dipping sauce) on the cracker-like cassava bread, a traditional food introduced to the island by the native Taino population.

A TASTE OF PUERTO RICO’S CULINARY INFLUENCES

Puerto Rico prides itself on being a melting pot of cultures.  Dance, art, architecture have all be uniquely altered by the blending of centuries of immigrants.  Food is no exception.

Throughout our trip, we were reminded of many influences the Spanish left behind.  From the language to the wrought-iron work in Old San Juan, Spanish cuisine has also played a large role in shaping the way the country eats.  Some of San Juan’s most beloved “diners” are Spanish, and we were lucky enough to be staying right around the corner from one of the best, Kasalta.  When mornings would allow, many of us took in our first meal of the day here enjoying jamon y queso on a mallorca (soft roll) sprinkled with powdered sugar and dense tortilla Espaniola studded with potatoes.

We also enjoyed a modern take on the traditional Spanish meal at Cien Vinos, a wine store specializing in tapas in the Guaynabo section of San Juan.  We were treated to small bites including stuffed rice balls, salmon rilletes and white bean spread on toast then plates of seafood rich paella and finally, sweet mounds of creatively flavored flan, including one that used the most famous of Spanish cheese, Manchego.  Our lovely host, Franco, narrated the wine selection for the evening, a combination of wines from across all regions of Spain.

We also indulged in Argentine pizza (a favorite among the locals; both crispy and chewy owing to a large quantity of oil in the dough), and witnessed the many Dominican Republic influences on the cuisine, especially in the roadside stands of Pinones.

THE FLAVORS OF LOIZA

A visit to the small northeastern town of Loiza is like a walk back in time.  First settled by escaped and freed slaves from Nigeria, it has remained isolated both by its cultural proclivities and geographic positioning, flanked by two rivers and the ocean.  A tight-knit community, Loiza works hard to preserve its traditions including an emphasis on music and dance as well as food and art.  However, it is also an economically depressed community that looks upon tourist dollars as it only salvation.  A visit to Loiza now will help to save this incredibly special community.

Our first stop for the day was the Loiza Cultural Center, where we were immediately met with the deep, rhythmic sounds of the bomba and plena.

A percussion-driven musical tradition, the bomba is a pact between the dancer and the drummer.  Unchoreographed, the dancer “leads” the drums to change beats and rhythms according to their movements.  Once settled into the performance, the drummer can then play with the dancer trying to control his/her steps.  Rooted in dance customs brought to Puerto Rico from Africa, the bomba is truly a wonder to watch, and after being taught a few steps by our host, a joy to take part in.  Later on in the day, we were also able to take in a performance of the Ayala family, one of two of Puerto Rico’s most prominent musical families in the tradition and world ambassadors for the music and dance of Loiza.

Next it was off to visit the cathedral of St. Patrick in the center of town, a perfect example of the seamless blending of cultures in Loiza.  It was St. Patrick that was credited to ending a plague of ants that was ruining the local food supply, thus, their homage to him in this gold-plated altar.

A quick side trip also took us to a local geological curiosity, Cueva de Maria, a cave where Tainos allegedly lived before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, and the home to a happy hermit for many years.   It is now host to enormous hanging hives of honeybees.

Returning back to the cultural center, we sat down to learn about the history of caldo santo (Loiza’s town dish) from the woman keeping the tradition alive, Carmen L. Rivera Rodríguez, lovingly referred to as Dona Yiya.  A hearty stew, caldo santo is one of the few examples of Puerto Rican cooking that uses coconut milk in a savory capacity.

Incorporating fish (in ours, kingfish) as well as tubers, caldo santo loosely translates to the “medicinal soup of saints” and is eaten during their yearly celebration, Fiestas Tradicionales de Santiago Apóstol.  The festival also makes good use of the discarded coconut shells, turning them into elaborately decorated masks.

