Join us for an epic culinary showdown at Cooking for a Cause 2024, presented in partnership with the incredible Agnes Restaurant and Cheesery in Pasadena. This vibrant and flavorful evening promises to shed light on the pressing issue of food insecurity in our local community, all while raising crucial funds for Friends In Deed programs serving greater Pasadena.
Watch as talented up-and-coming chefs work their magic, crafting delectable dishes using pantry staples and surprise “mystery” ingredients sourced from our very own FID Food Pantry. After an intense hour of culinary creativity, our panel of expert chef judges will crown the champion of Cooking for a Cause 2024
e e [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he’s got the whole list [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e you want him on that side oh me on this side yeah ladies and gentlemen if I can have your attention please come way so uh for those I haven’t haven’t had a chance to to meet I’m Rabbi Joshua LaVine grer I’m the executive director here at friends anded so we are so thrilled that uh everyone here in the room and we want to welcome those who are on the live stream so we are live streaming this event uh so you will be on uh on TV at some point uh so pay attention um so a couple of things before I turn it over to our our MC tonight um couple of housekeeping things uh we want to make sure that uh this room stays cool and that the noise doesn’t go back and forth so if you want to go on the patio or go get more food you can go around here there’s a door through the hallway I think that’s also where the restroom is right there but go through the hallway and then you can come back through the hallway into here you are welcome to uh to be in your seats we’re going to ask the folks inside have a little bit more of your indoor voices um and the chefs are going to get started soon you can you’re welcome to go up and get a drink and uh and I’m told glance over the counter but we want to give them their space to work um but uh it’s really really exciting and uh this event obviously takes a lot of hard work and I just want to thank just a few people first of all uh uh Thomas and Vanessa whose restaurant you are in thas and Vanessa uh Agnes has been a fantastic partner uh to us and amazing friends to us and so generous uh to open their space many times are ready for us so hopefully you’re having a great time and you’ll come back and enjoy their their food uh that they cook and their cheese so um and uh she won’t want to come up I’m not going to embarrass them but two people who have worked super hard to make this uh event possible obviously our our development team so our senior director of development Maria Velasco at the door you were greeted by Elise Reed for development Associates and I hope that you’ll get a chance to meet staff we have staff here we have board members here and most importantly we have the director of our food pantry Tim nissler here and I’m gonna turn it over to Tim because he is your MC tonight hey everyone and uh so yes I’m Tim mler I run the food pantry at friends indeed and this is the second annual Cooking For A Cause so welcome everyone we’re glad to have you um we’re gonna jump right into it this evening and if we ever if we get to have like 15 of these maybe I won’t need notes but it’s number two so I’m I’m keeping them for myself um we’re going to jump right into uh the cooking this evening these three folks are are contestants we’re gonna start over here with contestant number one Simone wood contestant number two Desiree Flores and contestant number three Diana Ramirez Hernandez thank you participants for volunteering your time and talent and we hope you have as much fun as we are going to have watching you cook uh let’s go over the rules real quickly for this each contestant um will receive a grocery bag that’s derived from what is a normal weak in our food pantry uh nonp perishable items shelf stable we got all of it right here of these things that they’re going to have to use at least five of these and whatever they uh prepare um they can also use some of the other uh standard Pantry items that Agnes has on hand those can also be used at the end they’ll have one hour and at the end of one hour um the judges which are scattered around here I see two of them Thomas do I he’s around here somewhere uh but I see uh Chef Chris Flint down there and and I guess I’m gonna introduce them again in a second to and Chef badaro over here so before I give you a little more about them we want our contestants to have the full hour so um I guess it’s on your marks get set go so while they’re getting started there’s like there’s like three stations uh where they can all interact and and work with we’ve got a he over here the grill the stove uh so they’ve got full access to that um again Rabbi greater said it but we want to give a huge thank you to Agnes restaurant in cheery uh that’s huge come on by don’t worry don’t worry it’s all we’re all friends here we’re friends indeed right um so we want to say thank you uh to them so let me introduce a little bit about each of our chefs um or yeah our Chef judges behind me and walking across well in front of me behind the camera is chef Thomas takaka C he’s the culinary genius here he and his wife um I do Vanessa I’ve never even met Vanessa and I see her hi Vanessa I’m ptim uh so uh CHF Thomas’s career spans from Lula Cafe in Chicago to the vibrant food scene of San Francisco where he refined his skills in prestigious kitchens such as flow and water Al’s place which earned one L star Slanted Door Group and bar Agri colle which earned James Beard award for bar program design so in this wife settled here uh they live in Pasadena with their beloved pets yes uh and they own Agnes uh restaurant in cheery um so this is Chef uh judge one chef Thomas I’m oh let me ask you this I’m gonna do this real quick what are you most looking forward to tonight uh I’m looking forward to seeing how the chefs focus on creating an economical meal that the clients of friends indeed can create for their own so when they get to see this when they get to look back on this footage they get to know that they can be creative with the awesome food pantry that friends anded puts on daily and weekly for everyone to be creative and and provide nourishment for themselves and their families it’s really