| My Culinary Adventures in Panama Five Minutes with Chef Chris Hello Everyone! This past week has been so exciting to see how Project Joshua has turned into a lot more than just a one time fundraising dinner. Joshua is a 14 year old boy, weighing 37 pounds, is confined to a wheelchair, and eats through a tube. He lives with his mother and sister in a one wall home with dirt floors. He requires 24/7 assistance which is provided by his mother who sleeps in a very small bed with her young daughter. Seeing the severe conditions, Bill McAbee had a vision to help this family. When he brought it to my attention I was stoked. We began planning, which took many hours, proving to be well worth our time and effort. WOW!!! This little project exploded exponentially and became a huge blessing to many famili es THROUGHOUT PANAMA in addition to Joshua's. Here's what happened. VE's marketing manager sent the details of this event to a radio station who broadcasted the details. The media decided to use this information to challenge the government by questioning, "Why are private businesses doing more for the community and the needy than the government?" I am still working on getting all the details but from my understanding, this started "stirring the pot". Now, every senator in the country has been given a fund to build 5 brand new homes with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, and kitchen per city for families who are in similar circumstances. It's amazing how we are just a little blip on the radar, yet we were used to expand this small little community's 1 family project to impacting a country. I personally have found it feels much better to give than to receive. We had the support of many to help make project Joshua a success. If I listed the donations of time and products it wo uld consume three pages. To sum it up, together we raised around $4,000 and received the support of the government to help finish his house and maybe even build a new one. So from the bottom of my heart thank you so much to all who gave their time, products, and finances to see this through. I really felt so blessed to be apart of this life changing event. Clearly the hand of God had bigger plans for this young man and many others. To be used by Him was the best feeling I have ever had! What is your vision, and how can our staff at Valle Escondido and Sabor help it become reality? Here is a quick video that really inspired me to get involved in doing my part in projects like these, take a few minutes and watch it!! Its by Matthew West called Do Something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_RjndG0IX
My Culinary Adventures in Panama
Five Minutes with Chef Chris Hello Everyone! Due to its rich soil, you can grow just about anything in Boquete. We contribute the rich content to Volcan Baru. Volcán Baru is a potentially active volcano in western Panamá, about 35 km east of the Costa Rican border. The volcano has had four eruptive episodes during the past 1,600 years, including its most recent eruption about 400–500 years ago. Several other eruptions occurred in the prior 10,000 years. Several seismic swarms in the 20th century and a recent swarm in 2006 serve as reminders of a restless tectonic terrane. I have planted so many cool different fruits and vegetables, some I am quite familiar with, while others are very new to me due to living in a foreign land. Strolling down to the greenhouse savoring my favorite morning cup of coffee, Palmira Gold, produced by Sondra and Lloyd Cripe (a locally grown company) life seems perfect. The gardener and I engage in a conversation concerning the bugs eating our plants, and how to avoid using harmful chemicals. As he freely rambles unhindered with his native tongue I am rudely awakened into reality of getting back to work and studying Spanish so one day I will fully understand what he is trying to communicate to me. Until then I am trusting his ability to win the battle with the bugs and produce beautiful organic produce bursting with unsurpassed flavors
The gardener about why the bugs are eating the plants how to avoid using harmful chemicals, everything is organic, one day as my Spanish gets better I will be able to fully understand what they are saying!! But it's so cool to see the progress in the plants see pictures below of Garden facilities. On a side note this morning on the golf course the golfers were delayed due to a male and female dog getting stuck together trying to make more dogs. I had never seen this before it was both comical and sad to see, Its part of natures natural process, but I was sad to see the animals in pain. Some of the local residents assisted in disconnecting the 2 dogs, quickly and painlessly. Living in Panama as a chef is not easy as the products I am accustom to using and the connivance of them are not readily available, learning to improvise without compromising the integrity of the food has become an exciting challenge and is now one of my strengths in the situations I face daily. For example the produce doesn't show up on time, or the restaurant food providers don't tell you they are out of a product until you receive the merchandise and you have 50 people showing up the next day for a dish that requires that product!!! For the chefs reading this you know the frustrations I'm talking about, as it happens everywhere. Here, in this small part of the world, it happens more frequently than not. Sometimes I feel like I would have made a great fireman, so to speak, putting out little fires here and there. There is one person I would like to honor and thank for getting me started as a chef in Panama! I worked for Jorg Senne of Select Small hotels for some years and I want to thank him for all his encouragement and helping me to get my foot in the door as a chef in this country!! So Thank you very much Mr Senne!! Lets Talk food!!! I have been using medical grade essential oils to come up with some cool stuff, I made a grapefruit and bacon flavored powdered olive oil as a garnish for a salad the other day. I used Green tomatoes, edible flowers, pickled red onions, a creamy cucumber salad dressing garnish with this olive oil powder. There is a starch that comes from the yucca tree root, that has the ability to turn any fat into powder, it sounds a lot more difficult than it really is. Another cool dish we played with this week is Chocolate and cherry pork tenderloin, these flavors went together so well, I used an unsweetened coco powder, black pepper, ground coffee, salt and sage to marinate, I then grilled it over an open flame and garnished it with a cherry gastrique, served with mashed pumpkin, and a coffee and balsamic reduction, the photo on this didn't turn out very well but as this was a huge hit I promise to show you this dish in the upcoming newsletters. Food Promotions for July: For those of you who do not know about the "Chef's Table Experience" what this is, is a dinner for 8 – 15 people where the organizer of each event tells me about the group's food allergies and food likes and dislikes. The cost of this is $25 plus tax and gratuity. We have had a lot success with these interesting and fun meals. The host or hostess gives me the liberty to really get creative in the kitchen!! Oh!!! How I thrive with this liberty. Below is a link from several private "Chef's Table Experiences" that you can read about or you can contact me to get more info. http://panamaadvisoryinternationalgroup.com/blog/news-from-panama/holiday-dinner-in-paradise/
I will be offering 6 of these this months, so book them soon as July is almost full, you can also book in August. Another exciting event is our very own local friend, who will go anonymous for the moment has challenged me to a Culinary Showdown, where we will battle out Spanish rice! She and I will make our own interpretations of this dish, then the judges will choose the winning dish through a blind taste test. Who will win dish A or B. We invite you to test your palate. More details to come! We will also be having a Michael Jackson dance and dinner event coming very soon! Very exciting things are happening here. Be a part of the thrill! If you would like to be added to my email please email me at boquetechef@gmail.com Thank you and best regards, Chef Chris | 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.