Our next course was enjoyed at El Buren de Lula, owned and operated by María Dolores de Jesús (Sector El Jobos Tel. 787-876-1095).  Dona Lula cooks over an open flame on a buren, the traditional flat metal cook top once a mainstay in every Loiza home.

She makes everything herself, by hand, from local ingredients just as she has been doing for decades.  People come from all over to sample her land crab with rice, stewed red beans with pig’s feet, and crabmeat cassava empanadas cooked in banana leaves.  Her kitchen was as full of character as her food, and she is a living museum to a foodway that is slowly disappearing.   In anticipation of our next stop, we picked up some sweet empanadas seasoned with cinnamon, a gift for the artist Samuel Lind, who was welcoming us to his home.

When you first enter the house of Samuel Lind, you feel as if you immediately understand the vibrancy of the community that fuels his work.  His imagery and colors depict Loiza in its raw, round and often emotional, state.  Working as a sculptor, a painter and a lithograph artist, Samuel uses his birthplace as inspiration…the vejigantes (colorfully dressed evil spirits) of the festival, the bomba dancers in their sweeping, pure white, costumes, the wildly green mangroves and of course, the food.  We took a glimpse into his childhood kitchen in one of his prints, and saw women at the buren in many others, women just like Dona Lula.  Because we were all cooks, he wanted us to see his own kitchen.  There hung a captivating portrait of mother earth, rotund, commanding and compassionate.  His display of this piece in his kitchen made us all realize just how much faith and honor he placed in food.

When we finally headed back to the vans, the beat of the bomba reverberating through our limbs, we were all in a magical trance.  There are not many times in your traveling life when a community feels so real, so rich, and so endearing.  We are forever indebted to Loiza for its hospitality, and its willingness to showcase its intimate culture to us strangers.  It was as delicious as it was inspirational.  Thank you.

OUR CONTRIBUTION

While we were traveling, we made sure that we showed our appreciation to our project partners and hosts in the form of a small departing gift.   We were thrilled to get a donation of FEED 100 bags from Whole Foods Market Bowery to give out along with bacon chocolate bars by Vosges.  Every FEED bag helps to provide 100 school lunches to children living in Africa through the World Food Program.

In addition, our chef-volunteers were given a copy  of the new cookbook, The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide by Wai Chu and Connie Lovatt.  A seminal guide to the wonderful world of dumplings, this book also highlights two traditional Puerto Rican recipes including wrapped cassava “tamales” stuffed with chickpeas and pork) and plantain dumplings in chicken broth.  A wonderful reminder of just a few of the many incredible dishes we learned throughout the week.

First, we planned to create 150 meals for the homeless population in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Second, we aimed to connect with the Culinary Arts students at InterAmerican University, who so graciously let us crash their kitchen for the project.  These wonderful students, led by Silvio and our current volunteer Brenda, fundraised over $1,200 through on-campus bake sales and barbecues in support of this CulinaryCorps trip.

And third, we sought to teach fundamental kitchen techniques to the clients of Iniciativa Comunitaria, an expansive non-profit organization that operates over 30 programs to aid homeless, drug addicts, sex workers, and children living in violence.  Among their many programs, Iniciativa Comunitaria has established a number of half-way homes that lend services and support to individuals in need.  Although these half-way homes have been hugely helpful in many ways, they have suffered from one important drawback:  upon exiting the program, many of the individuals do not know how to cook for themselves — not even an egg!  We believed the CulinaryCorps team could help with that.

We started our day by getting to know the InterAmerican students and preparing our educational action stations.  Each station was assigned a different recipe, which would become dishes for feeding San Juan’s homeless as well as today’s volunteers.  The recipes were tailored to showcase to the Iniciativa trainees basic cooking skills such as baking, sautéing, and knife skills, all using ingredients that were affordable, accessible, and healthful.