cool excellent that didn’t that didn’t pick up oh well it must well it picked it picked up for these streaming ah so we are going to be louder for all of you we’ll we’ll get it but uh one of the things about the food pantry is um people pick their own groceries and so what chef Thomas was talking about is when when they come and get their groceries they take it home and prepare it uh most of the people that use the food pantry are housed they have their own house apartments rooms so they know their way around a kitchen so what chef Thomas was referring to was being able to take some of these simple items that we have right here and create a meal thank you chef Thomas all right I’m going to follow Chef Chris as he just started walking away so this is Chef uh Chris Flint he earned a Mastery master of culinary arts degree from the French Culinary Institute in New York and began his career as a sue Chef Sue chef at the lowed Boule restaurant in New York City most notably Chris uh Chef Chris has spent 10 years with the globally acclaimed make it nice Hospitality Group during his tenure he worked as the chef de cuisine at the flagship restaurant 11 Madison Park uh during the restaurants award uh winning years he went on to play a pivotal role as the executive Che Chef Nomad New York Los Angeles Las Vegas and after you got a lot going on man okay he’s still he’s he’s over at the mahand restaurant which is out in Calabasas um so this is uh Chef’s uh Chris’s first uh first year doing this and I’ll ask you the same thing I asked chef Thomas what do you most looking forward to tonight I’m really just excited to see all the contestants and see how they utilize the ingredients to create a really creative meal for everyone tonight excellent thank you Chef Chris thank you all right so we’re getting we got two uh we got two boy this is going to be tough going back and forth with that thing somebody just make sure if I don’t put it on right uh we’re going to come over here we’re going to uh visit oh take this one excellent uh we just speak there great so this is uh Chef Joseph badaro he was born and raised in kit and one of his Fondest Memories as a child was helping his mother prepare gabano beans for the family’s hummus Joseph continued to help her out in the kitchen picking up new skills with every dish his mother prepared by the age of 12 Joseph was already making baklava I don’t know if anybody’s ever really looked at baklava but that’s tough that is really tough uh he was making it on his own and quickly mastered cooking he furthered his culinary education in Lebanon where he spent most Summers growing up with family uh during these trips he and his cousins ate their way through family kitchens restaurants Shawarma bars scattered over Beirut um and learning new recipes flavors uh he has the laab restaurant which is on Colorado it’s on Colorado uh East uh from here uh where he prepare or he oversees his favorite Lebanese inspired dishes and represents everything he learned over the years from his mother family and Lebanese Roots this is uh Chef Joseph well ask you the third thing what are you looking forward today uh I’m actually looking forward to seeing how these chefs do Under pressure I have never actually had to cook a meal in under 60 minutes while 60 people stare at me so I think this is a a fe all of itself but looking forward to see how these chefs create this food um you know sometimes it’s a lot harder to figure out how to make food of basic materials and they’re going to highlight all those things that a lot of people have access to and uh that friends indeed hands out so looking forward to seeing how they utilize all those ingredients and uh turn into something fun within 60 minutes with which again I will admit I don’t think I can do it that way that’s all right Chef Joseph thank you all right so uh we got a little bit of time so enjoy I’m gonna talk uh briefly about the items and some of the other things uh that they’re using and we’ll go from there so I’ll be back in a few moments [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] try and be really loud because it is uh we do know that it’s hard to hear in here um if there’s some reason you can’t hear me at some point raise your hand I’ll work my way that way way and back and forth and all of that and we’ll see if that works a little bit um but that’s uh it’s as fun as cooking for a causes and last year I gotta say it was a tremendous good time uh and and it was and I think this is a great event and so I’m glad we’re doing it again for the second time so I hope you’re all having fun but it’s also important to remember this is a fundraiser for friends indeed um we’ve got uh we’ve got five different programs and I’m going to tell you a little bit about each program uh specifically I know more about mine but I’ve got some notes on the others uh to to be able to share um so we’re GNA talk about the programs and what friends andde does now there’s the other thing here you’ve got a whole bunch of groceries here and I’m going to tell you what those groceries are in a second but if you’re watching our contestants and you’re inspired and you’re like I’m going to go home tonight before bed and get in the kitchen nobody do that all right we but if you want to donate $100 before the end of event uh the event our team will email you the shopping list and you can be a home cook for a chance to win FID swag we’ve got some good swag now we’re starting to starting to build that up over time here um and get in on the cooking experience and then take pictures send it to Maria send it to Elise send it to me uh you can find all of our email addresses on the website um so uh come on donate 100 and give it a try I want to hear what you all can create and we’ll compare it we’ll compare it with our contestants um as uh we have a lot of sponsors on this so we want to make sure to uh acknowledge uh some of our sponsors tonight we have the cheffe cuisine level sponsor and I uh will not point at people that are on here I’m just going to say their names but we have Vicky and David Thompson they’re over there they’re over there we we have Barbara Ryder levenson we have and I wrote a note to make sure I tried to say it right but gundai and Ernest posie did I say gundai right excellent all right good enough and then the trustees of the Pasadena Methodist Foundation those are