Chefs feed people, body and soul. They cook to please, to nurture, to satisfy. They are by definition, servants. And this explains why chefs are always the first to step forward to help others in need.
They can’t help themselves.
Working on the Monterey Peninsula provides chefs with plenty of outlets to donate their time and expertise in service to others. Each month brings dozens of galas, festivals and fundraisers — all looking for chefs to pitch in and cook.
And they do. But we’re reaching a tipping point, according to several local chefs — along with winemakers — who claim the Peninsula now suffers from “event fatigue.”
“Every time you turn around there’s a new dinner, new charity, new donation system,” said executive chef Tim Wood of Carmel Valley Ranch. “They all want a piece of you. And it can leave us emotionally drained.”
Wood tirelessly leads the charge, showing up at countless events each year wearing his chef coat. “This is what we do,” he said. “Of course I love to help.”
But he’s also running a large restaurant. “I’m not just a cook in the back,” said Wood, who is responsible for a staff and a budget and, like most, the pressures that come with slim profit margins. For local chefs, though, helping with fundraising events has nearly become a full-time job.
“My phone is always ringing,” he said. “Every day. My wife’s friend’s husband knows someone who’s wife is on a board of a charity, and that turns into a call. And that call leads to more calls, and they want to set up a planning meeting …”
Saying yes is easy for chefs, and Wood does so frequently. Just in the last few weeks he’s donated gallons of soup for a local school’s event, coordinated chili and sides for another, cooked at a Big Sur Food and Wine gala, followed the day after by working a Red Cross Farm to Table Dinner. The next few days brought the Culinary Classique d’Elegance for Meals on Wheels, a cooking demo for the American Cancer Society and another dinner in Aptos to help fund cancer research.
Wood’s table for the Meals on Wheels raised $25,000, and to him that’s extremely gratifying. A close family member has cancer, so how could he possibly say no to that? And soup for a local school? Of course.
But he’s tired, and anxious, because there’s only so many hours in a day. What he wants is to help shine a light on the issue, and to speak up for his fellow chefs who he says deserve more respect and understanding than he believes they are receiving.
When a chef is asked to work an event, he or she must show up with their own food (absorbing that cost or asking their purveyors for donations). They also provide staff and cooking gear and feed hundreds of people, often serving each guest personally.
What they get in return is exposure — but little else.
Sometimes there’s not even a thank-you or an acknowledgement, they say, and some feel that event organizers take advantage of their good nature. Could the event at least pay the cooks the chef brings to the event? Or help defray food costs?
Wood is fearful of sounding bitter. “I’m not,” he said. “I just want people to understand the issue. The Peninsula has built a network of great charitable organizations. The problem is it will burn itself out and prove to be unsustainable. There’s only so many people who can support so much.”
The list of quality events is endless, from the Rancho Cielo Culinary Roundup to the Kinship Center’s White Party, to the Foragers Festival and the EARS (Elephants of Africa Rescue Society) gala. “Heck. I worked a local fundraiser to clear landmines in Cambodia,” Wood said.
Kim Stemler, executive director of the nonprofit Monterey County Vintners & Growers Association, agrees that the system needs repair.
“We realize that it cuts into the revenue potential of a fundraiser, but because of the significant demand, the model needs to change,” said Stemler, who reports that some wineries get up to 60 requests for wine donations each week. “It’s not fair to either the wineries or the restaurants.”
Stemler says pouring at or providing wine for most nonprofit events is no longer seen as a “marketing opportunity” for the wineries. So the incentive is based more on a genuine caring for the community.
“The local wine community is very generous,” said Stemler, whose association just finished a local CaWineStrong event to raise money for Napa fire victims. “Contributing positively to the greater community is actually one of the pillars of sustainable practices in the industry.”
But Stemler said the demand for wine donations has become a tremendous dilemma.
“Wine is not an easy business, and the demand to provide donations of both product and staff time makes it even harder,” she said.
Wood and other chefs have started to put a cap on the number of events they will support. But that can lead to hurt feelings.
“The saddest part to me is that there is this genuine disappointment when you decline,” said a Carmel chef who wanted to remain anonymous because he doesn’t want to appear “anti-charity.” “And this expectation that you would want to do their event because you’re going to get ‘exposure’ … exposed so others can ask me to do their event, too!”
The MCVGA recommends that a nonprofit purchase the wines at a discount and “we are willing to facilitate this process,” Stemler said. “We have a number of wineries that will participate in this program.”
For Wood, he will continue to support local fundraisers and culinary events, but he wants to see one with a different spin. His tongue-in-cheek idea? “We do the Red Cross, fire relief in Napa, Meals on Wheels. It’s all great. But how about we do a fundraiser for local chefs and families who are helping out on all these events?”
Great idea. But who will provide the food?
Mike Hale can be reached at thegrubhunter@att.net. Listen to his weekly radio show “Food Fodder” at noon Wednesdays on KRML, 102.1 FM.