Our menu for the day included:

• Fresh Greens with Vinaigrette and Homemade Croutons
• Bacon and Cheddar Cornbread with a Selection of Compound Butters
• Tomato and Cucumber Pico de Gallo
• White Bean and Roasted Pepper Chili
• Oatmeal-Walnut (Whole Wheat) Chocolate Chip Cookies

After a couple of hours of setup, the participants from Iniciativa arrived and everyone got to work.  Within three hours, we had enough food to feed us heartily and plenty of servings for the Iniciativa volunteers to distribute later this evening.

As the late-afternoon sun receded behind the palms, everyone gathered around one long communal table to share a common meal.

As we ate, we reflected on a statement by of one of today’s participants, who is also the cook in the half-way home he lives in:

“You do not cook for a paycheck.  You cook for love.”

This aphorism precisely captures our sentiments about this week of culinary volunteer work.  Our experience on this beautiful island has been truly singular . . . we look forward to another fruitful CulinaryCorps trip to Puerto Rico!

CulinaryCorps chefs embark for Vieques

En route

The first cargo off the plane?  Bags and bags of fresh vegetables.

Our CulinaryCorps volunteer work for the day was focused on Todos Los Santos Community Center, an education enrichment environment for two- to five-year-olds living on the island.  The Center is run by a group of inspiring women and is sponsored by VIDAS, a non-profit organization devoted to the welfare of underserved children suffering from hunger, illness, and abuse.

The big annual project for each VIDAS Center is a handcrafted “food portfolio” that the children themselves help create.  Last year, the theme was beans; this year, it’s vegetables.   The students and teachers work year-round to compile recipes, art projects, drawings, and stories, each judged by a panel of local culinary experts.  Our day with the group was the kick-off for their vegetable exploration.

Big and little chefs at work

The CulinaryCorps chefs broke into three teams, each tackling a different recipe that expounded on our day’s theme “Saboreando el Arcoiris”  (Savor the Rainbow).  Our three menu items for the day:

• Rainbow Veggie Wraps
• Pot-of-Gold Salad with Shake-It Dressing
• Carrot Cake Smoothie and Green Goddess Juice

With all the fruits and vegetables displayed and labeled, the stations became as colorful as the rainbows that often grace this beautiful island.  And soon enough, the smallest cooks CulinaryCorps chefs have ever work with arrived, many with their parents and siblings.

CulinaryCorps chefs with their vegetables on display

From the time they walked through the door, it was a vegetable whirlwind!

Each station was twenty minutes long, with students rotating on to the next station to make every dish.  Tasting the veggies on hand was an important part of the lesson, and we encouraged all the students to become part of our “one bite club.”  If they did choose to nibble on something new, they earned a sticker for their chef hat and a round of high fives and applause.

Colorful and delicious fun

Given the lack of affordable access to many fresh vegetables on Vieques, we weren’t sure how many students would be tempted to take a bite of beet or sweet potato, or take a a sip of celery juice and carrot puree.  Happily, we were blown away by their willingness to try almost everything we set before them!  And it was not beginner’s luck, as session after session over 75 students and parents in total explored every vegetable with gusto (admittedly, with the occasional and polite spit-up).

Good Food. Doing Good.

As we were in the midst of our last session, washing dishes with cafeteria cook Carmen, she said that she had never seen the students eat what they were eating today—and that she would know, as she urges them to eat their vegetables every day.  With a sly smile, she said that today she could feel that things were about to change for the better.

In all, a true testament to the difference that one cargo load of vegetables—and twelve sticker-happy chefs—can make.

As it turned out, a team of chefs was exactly what they needed.

As so many of us cooks dream to do one day, Hogar Ruth wanted to create a cookbook of beloved recipes.  They hoped to draw from the knowledge and experience of their in-house kitchen, the repertoires of the women they serve, and the board members who support the organization.  Beyond a mere collection of recipes, the final product is intended to serve as a handbook for these women when they move out of the facility.  Amidst the recipes will be emergency numbers, steps to break the cycle of violence, and advice for putting a family in a safer space, both mentally and physically.  Every woman who leaves Hogar Ruth will receive a copy.