our Chef to Cuisine level uh sponsors tonight also in case you didn’t know it this is Rachel holding the camera in front of me uh Rachel is a seasoned veteran as this is her second time doing this um but we want to turn around show everyone in here on our live audience watching here well we’re gonna look over here let’s see what yeah everyone wave wave all right now if we’re being careful we’re not going to go out this way because it’ll mess with the sound but everybody wait there we go this is our live audience everyone thank you so much for being here all right so I feel like we ought to talk a little bit about uh what our contestants are are uh are using start this way now these are the things that were in the bags but remember they only have to use five they can use all of them but they have to use at least five um what we’ve got is we’ve got a pound well that’s a two pound bag of spaghetti we’ve got mixed vegetables vegetarian beans garbanzo beans diced tomatoes peaches where’s our rice our rice is over there we’ve got well we’ve got apples we’ve got potatoes we’ve got sweet potatoes y H onion there’s trust me there’s onion somewhere over there because I packed the bags um and uh coliflower there’s also chicken thighs or Tofu for the protein U mozzarella cheese and a pint of milk so those are the things uh that uh our contestants have tonight and if you haven’t been to the food pantry um it’s set up like a neighborhood Market um show me raise your hands if you haven’t been to the food pantry all right you are all invited okay you just have to give me a little advanced notice but you’re invited to come see how the panty operates it’s set up like a neighborhood market and everybody picks their groceries based on their family size and what we have in the way of fruits and vegetables so that’s a little bit about this we’re g to check in with our contestants in a few moments and I’m going to get a drink of water e e [Music] go the setly well sorry come we’re just gonna we’re gonna check in with our contestants here uh all right so uh come so we have uh cont H contestant Simone here what are you what are you making what’s your what’s your plan on a potatoes that are cred up potatoes uh crisped up with aqua FAA which is the uh chickpea water which will help get them hopefully a little bit more crispy um without using oil which should be very interesting I haven’t made it yet so that’s my one risky dish yeah I’m also going to be using the chicken thighs flow them up steer them in the pan and then use the pan sauce along with the apples onions and a couple other things to make a pan sauce with that so we’ll see how it works because it’s something I’ve made at home but I don’t of course have all the ingredients here but I’m going to try and make it work and see what we get using some of the other um flavors and maybe even incorporate a little bit of the sliced peaches yeah awesome so we’ll see what happens great thank you uh all right we’re going to move on to contestant number two uh well we’re gonna try to stay out of the way though we’re gonna hold on one second contestant Desiree can we interrupt for just a second to ask what you’re gonna make a roasted cauliflower Cho with a sage h lemon mayo and some Mexican rice and a three sister salad wow excellent great thank you all right so let’s come down here maybe we’ll stand on well we’ll stand on this side to uh for contestant Diane Diana what are you making over here I’m gonna be making a chicken and rice bowl with a um a grilled corn with cucumbers and um tomato salad on side excellent that sounds great all right we’re going to get out of your guys’s way ah perfect okay so we talked about this a little bit uh and we’re gonna move around I don’t know maybe nobody needs to hear me but the food pantry talking about one of the programs and we’ll just kind of kind of wander around so our food pantry serves over 600 households every single week well let’s go around here ah excellent well I gotta go this way all right you want me right here excellent hey that’s all right um so as I mentioned we serve over 600 households every week uh people come in they pick the groceries they want based on family size and what we have in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables and protein and um Dairy and all of those things um they can come in uh Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday doesn’t matter which day but they can only come in one time a week and they can come in every week for as long as they need to I’ve been in charge of the food pants come on through and I don’t even know what that means am I ahead behind Okay ah well good 44 minutes for me I’m like going I don’t know uh 44 minutes uh for the chef so um uh it’s getting exciting um so folks when they come in we about 4,000 lbs to 5,000 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables every single week uh and so people can leave with a lot of food and it’s really a great thing um we have people that come that are in their 90s um all the way for early 20s into their 90s I’ve known a lot of these folks for the 11 years that I’ve been there they are great people they just need a little help and that’s what we try and do with the food pantry so that is is the food pantry part of things um want Rabbi I want to say something okay Rabbi greater have you talked to one of the chefs and asked them what they’re looking for did you already do that yeah well uh we asked them what what they were looking for tonight fantastic that’s all I wanted to know since I couldn’t hear everything all right yeah the um they all were looking at the um the idea of just taking the unknown and creating uh one thing that uh Chef Joseph said that I thought was most interesting he goes I’ve never had to prepare something in an hour uh you know kind of on that so uh the the idea of the time constraint is a um is is a big thing yeah cool right on right on as Rabbi greater everyone y we’re we’ll move this way now um so then we’ve got the second program is the women’s room uh it’s a day shelter yeah that’s right Lindsay we got it we got it it um the women’s room a day shelter exclusively for uh unhoused women women that are risk of being unhoused that are alone that want to be a part of a a community by women for women uh just about coming up on the 17th uh 17th birthday uh in September they welcome 30 to 40 unhoused