This is why we're here

In the past few years, I’ve thrown countless dinner parties, catered numerous events, and even given private instruction to a handful of people. And I’ve never received a standing ovation for my cooking. Until the other night.

For the first event of our CulinaryCorps adventure, we went to Camp Hope in St. Bernard Parish – a county outside New Orleans that was devastated by Katrina. Located in a middle school, Camp Hope houses and feeds the hundreds of Habitat for Humanity volunteers that come down to Louisiana. On a given week, there could be anywhere between 200-800 volunteers staying at Camp Hope. The volunteers are building houses in St. Bernard parish as well as the Lower Ninth Ward.

There is a group of Americorps volunteers who are responsible for running Camp Hope. They cook all of the meals for the volunteers – a daunting task, especially with the limited resources (Camp Hope relies heavily on donations – which can be sporadic and random…when we were there, they just received a few cases of catfish fillets and 60 pounds of margarine). It’s a huge undertaking, the food is mostly canned and/or frozen and the meals are focused more on volume and the ability to feed everyone (unfortunately, the number of diners each night varies greatly – 200 people may say they are eating dinner, but 300 show up).

So we went on Friday afternoon to cook dinner for Camp Hope. It was “Dinner Impossible” meets “Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee”. After going through the freestanding walk-in freezer, the pantry, the dry goods and the canned goods, we created the following meal for 200 hungry volunteers in two hours:

• Fried oysters with a creole mustard sauce
• Panzanella salad with bacon on the side
• Chickpea salad with an orange-red pepper vinaigrette
• Catfish parmesan
• Pasta alla Toscana (with mushrooms, artichokes and mozzarella cheese)
• Chicken & sausage etouffée
• Soy and bean vegetarian chili
• Huevos ranchero frittata
• Banana-peanut butter creme brulée
• Almond-stuffed plums

To say that the volunteers appreciated the food is a vast understatement. It was impossible not to get emotional as the volunteers were thanking us again and again. This group of people who have taken time to help rebuild houses for the residents of New Orleans were thanking us for doing what we love to do...feed people. Their gratitude during the standing ovation was enough to make even the most cynical person a little misty.