The CulinaryCorps volunteers were up for the challenge.  Shortly after arriving in the morning and unpacking two vans full of groceries, our volunteer chefs paired up with the women of Hogar Ruth to embark on a day of recipe capturing, testing, and eating.

CulinaryCorps volunteers at Hogar Ruth

Many of these women are struggling with ongoing violence in their lives, and we were prepared for them to be uncommunicative, even disengaged, with a group of strangers waltzing into their temporary home.  We couldn’t have been more wrong.  Food has a way of connecting people like no other medium can — within minutes we were listening to shared stories about one woman’s sorely missed comfort food from her hometown overseas, and another woman’s favorite holiday treat from her grandmother.

As the CulinaryCorps co-leaders headed out to shop for the necessary ingredients, the teams began to re-create several recipes submitted by board members of Hogar Ruth.  Our mission was to test these recipes — and tweak them if necessary — until they were cookbook-ready.

Recipe-testing at Hogar Ruth

After a few hours of cooking, we had a spectacular lunch on our hands in the aptly named “Café Ruth”:

• Ensalada de Atun
• Ensalada de Chayote
• Beef Marinara
• Arroz con Cebolla
• Pollo al Mango
• Budin de Pan
• Quesadilla Saladorena

The lunch menu at "Café Ruth"

Steady work began again promptly at 2pm as the teams set out to test and refine the women’s own recipes so they too could find a home in the cookbook.  Meanwhile, the children in the facility donned paper chef hats, rolled up their sleeves, and started cooking as well.  Their first creation was a sweet dessert called a Quesadilla Saladorena, using a surprising ingredient, pancake mix.  Then they moved on to homemade play-doh, sculpting, and shaping all sorts of wonderfully artistic sculptures that graced our buffet table that afternoon.

Some of the children's creations

Finally, in the cool breeze of the outdoor gazebo, the children learned to make pizza dough from scratch.  Mixing and kneading, they turned their hard work into individual pizzas topped with fresh vegetables, cheese, and the class favorite, pepperoni.  Since oven space was at a premium, we grilled the pizzas outside.  The hands-down winner was the “Puerto Rican Pizza” that boasted a layer of sofrito, queso blanco, and fresh cilantro.  Pizza joints of the world, take note!

Attentive young culinary students

After a couple of hours in the kitchen, we wrapped up with another beautiful meal full of very traditional Puerto Rican foods:

• Ensalada con Aderezo de Mojo
• Mofongo con Camarones y Carne Frita
• Alcapuria de Carne
• Pastelon de Yuca y Calabaza
• Macarones con Pollo
• Tacos de Churrasco
• Tembleque
• Bolitas de Chocolate y Coco
• Frescas Son Chocolate

Dinner service at Hogar Ruth

Midway through the day, we were chatting over the cutting boards, and one chef mentioned that the CulinaryCorps chefs volunteering this week in Puerto Rico “are all so different but the same.”  This truism could be extended to the women and children we worked with at Hogar Ruth as well.  We all come from different backgrounds, and our views on the world may not necessarily coincide.  But food?  Food brings us one and all to the table: smiling, joyous, and hopeful.

Armed with pasta machines and our knives, we walked into the culinary classroom at 8am ready to hit the ground running, but were stopped short when we saw the sweet spread displayed before us.

Ham croquettes . . . sweet biscuits with pineapple cream cheese . . . banana cake . . . guava pastries . . . frosted cake with sprinkles.  All for us!  And ALL made by the students themselves.

It didn’t take much convincing for us to put down our knives and dig right in.

In fact, it is these very baked goods that keep the Culinary Arts program afloat at the school.  Under the watchful eye of their incredible instructor, Ms. O’Neill, the students bake and sell their goods to their peers, earning money for equipment, supplies, and even chef coats.  To see this kind of pride displayed by 10th, 11th, and 12th graders is humbling.  Many in the industry take for granted the fact that side towels are a luxury, not a right, and that chef hats are a badge of honor, not a mere accessory.

From the outset, we could see from that these students had real culinary souls.