uh women each day they can come in and they can get a shower they can do laundry there’s always a meal there’s there are computers there’s a nap room um there are arts and crafts there are games it’s it’s just a place for the women to come uh to to kind of take the pressure off of what they deal with every day there’s no staying the night at friends and deed so many of the women are coming from the streets and they’re going back to the streets and so for them to have this place um as as been great and many of them find their way into being housed and many haven’t and that’s what uh Lindsay and her team uh are trying to do is help as many as they can um Let Me Take A let me take a break for a second and uh we’ll be right back [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] e I brought head block yeah ready stand by The Stand by the cheese excellent all right so I hope you’re all having a good time I know the camera’s been on our contestants uh lot of activity everybody seems to be having a nice time visiting catching up uh and all that um we want to give some special thanks uh to those who made tonight possible um Daniel gray creative for the uh competitor head shot Pasadena now for being a media sponsor Agnes restaurant and cheesery especially uh chef Thomas toika cowb and Vanessa tilaka cowb uh photographer Carly CIO live stream videographer Stuart Broly Rachel who’s holding the camera and Fiona who’s around here with another camera uh and our three aspiring uh Chef competitors Simone wood Desiree Flores and Diana Ramirez Hernandez going to hit another one of our sponsors tonight these are our pastry chef level sponsors this is Connie hogen and Jennifer and John Robinson thank you so much for your sponsorship of this event we are going to I see all three of our chefs um over uh group together so we’re going to make our way over there ask them another question in each uh and we’ll uh we’ll go from there chefs I’m gonna put you on the spot real quick again we’ll start with Chef Chris because you’re on top of myh cheat sheet um if you were in this competition tonight uh which station you think is the most difficult to work with when you didn’t know what you were gonna have you know more than an hour before which station yeah oh did we I think they were talking about stations because originally it was going to be like the Hearth and the the pasta and the Ed but we kind of opened it up last minute yeah so um then let’s just make up what um if you were in this competition where would you focus would you go with the heart would you I would focus right here because then I’d have more access to different heat sources okay I can always throw something on the heart like I believe desire is doing and go check on it but then I could just be able to turn around I can have things simmering boiling I got the saut pan for searing I feel like I’m going to have a little bit more flexibility right in this area than just being solely confed to open Open Flame or uh wood burning yeah awesome excellent um uh chef Thomas what would uh looking at that and I’ll ask you this again as well Chris I’ll ask all of you what would you focus on knowing the or what would you create tonight knowing the ingredients that you have yeah I really like everyone seeming to lean into the corn I love being from Iowa I definitely always love corn it’s middle of the summer so it’s corn season I’m glad that they have seasonal ingredients as well we threw in some really fresh produce for them at the last minute but yeah I I would if if I wasn’t very acclimated with the heart that would be very intimidating but I’m glad that everyone was really excited to use the heart really excited to grill something and we did uh give them a task to all have one grilled element so in the dish the final dish we all expect to see one thing grilled yeah that’s right when uh when I came in you you had decided to do that and everyone was excited uh before I get to Chef Joseph I’ll come back to you just what would you um create with these ingredients tonight I would definitely be putting the chicken on the hearts to get a lot of that really good flavor I mean that’s something that I would try to make sure planning wise timing wise that I got that on the right amount of time and then I could then go back and focus on some of the vegetable prep but I think definitely have corn and Chicken in that area at some point time awesome excellent uh Chef Joseph what uh what about you tonight so if you were preparing something with these ingredients what would what would what path would you take what would you do I would have just stuck to the grill uh something I’ve been doing for a while since I was a kid so put me in front of a grill I think a lot of these ingredients do work great on the grill and they could uh that flavor of the charcoal wood should uh would Elevate the dish lot so I’d probably be hanging out over there quite a bit over any other station awesome that’s excellent um I I one thing I notice and I don’t want to keep you guys because you’re judging but they all are making pretty different dishes you know it’s kind of like uh you kind of go as a as somebody watching you go hey let’s see three different things and it it just seemed to be happening that way we are loving loving the path that several I they’re all Tak a different path I love the whole garbanzo over there looks like she might be making cucumber peek with the GU I don’t know we see some onion going in there some lime so we’ll see how she kind of approaches that but uh it’s going to be a a fun race to the finish here yeah excellent we’ll let you guys get back to uh judging thank you fellas thanks excellent so we got a little bit of input from the uh chefs it’s always hard they’re trying to watch they’re judging they’re taking a look at things and their chefs they’re confirming they’re talking about stuff that uh that they do as well so I think right now um I have no idea how much time we have left Mar what kind of uh 32 and a half minutes so we’ll take a break EX [Music] like some of the table say and I’ll go with you I’m for on 30 minutes Che 30 minutes thank you I your I thank you I’m always afraid of like go so yeah we uh we’ll go on yeah okay so um little bit about some of the other programs we go this way perfect um we talked about the food pantry talked about the women’s room we have the