Cleanliness!

Cleanliness! 

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.  A professional kitchen has to be spotless and we spend a great part of our time keeping the Kitchen clean.  

We are also obsessed with TEMPERATURE. Food must be stored handled and cooked at certain temperatures!

Cooking for our dinners is a privilege that we take very seriously. 

The photo is of Joseph a very active and hardworking Shift Leader!

Training Day!

Teaching classic culinary techniques is emphasized in the Kitchen.  

"Chef" Chris, my boss is a graduate of the Contra Costa Collage Culinary school, with no real experience or passion for cooking. 

The guy in the blue polo is Tim, a real chef who use to run the kitchen to the kitchen to the highest standards. He got a big promotion with a $70K salary so he let the kitchen go to seed.   

I hold the staff to the highest standards, assuring delicious meals for our dinners. 

Stuffed bell Pepper!

We cooked a very basic, yet delicious dinner.  

Bell Peppers stuffed with a simple filling of beef, tomato coulis and mirepoix. Topped with grated cheese.  The sauce for the pasta was olive oil, garlic and pepper flakes.  

Creativity!

The purpose of our Kitchen is more than feeding people.  We are a place to develope a work ethic.  A place to build character and develop discipline.

The Kitchen is also a place to share our God Given Creativity!  Here Chris shows us his beautiful Cake.  Chris, a culinary student, is taking a baking class.  

I can tell you first hand that EVERYTHING that Chris bakes is remarkable! 

Gratin d'aubergines et de tomates

Eggplant au gratin with tomatoes. 

We got a crate of Japanese Eggplant. We combined this with some house tomato sauce and tomatoes from our garden.  A bit of cheese and a topping of breadcrumbs. 

We are doing our best to create seasonal meals with the wonderful local produce that we recieve!

Chicken Normandy

I love Chicken Normady. This dish proved a challange.  The first, I have previously only made this for four people and I had no Hard Cider or Cavados.  

This was my adaption. 

For lunch we had great pizza with house made dough and tomato sauce. 

Short Handed Tuesday!

I have mentioned that many of the Kitchen Staff are culinary students. Well today, they had the opportunity to work for for an exclusive catering company in San Francisco.  This was a big job so I lost 2/3 of my crew!

I was given permission to serve sandwiches or pizza.  No thank you. When in dought go Creole!

Pain Perdu for breakfast. 

Red Beans and rice for lunch. 

Pollack Étouffée with Collard Greens cooked with Pork Belly. 

The Kitchen Crew did great!

Couscous!

Steve is showing off tonight's dinner.   Roasted Chicken with a tomato Coulis, Couscous and a tian if Eggplant.   

Liquid Gold!

A talented local Gardner gave us a couple of bushels of Golden Heirloom Tomatoes.  

We made a vegan pasta sauce with these tasty delights along with onions and herb from our Kitchen Garden.  

Poulet Chasseur

Meet Chris and Joe.  Two culinary students that intern at the Mission!  These two made a remarkable French Dinner tonight!

Poulet Chasseur and Broccoli with a Blue Cheese Sauce!   The chicken dish was cooked in a sauce made of mushrooms, butter and fresh herbs from our Garden.  The broccoli was served with Chris' own blue Cheese and cream sauce. 

The entire Brigade worked very hard to serve a delicious meal for our guest and programmers!

Great job gentlemen!  

Shepherd Pie!

Here is a photo of me at the grinder!  200 servings of Shepherd's Pie requires a lot of Lamb to grind.

A lot of potatoes to peel.

Lots of Carrots, Onions and Celery to chop! 

The third shift did a great job preparing the Shepherd's Pies, and seasonal vegetables for our dinners tonight! 

Pork with Strawberry Gastrique

I love making Gastriques!  I started with five gallons of ripe strawberries.  Added a bit of sugar and a few inches of water.  Sweated them for a couple of hours then I pushed it through a food mill. 

I then reduced the liquid to about half over the stovetop. 

I then added double Champaigne Vinegar and reduced to make the Gastrique. 

Poulet Étouffée!

Poulet Étouffée avec Riz 

For a Creole Monday, we prepared Poulet Étouffée.  Smothered Chicken.  We breaded and grilled chicken breast then smothered it in a rich roux gravy, thick with andouille and pork. 

Beignets aux pommes

These came out great!   Apple slices dipped in a batter, deep fried and surved with house made Apple Syrup!

Empty Bowl

The Culinary and the Art Departments at Contra Costa Community College sponsored a grea fund raiser for the Mission called The Empty Bowl.  

Art students made soup bowls and Culinary Students prepared great soups. Guest where able to purchase a beautiful, handcrafted soup bowl and fill it with delicious soups. All proceeds went to the Mission!

Polenta!

Today we made Polenta from donated Corn Meal.  The fine meal required a lot of stirring. 

Served with  Pollack and a Spanish sauce! 

Polenta!

This was a fun dish to make.  

20 pounds of Polenta. Fresh Brussel Sprouts,  Cod and a Spanish sauce. 

I never made Polenta before. It turned out great.  

Scallops à la Grenobloise

People may not realize that our kitchen is a training center.  A couple of Contra Costa College's Culinary School's classes are taught here.  Several of our graduates who are in Culinary School intern in our kitchen.  The rest of our crew is made up of gentlemen in our program. We teach our crews the basics of operating a kitchen and classic culinary techniques. 

The Mission takes no government money.  We rely on the generosity of  local businesses and individuals.  

Many of our donors are serous gardeners!  We love receiving the local fruit and vegetables that they produce. 

Today we got a bunch of fennel bulbs! We took the opportunity to make some fennel                       Grenobloise sauce.  Brown butter, capers, thinly sliced fennel and lemons make a remarkable sauce.  We served this over the scallops that a local fish monger donated! 

Breakfast for Dinner, New Orleans Style!

Today we enjoyed  Grillades for dinner, a traditional Creole breakfast. 

Breaded pork steaks served with a creole sauce!

Hot Pepper Jam

Curiosity and inovation, that's what you will find in our kitchen.

Jesus had lunch at a local resturant and enjoyed the pepper jam that they served on their ham sandwich.  He came back to the Mission and cooked up some jars of a great tasting Hot Pepper Jam!

Italian Sweet and Sour Pork

Maiale in Agrodolce

Having no experience in Institutional Cooking, I recieve a weekly menu of dishes that I would not eat AND Definantly would not cook!  When I saw Sweet and Sour Pork on the menu and looked at a soulless recipe that involved sugar and corn starch I had to put my foot down.  So I did what any passionate cook would do.  I broke the rules and prepared an Italian Sweet and Sour!

On Friday, we grilled brined pork in a glaze made of Balsamic Vinegar, Honey and Butter!  

This was accompanied with a Penne Pasta with a Sausage Ragù.  The Ragù was made with locally grown Tomatoes  slowly cooked in a stock pot for 12 hours!  

At the Mission we appreciate our donations and work very hard to serve great meals.   

Sweet Pepper Coulis

The donors to the Mission are fantastic!  A local gardener donated a big box of sweet peppers.  We made a batch of Sweet Pepper Coulis.  So simple to make and so good.

1. Sweet peppers. (Red bell peppers will do.) large diced.

2. A chopped onion

3. A bit of olive oil

4. Salt and pepper

5. A cup of chicken stock.

5. A splash of wine vinegar.

Sauté the onions in olive oil.

Put the onions in a stock pot.

Add the Sweet Peppers, spices and chicken stock.

Cook for an hour.

Put everything in a blender 

Ad the wine vinegar.

That is it!  This light sauce is great on chicken or fish.  Today we used it on our Meat Loaf.