After introductions amidst the groaning plates of sweets, we broke the group into teams, each consisting of two CulinaryCorps chefs and five culinary students.  The task for the day?  To make a trio of classic recipes: fresh egg pasta, homemade marinara sauce, and salad greens with balsamic vinaigrette.  Yet, after two and a half hours of concentrated work, what each team created was anything but classic . . . creativity was the word of the day!

In addition to the traditional fettucine and angel hair, teams prepared:

• Garganelli
• Herbed Orecchiette
• Calabaza Ravioli
• Farfalle
• Spinach Tortellini
• And even the ham croquettes reappeared in an imaginative take on a ravioli!

Once the dishes were plated and garnished, they were served family style at brightly colored tables lined with hibiscus flowers.  Slurped elbow-to-elbow by students and chefs alike, the noodles were a hugely delicious success.

We learned during our planning of this project that the class is hoping to start a kitchen garden in the spring. To end the workshop and thank the students for their dedication to the day and to the program, we gave the class an indoor “marinara garden” starter kit with tomato and basil seeds as well as an array of culinary herbs. With any luck, these plants will be thriving by the summer!

Finally, after snapping photos and exchanging e-mails, the CulinaryCorps team had one hour to clean and reset for the second group of students.  The fun repeated itself and we were equally impressed with their focus, enthusiasm, and creativity.

We have to thank Sapientis for connecting us with the students of Albert Einstein.  A local non-profit that operates in partnership with at-risk student populations, Sapientis works to foster leadership, self-respect and community involvement.  Organizations like these are helping to change the face of education for underserved populations.

During our wrap-up sessions, we left the students with our greatest pieces of advice:

Work Hard.  Think Smart.  And always cook from your heart.

One student nodded solemnly; another raised his hand and asked, “So you’ll be back next year?”  We couldn’t think of any sweeter words to hear — we’re already looking forward to our return visit!

Bill’s Kitchen is a chef’s dream.   The kitchen itself could hold an army, and the walk-in refrigerator is roomier than most Manhattan apartments.  But, best of all, the staff have hearts bigger than both combined.

In operation for over 16 years, Bill’s Kitchen was founded in memory of a beloved son lost by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  From a few dozen homemade meals made each month in the 1990s, to thousands of meals created each week in the aughts, Bill’s Kitchen remains committed to nourishing those living with HIV/AIDS: mind, body and soul.

With the CulinaryCorps volunteer team assembled and ready for action, we started our day with a taste test.  The Bill’s Kitchen staff informed us that although some of their dishes are very popular with the clients, others have lost favor over time.  Our task was to identify what was going wrong in those recipes (was it the flavor?  the texture?) and then fix it.  Or, if the staff agreed, replace the recipe with something new for the monthly meal line-up.

But there was a catch:

Every dish created had to be capable of being frozen first, and then reheated (usually in a microwave in the client’s house).  What’s more, all dishes had to be low in sodium, spice, and fat (aka: no butter, little oil, and no bacon).  From a chef’s dream . . . to a chef’s worst nightmare.

Nevertheless, with the encouragement and help of the two full-time cooks and five full-time nutritionists on the Bill’s Kitchen staff, the CulinaryCorps team pitched in to start recipe testing and creation.  In short order, the joint crew had created a brand new portfolio of dishes:

• Fresh Basil Marinara Sauce
• Pasta Nicoise with Tuna and Red Potatoes
• Lentil and Mint Soup
• Quinoa, Bean and Corn Salad with Red Pepper Dressing
• Basil, Parsley and Walnut Pesto Chicken Thighs
• Pork Sancocho (Puerto Rican tuber stew)
• Thai Lemongrass-Coconut Soup
• Cilantro and Sunflower Seed Pesto
• Cream of Carrot and Tarragon Soup
• Sweet and Sour Chicken with Pineapple

And just for fun…

• Lemon Mini-Poundcakes
• Butternut Crunch

Amid the chopping, stewing, and stirring, CulinaryCorps volunteers also conducted a series of preplanned workshops to help educate the staff at Bill’s Kitchen about basic kitchen practices, including:

• Knife Skills
• Cooking Pasta and Rice for Freezing
• Pesto Creation
• Thickening Soups
• Baking 101

By the end of the day, things came full-circle as the Bill’s Kitchen staff taste-tested our own recipes. Fortunately, our creative trial-and-error experiments yielded some great successes that, with luck, will be served to the clients of Bill’s Kitchen in the near future.