street Outreach and housing team and they basically identify uh individuals that are unhoused uh unsheltered homeless in the streets of Pasadena and then they work to to build trust and reform look it when you’re first meeting somebody in general you just can’t come up and say hey um I’m here to help you it doesn’t work people are a little aware of that so you’ve got to build connections and Rapport and our street Outreach Team Works to do that um to provide uh housing is the end result great but socks food water um Connecting People the services they they may need that’s what our street Outreach and housing team uh does we have an eviction prevention and rental assistance program so when you think about our programs um the food pantry and the eviction prevention and rental assistance programs are the ones where the the people we help for the most part um are housed but with the eviction prevention and rental assistance they’re looking to help people not become unhoused if we can uh provide short and medium-term rental assistance uh so that the people can stay in their home it’s less expensive down the road um for people and so eviction prevention and Rental assistant really uh actually I think I think all of our program directors are here I won’t go put them all on the spot but they’re all here tonight and they just do a great job in trying to help as many people as they can stay in their homes so they don’t become unhoused um we’re looking out along here let’s uh let’s just go visit some uh tables we’ll put people on the spot except when they’re uh putting uh things in their mouths hi folks are you having a good time and you know why I came to your table first is you’re one of the few tables where somebody wasn’t eating right when I walked up so a lot well I’m glad you folks are here and I’m glad you’re having a good time thank you for coming all right we’ll keep moving around hi folks how are you we’re just saying hi be on uh be on the live stream are you having a good time yes well you know can I sit down and answer that I just have a am I am I taking somebody I’ll get out of the way in just a second but you know what in in the pantry the neighborhood market I mean it is simple ingredients uh but at the same time if you come into the pantry a lot of times we don’t know um what kind of meat or protein uh we’ve had catfish shrimp fish sticks pork patties all those things we’ll get um even produce can be um more of your not rather than just your run-of-the-mill things um but yeah the ingredients in there um when you come into the food pantry and you look down we start kind of like with fruit and canned vegetables and cereal and soup and pasta and beans and so on um but those are the those are the Staples uh of of the folks Refrigeration yeah unit yeah we work with the uh Los Angeles Regional food bank and what they do is um they are the big provider to LA County their goal is a million meals a week to places like friends and they have over 700 agencies and so they’ve got Partnerships with Distributors and and and so when they um when you said protein um my team and I will look at what’s available to us on the night that we’re set up to um to order and if it says shrimp great we’ll order shrimp most of it’s at no cost to us which is a huge huge benefit let me ask you something you said a lot of these people have their own own kitchen so yes I’m from Hill Avenue Hill Avenue Lutheran Church on Hill Avenue and we do a u food food pantry every Saturday from 930 to 12:30 and we have special bags that go to people who have kitchens because we ask them do you have a kitchen that you can prepare this so then they get the pasta And the sauce es and everything otherwise they get caned goods and different you know package um tuna fish and if they we have can openers that we give them does one of those packages so we would love if we could have some kind of frozen foods and proteins but well oh it was over time when I started we didn’t have the refrigeration that we do now and we’ve we’ve been very fortunate as I mentioned we have a great relationship with the Los Angeles Regional food bank and so that helps um but we do have an unhal population as well that come for food so we try to you know make sure to have things that they that makes it easy for them to eat as well yeah for sure yeah just a a note it’s probably on here but last year we gave out over we distributed over 770,000 pounds of food out of the out of the food Pat Uh in the course of a year is it open every day Tuesday Wednesday Thursday doesn’t matter which day you come but only one time a week okay because when we do we also do blessing day okay EXC and I’ve made a list of all the different places they can get food with us being Saturday so now I know about that um but I was told it’s only women no that’s the women’s room food pantry anyone can anyone can come food pantry is anyone women’s room only women we’re in the same building um but yes open to everyone news to me I’m gonna exchange that information you know what let’s you and I chat a little bit later uh this evening uh and uh and I’ll see what kind of information I can provide to you awesome good thank you all right we’re moving around which we’re going to go this way all right coming this way I almost put you on the spot I almost did almost all right I’m gonna stop here you guys having a nice time great fantastic fantastic why wouldn’t you be here to support you know what that’s as good a reason as I’m glad I stopped by to ask you guys how you were doing but but really uh you know we it is a fundraiser tonight um and we’re going to raise as much as we can but um if you wanna donate $100 and get in the kitchen great do it if you don’t want to any donation will help we’ve we’ve got five programs that we have to uh uh uh support and I’ll mention it later but we couldn’t do it without your support uh doing together what we cannot do alone is our tagline it’s our motto I believe that 100% and have as long as I’ve been there so um thank you thank you for bringing that up jumped right into my segue you’re a regular spokesperson for us you got it down well done thank you oh all right we’re going to keep moving along here what else do we got here oh look at this table over here you guys are gonna oh I’m not Vicky you stay facing that way uh just for a second um you guys having a good time excellent excellent