2022
La Cocina is a non profit incubator kitchen. Their focus is helping minorities start their restaurant business. Not only does it provide a place for them to cook to kickstart a food truck or catering business, but they help them through the entire A through B process. This might be getting the necessary permits, advertisement, funding or even creating a web page.
I first got involved during their first food truck festival. I don't know how I found a request for volunteers or what to expect when I showed up. So my first volunteer experience was assisting one of the chefs get their food ready for the big festival over the weekend. And as time pass I volunteered for the various events, including their theater series on focusing on the story behind the chef, future festivals, tamale making classes, to serving food.
So as a focus on women's week, they showcased seven women chefs, at seven different venues. The seating was very limited. By the time I found out all the seats had sold out but I was able to sign up for one of the volunteer spots. I sent a message to @KimberlyAnnG who's also volunteered at the last good truck festival. We both took two of the six spots available for the volunteers.
It was a long night which started at 4:30 with us setting up the tables, serving drinks, then serving the food. with just three volunteers because two volunteers canceled at the last minute and one left because of work was too difficult for her, we were able to serve 60 guests a three-course meal which included appetizers, a main dish of royal couscous with tender braised beef shank and three different skewers of grilled meat. Afterwards they were served two different desserts, one from the house venue and the other from chef Wafa.
So this might not be a big deal because we have tons of events like this in San Francisco every weekend. What makes it important is that this was to showcase female chef. Culinary schools have a 50% female enrollment. Well only 30% of restaurants actually have a female head chef. Other disparities include the fact that women make $0.76 to a male counterpart $1.00. La Cocina's mission of helping minorities and especially women start up their business please have very vital role in how San Francisco evolves. It also brings different cultures that haven't been here before.
So why do I do it? Growing up in San Diego, we were the only Chinese family in the area. at the time it was difficult to have a voice in a world where the culture was completely different. Now as an adult, I try to help people who need a voice in the community. As a female we're always fighting to do better, to do more, and to prove ourselves. This little step involuntaring may only be a few hours of my life, but it makes a big impact in the world that we live in. I love seeing other people's cultures, experiencing their art, and enjoying their food.
The last exciting part of the La Cocina story is that a conjunction with the city of San Francisco they will be opening a marketplace with seven all female chefs
With their own restaurant. It was a 5.5 million dollar venture with much of the money being raised by La Cocina and some money from the city of San Francisco. This has been a long venture and there's still $750,000 short of fulfilling their financial commitment for this project. Without the volunteers many of these fundraising events wouldn't happen.
So for those of you who end up coming to connect live 2020, I do invite you to come visit San Francisco. And even though everybody tells you to stay away from the tenderloin, if you decide you want to visit La cocina's marketplace and the tenderloin, I will be more than happy to accompany you there to experience the different cultures that will be represented there.