Best of all, our presence was tremendously appreciated by the resident staff.  One of the nutritionists announced to the crowd that in the four months she has passionately labored at Bill’s Kitchen, “Today was the best day.” A smile lit up her face, and we felt it in our hearts.

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!

We have been tremendously lucky to receive monetary and in-kind donations at the “Friends” contribution level from the following corporations:

La Hacienda Foods: A wonderful speciality grocery store in the San Juan Area.

SM Seafood: An exceptional seafood purveyor in the Santa Monica area.

Sysco – Santa Monica: A generous contributor to our efforts.

The Dumpling: A Seasonal Guide: Our favorite cookbook of the year!

Whole Foods Market Bowery: The supplier of fabulous gifts for our project partners and chefs.  Details to come later so we don’t spoil the surprise!

World Wide Produce: Supplying Southern CA and Las Vegas with pristine produce.

We thank all of our SPONSORS who have supported us over the years.  Your generosity has traveled further than any of us will ever know!

For a small taste of our upcoming week of culanthropy, we’ve consolidated our trip itinerary below:

Sunday 1/31 Arrival

Guavate Roast Pig Route Road Trip and Traditional “Christmas Dinner” in Cayey.

Monday 2/1 Bill’s Kitchen

Created in 1992, Bill’s Kitchen creates over 3,000 frozen meals per week for residents living with HIV/AIDS.  Our day will focus on troubleshooting a selection of their industrial-size, healthy menu items for efficiency, economy and taste – a recent problem for the kitchen.  Simultaneously, we will be working side by side with the full-time kitchen staff and nutritionist team to teach them requested culinary basics including an herb exploration workshop, and protein cooking times and temperature lesson.  The goal is to equip with the staff with the basic tools to make future improvements to the meals well after we depart.

Tour of Plaza del Mercado de Santurce with Slow Food Puerto Rico.  Healthy cooking class with Slow Food chef and naturalist, Rebecca Mendez of Afrodita Catering.

Tuesday 2/2 Sapientis

Sapientis creates positive learning environments for youth at-risk in Puerto Rico.  All programs encourage self-respect and community leadership.  At Albert Einstein High School in Barrio Obrero, a culturally rich but underserved area of the city, Sapientis has set up a three-year baking and pastry program for 60 students ages 14-17.  CulinaryCorps will be be hosting cooking workshops (one for each grade) that will focus on the creation of fresh pasta and traditional Italian tomato sauce.  The day will start with an exploration of the flavors in the marinara and an exchange of seeds/plants to create a “sauce garden” in their soon to be open school garden.  Students will be divided into small teams to work with the chefs in creating sauce and pasta  dough from scratch.  At the end of each workshop, students and chefs will sit down to share their meal which will be rounded out by salad from a local hydroponic farm.  For the final hour of the day, all three grades will meet with the chefs in a panel discussion on careers in the culinary industry.

An taste exploration of the Spanish influence on Puerto Rican cuisine at Cien Vinos.

Wednesday 2/3 Hogar Ruth

Founded in 1983, Hogar Ruth is a safe-haven for women and children escaping the cycle of violence in their homes.  CulinaryCorps will work with the residents of this women and children’s shelter to create a cookbook of family and staff recipes for their fundraising efforts.  Activities will include recipe capture, testing and serving a sit-down dinner for all the residents.  This book will also double as a “covert” abuse prevention manual, a seemingly innocuous cookbook that the aggressor will not realize is a resource for the woman in need. We will also be creating a children’s cooking activity for the youth living in the facility.