are any of you going to want to compete next year in this event nobody nobody is saying I’ll put on the apron in the Hat and jump in there no no if I ask you later any change no right no no no Vicky is in charge of coring our musical taste uh but I’m glad you guys are all having a great time thank you for being here um before we uh continue on let me give a shout out to another set of sponsors um these are our vegetable Chef sponsors uh we have Anonymous Lisa and Bradford frier Carol Grant anant Ursula Heyman Don and Lori Mets Michelle and Ben Meyers the singer family Louise van and Carol Grant thank you all very much for your um uh sponsorship of tonight TV and before we cut off and I let you go wander around and see all this again the fifth program we have is a bad weather shelter program and this basically operates during our winter months um we work with the Trinity Lutheran Church on on night thatter where weather activated our unhoused community can go and get um get a cck blanket bed a hot meal a dry warm place to stay the night and that works um kind of mid to Winter to Mid spring we have sus Pacific University nursing students that come out that we’ll do uh blood pressure screenings first aid feet washing this un uh things like feet washing socks dry warm clean socks all so so important uh for our community so at this point I think I’ve given you all five programs if not some come find me if I left the program out and we’ll check again but I’ll be back with you shortly Chef 15 minutes five 15 minutes a little add 13 and change okay 13 ch minutes we had cauliflower corn Tomatoes ham beans beans Mas potatoes gravy I’m famous for my Mas potatoes Thanksgiving and Christmas that’s did uh milk and butter oh uh I would definitely lean into the grill I like I like to see everything coming off the grill uh would definitely go corn I’m a big fan of like suckatash you know which has the beans and the corn um good girl you [Applause] sorry all right everyone so we got 10 minutes 10 minutes everyone so we are getting down to crunch time um hope you are all having a a great time that you’re uh enjoying uh drinks food each other’s company uh I’ve got a chance to speak to a lot of you um and that’s been great for those of you that are at home watching uh come see me in the food pantry and uh we can chat then um but yes so so we’re down to 10 minutes couple of uh some stats cuz stats are great this is uh again this is a fundraiser um so stats I’m gonna wow you with some stats in the food pantry in 2023 we had 25 more than 25,000 client visits over the course of 50 weeks that was that out of that 25,000 over 27 00 uh different households counting them each one time um I was telling some folks over there I was off a little bit but we distributed over 770,000 pounds of food which comes out to about 640,000 meals um this says 513 households per week we’re at about 610 so far in 2024 and all of the donation the in kind donations that we get from so many of you uh when you drop by um with bags of food when you do a food drive when your kids school all that was valued at over $1.3 million in in kind food donations the women’s room women’s room had uh 237 different women served um they had 2800 guest visits they provided almost 2700 meals they did 983 loads of laundry if you have not been to friends and de you have to look we’ve got three washer dryer setups uh so they can do as many loads Monday through Thursday 987 showers provided and our street Outreach and housing um they uh serve 238 indiv idual uh individuals 71 clients were sheltered 1460 Motel stays and $ 27,429 in movein assistance provided that’s our street Outreach team eviction prevention and retinal assistance they were able to provide 117 households uh with funding assistance that came out to 280 $2,000 uh in rental and utility assistance 300 months drop those hey we pick up glasses too when it happens uh 300 months of rental assistance provided and 179 household provided with rental Aid resources those are just some of the basic stats of um of what our programs were able to do in 2023 uh and again it’s a fundraiser uh second cooking for a cause it’s been great fun everybody’s having a wonderful time for a $100 donation we’ll give you the mystery items so that you could go and prepare this food yourself take a picture send it to Maria Alise me send it to anybody on friends and D page of our staff page on the website um but any donation a dollar to ,000 dollar it it doesn’t matter it all helps us serve the most vulnerable in our community and that’s really critical to our mission to do this uh with connection uh uh compassion and dignity uh it just there we we serve good folks uh and I’m glad to be a part of this uh organization uh and so help us continue to help us you’re all wonderful and we’re grateful for you uh all right so we’re less than 10 minutes I don’t know probably six minutes now so I’ll step away uh and we’ll just see what happens [Music] [Music] down every everyone that’s at the uh at the counter here we got a few minutes left if you can ask everyone to kind of return so the chefs can finish up uh the judges can get in here um we’ll make sure to try and get as many pictures as we can thank you everyone I hope that [Music] works chef Thomas was that what he [Music] [Music] black SE I’m dropping off you know what she’s making we’re one minute left so the chefs are finishing uh the contestants are finishing up uh the judges the chef judges are all taking uh taking everything in uh so we’ll get a countdown here in just a few moments as we wrap this up now is this is is this the one for the the judges they’re gonna end up putting both of them okay but Thomas we’re GNA have the judges put here at first and then we’ll have you guys take the back and they’ll put their second plate here as well so we’ll start here and then you guys can take just need obviously why is it counting up it’s to one minute so you got 20 oh got 20 seconds well I’ll do I’ll do a I’ll do a 10 count okay all right we’re in the final count count down we’re going to go 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 and we’re done let’s have around yes indeed wow great job everybody so uh contestants if you will bring your dishes over here and place it uh behind your name that would be great um so while they’re while they’re putting everything down we are going to give them a chance to uh catch their breath but uh hang on we’ll wait one more more second here excellent there we go all right again a a round of applause I know Chef Joseph said it um I like to cook but boy I wouldn’t want to have to do that in an hour my kitchen looks like a mess when I’m doing it um H so this is this is impressive so we’re gonna uh let them catch their breath the judges are going to jump right in there I’m GNA get out of their way um each competitor will explain their dishes to our judges one at a time the judges will taste each one write down their points and then collaborate on selecting a winner um I guess I need I guess I need my contestants over here that’s uh Chef sh Simone I’ll start with you all right because I forgot this part all right let’s go with uh uh contestant Simone all right so let’s uh tell her here I’ll give you this let’s tell everyone what you prepared this evening so today I prepared oh right here oh gotcha hello today I prepared a uh which way should I face well we got the camera here sorry y’all but I’ll try to project for everyone in the crowd um today I prepared a chicken thigh H crispy pan fried chicken thigh with a Apple Pan sauce as well as some potatoes roasted in the Hearth that are coated with a little bit of aquafaba which is the chickpea water that we got in the canned chickpeas in the um in the bag so yeah excellent thank you Chef thank you thank you excellent good job all right let’s go to uh well we’ll go or let’s go Chef Diana because you’re next on the on the list all right I guess we’re going to stand here and I’m going to give you this and what have you prepared this evening uh well I prepared the basic um which is the chicken and rice bowl with u with a p Theo based on onions cucumber tomato and grilled corn excellent excellent good thank you Chef Diane Diana sorry I did I think I did that twice All Right contestant uh Desiree come on over all right this is Chef Desiree I’ll have him stand right here I’ll give you this to speak into go and turn a little bit and what did you prepare so I prepared a roasted cauliflower Taco with a crunchi garbanzo beans and same some pickled onions with that are pickled in lime and salt uh I also made a like dressing for the taco it made with the aquaa from the garb Bono beans some lime sage and um there’s also a side salad uh it’s a take on a three sister salad so it has corn roasted corn black beans and roasted sweet potatoes awesome great thank you very much all right again I don’t know why I’m talking into two of these things uh yeah so we’ve got um three fantastic looking uh dishes um judges are going to give it a try now um so couple of things while uh they’re deliberating I I mentioned it to some of you one of the things um about friends and deed that um we all hold dear I hold this uh really especially is our motto which is doing together what we cannot do alone without without the support of donors coming by with food donations or clothing or things for the women’s room or socks or Waters without those things without volunteers um and then without uh all of the financial donors we couldn’t do this um without all of you um it’s it’s so important uh and I know you all know this and we’re we’re just grateful for everything uh that you guys do to help us live doing together what we cannot uh cannot do alone you guys are all a part of of that all of you out there still watching me out there you at home every one of you play such an important part in our our uh ability to serve um the most vulnerable in our community and I I’ll speak well Rabbi grer is right here I won’t speak for him I’ll speak for the rest of the staff and then he can do that as well but thank you all very very much uh we couldn’t do it without you uh and I would just uh offer a round of applause to all of you as well so before uh before we we’re going to cut to some videos and uh they’re going to judge and everything but how about we say thank you to uh Tim nissler uh tonight so this is uh not in his job description um but uh so people know he’s a he’s a renaissance man he’s spent some time in front of the camera uh in his life but uh we’re just grateful that Tim is on his day off to come and to uh to just entertain and to it makes it so much more fun and Lively and so uh thank you sir we appreciate it we appreciate it t yay Tim he’ll be at the pantry bright and early tomorrow uh to serve all starting those 600 households that are going to be uh coming so everyone have a good time tonight all right all right so let’s let him judge and uh we’ll be right back and see who the winner is unless you have more no I got I’m gonna I got a couple more things because I’m never at a loss for words um we’ve got a couple of videos to show you um and I know Josh will probably want to come back up here in a second but a very dear uh friend to friends indeed recently passed away her name was Barbara Dangerfield she was on the board uh she used the women’s room she used the uh food pantry um she was a lovely lady uh and she recently passed but we have a video um um I’m not sure how old the video is it years it’s a couple years ago but it really says a lot about um Barbara and the folks we’re trying to serve so we’re gonna see a video of Barbara and then an FID promo video um so thank you everyone [Music] my name is Barbara J Dangerfield before I found the women’s room I was living at a local shelter here in Pasadena I had to trust in God to uh to lead me on I happened to see a flyer that gave me information about the women’s room it was a safe place to nap and I could get something to eat and uh got here to the women’s room when I was going up the stairs I met um Jackie noes and she welcomed me with this big smile and I’m glad you are here and I’m thinking do you know me it was food to my soul to be welcomed like that because I had felt disconnected for a while she blessed My Soul by welcom me me to my own [Music] Community there’s a part of a Christian song we sing that says it bathed my soul with love and that’s how I felt that day so I’m still just grateful it is a wonderful experience that I went through and a lot of kindness was shown to me uh while I was here and um I’m still connected to a lot of people still to this day so it became like um an extended [Music] family I was asked to be on the board because I was a former homeless person some of the grants