An evening free to explore Old San Juan and environs.

Thursday 2/4 VIDAS

VIDAS believes in early-childhood intervention through the creation and management of positive learning spaces.  These community centers impact youth most at-risk for abuse and educational under-achievement.  CulinaryCorps will be traveling to the island of Vieques to launch a series of healthy cooking classes for youth ages 2-14 and their parents.  In accordance with national nutritional guidelines, CulinaryCorps will host a Saborea el Arcoiris (“eat the rainbow”) activity that explores fruits and veggies and allows the students themselves to turn them into a simple, kid-friendly, dish.  Three workshops of one-hour each will help break-up the activities by age-group.

Driving tour and traditional beachside Fonda dinner on the island of Vieques. Savoring the wonders of Argentinian Pizza – a Puerto Rican speciality.

Friday 2/5 Iniciativa Comunitaria

Founded in 1992, IC helps provide social services to struggling populations in San Juan including the homeless and drug-addicted as well as sex workers and residents living with HIV/AIDS.  In partnership with the Inter-American University culinary program, CulinaryCorps will work with a select group of the IC population from all service areas to teach basic kitchen skills and create a balanced, budget and tasty meal for them to execute at home.  The meal will be shared by the students and chefs, and packed up for distribution throughout San Juan.  Meals will be delivered from 10pm-112am to the homeless populations by the chefs and IC volunteers from a mobile serving van.

Saturday 2/6 Loiza

Food and cultural exchange with the Mayor’s Office of the Township of Loiza.  Insiders trip to explore the flavors and culture of Piñones and Loiza including a private cooking lesson.

JUST ADDED! Possible community-wide project involvement providing relief to Haiti including canned good collection, packing and shipping.

Read on after the jump as we answer the question “Why a CulinaryCorps trip to Puerto Rico?”

WHY PUERTO RICO?

When Viviana Acosta-Padial (Institute of Culinary Education ‘03). first participated on a CulinaryCorps trip, we were greatly inspired by her Puerto Rican heritage and hospitality.  After participating in three subsequent trips, she has become the Program Coordinator for the organization, and is now the driving force behind creating a CulinaryCorps trip to her home country.

The island nation of Puerto Rico has one of the most dynamic economies and cuisines in the Caribbean region. However, sustainable economic development remains a challenge for this United States Commonwealth.  Currently, the average median household income is less than half of Mississippi, the poorest state in the USA, and a majority of Puerto Rican citizens live under the poverty line set by the American government. Puerto Rico receives some US federal aid but does not get equal coverage or qualify for most welfare programs. In 2007, the US halted its funding to clinics serving HIV/AIDS patients, a devastating blow for a country with over double the rate of AIDS than in America. However, Puerto Rico’s network of dynamic non-profits have helped reduce mortality, increase literacy, improve medical services, raise life expectancy and increase quality of life for all citizens including the domestically abused and those afflicted with long-term illness.  CulinaryCorps is honored and privileged to help further the work of these admirable organizations.

Equally as important to the work that is keeping the country healthy is the cuisine that keeps the country happy. With roots in the cooking traditions and practices of Spain/Europe, the Amerindian Taínos (pre-Colombian indigenous inhabitants), and the African continent, the mingling of flavors and ingredients passed from generation to generation have resulted in an incredible food culture unique to the island.  Puerto Ricans are fiercely proud of their cuisine but unfortunately, US influence and island industrialization have eroded the viability of agriculture, and Puerto Rico is now largely dependent on food imports.  With this shift, practice and preservation of traditional cooking techniques, products and recipes is quickly fading.  Indeed, as these native foodways are exchanged for convenience foods, instances of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease have increased among the young.   Fortunately, Puerto Rico is beginning to recognize this trend and are taking first steps to quell the backslide.

CulinaryCorps is excited to be a small part of this forward progress, and upon our return home, is keen to be voice boxes for both the plight and the progress of this culturally rich country.