that could be written or requested for required either a homeless person or a former homeless person I guess to qualify for these grants so I said well Lord let my name be a blessing I used to zoom in for the meetings to listen to learn and when they talked about housing and how we can help different people who are looking for housing and how we go about that you know are we going to place people where they’re comfortable and safe people think because they’ve never been homeless that it could never happen to them but it can happen we should never forget that we’re all human we all have value and we should all encourage one another to find meaning and purpose in life I see that friends indeed really does a good work in the community and no matter what color you are where you come from they really help people in the community so I know that the funds are really going toward people and the work in the community [Music] since 1894 we’ve made it our mission at friends and deed to reach out and help those who find themselves on the margin with dignity and respect we believe that giving to those in need helps build a stronger community in Pasadena we distribute groceries to local families through our food pantry providing more than half a million meals per year that’s thousands of pounds of groceries each week to hundreds of households our pantry provides groceries like a neighborhood market where family get real food to supplement their weekly meals including bags of fresh fruits and vegetables and meat and protein too our bad weather shelter gives folks experiencing homelessness Refuge from the winter cold and rain we operate when needed about 40 nights out of the year we set up CS for 80 people each night and our volunteers are happy to provide a H healthy meal and a safe place to sleep in the women’s room we believe in giving homeless and atrisk women a space to build meaningful lives through Community boosting their confidence and self-esteem by engaging in many forms of art writing and self-care we also provide assistance with basic services like showers clean laundry good food and a place to find support and love the results can be [Music] lifechanging our eviction prevention and rental assistance program helps neighbors avoid eviction by providing short-term rental assistance which is critical to maintaining housing stability in our community this program also provides our clients with Supportive Services to help sustain their current housing including case management our street Outreach and housing Team Works to build relationships with people experiencing homelessness we identify and reach out to over 100 folk each year our goal is to reduce their housing barriers and eventually navigate them to interim and permanent housing and give them keys to a new life since 1894 we have been doing together what we cannot do alone through compassion connection and dignity we are changing lives at friends indeed we serve our neighbors in need join us in helping the Pasadena Community to learn more or donate to our cause visit us at friends indeed p.org [Music] okay so we’re we’re still waiting on the judges um but we might as well say a few more thank yous um and again if you whoa it disappeared if you still want to take uh donate $100 we will uh give you a list of the ingredients you can go get creative uh and send us pictures we love that um but also we want thanks again to Daniel gray creative for the uh competitor head shots Pasadena now for the being the media sponsor Agnes restaurant in cheery especially uh Jeff Thomas uh tilaka cowb and Vanessa tilaka calb uh photographer Carly CIO live stream videographer Stuart Broly who’s over there Stuart how we doing on the all right good uh and then also Rachel who’s been holding the camera I’ve been looking at and Fiona who’s been holding the other camera and our three uh inspiring uh Chef competitors uh Simone wood Desiree Flores Diana Ramirez Hernandez um thank you so much um we’re just waiting now on the uh on the judges and we’ll be back and uh with the a declared winner thank you [Music] perect that’s one of [Music] something that’s this is dises it looks nice but I would I think I might gra they [Music] it’s good i’ eat it come on my God well actually could you chicken potato watch [Music] [Music] [Music] let’s go I don’t know table sof I so I use from I and I chef Thomas who do we how do we oh he’s just okay okay so it’s gonna Chef I’m gonna say I’m gonna say we’re back and turn it over to chef Thomas yeah all right uh if we can have all of the contestant right over here to my left uh please there we go all right we’re all there excellent all right let’s have one more round of applause for our really challenging really a great job so I’m gonna turn it over to chef Thomas who’s going to announce um our winner so take take it away my mic yes I just want to say great job thank you so much for being here that was a like guys put it all on the plate thank you so much you guys one more time one more time yeah this is uh it’s not the easiest kitchen to work in especially when you got 90 eyeballs blinking at you so like hats off you guys did an awesome job thank you so much I hope you saw us over there having a really difficult time deciding we were back and forth we we chocked it up but we do have a winner and it was sumo excellent Simone uh con congratulations Simone for being crowned our 2024 Cooking For A Cause Champion we have a Trader Joe’s gift certificate and we have gift bags for each of you as a token of our appreciation um we hope you had a great time would you like to say anything uh thanks to everybody thanks to my um fellow contestants U we worked so hard thanks to our host Agnes and to everyone’s at friends in in indeed because I hear the rhyme friends anded and need and all that but um H thank you all I learned a lot and I really appreciate all the generosity and everybody’s support thank you awesome all right so um over here to camera left uh we’ve got the the plates uh that each of our contestants made with a description feel free to take a look at it see what they did um but Mary are we are we wrapping up so uh I’ve been uh I’ve been honored to be your host um thank you for being with us on the second annual cooking for a cause and hope to see you all real soon have a great night great job you all well done Def yeah you stop woo wait good job good job