FareStart

Tom Douglas, Founding Guest Chef, Hosts FareStart Fundraiser

Tom Douglas is a busy man. Together, Tom and his wife and business partner Jackie Cross operate four Seattle restaurants and a stylish new event facility, all serving award-winning cuisine. In addition, Tom just finished taping Iron Chef, America on the 28^th of April, just three short days after this night. 

I got the call in the midst of the end of the year rush and was told I had $20K to spend on any organization we felt deserved the money.  My first and only thought went to FareStart.  I wrote my proposal and had it approved within record time of four hours – not too shabby for a 275,000+ employee organization such as Citigroup.  Over the past two years, the number of students trained on a daily basis at FareStart has doubled.  FareStart turns away more qualified program applicants than it can accept due to a lack of space and adequate facilities. In addition, due to a lack of kitchen capacity, FareStart has also had to turn down new meal contracts for low-income child care centers, Head Start programs and homeless shelters.  What better way to support than giving to their “Futures Rising” Capital Campaign.

The next step was to create a gift that kept giving.  Honestly, $20K didn’t seem like enough and I really wanted to create an event that would get people new to the organization excited about their mission.  I decided to host a “Guest Chef” dinner at the FareStart restaurant.  The thought was to cram in as many of Seattle's corporate elite into one room and provide a dinner with one of Seattle's best known chefs, Tom Douglas.  I called Tom and without hesitation got an okay to put on a show we wouldn’t forget.  In the past 12 years FareStart’s Guest Chef Events, including the annual Night on the Town Auction, have raised over $2.5 million to help homeless and disadvantaged men women and youth find new opportunities through job training and placement in the foodservice industry. Tom Douglas is a founding father of the Guest Chef program, and his dedication, along with that of over a hundred of Seattle's best chefs, are responsible for the success of FareStart’s Guest Chef Fundraisers.

It took over 300 emails and countless hours getting it just right.  The original thought was to have 60 people based on our invite list.  Much to our surprise that number grew to over 110!  I knew Tom could fill a room but this was awesome. I reprinted the menu twice after we discovered Cherries aren’t in season but the final result looked mouth watering.  We had over 25 volunteers in both the front and back of the house including the FareStart board, an elite group in their own right, as our waitstaff for the evening.  Not only were they serving up a fantastic meal, but also spreading an infectious commitment to FareStart's ongoing success. 

One of my partners and an incredible supporter of FareStart, Bob Nelson, of the Nelson Braun Oliger group at Smith Barney, led by example as he presented a check for $20,000 to the Futures Rising campaign. An additional $18,500 was raised on the spot and many thousands more are sure to come in as support for futures rising.

Tom so generously coordinated the ingredients, donated his time & food, training skills and provided a unique opportunity for FareStart students to work under his direction.  Tom also sold and donated proceeds from sales of his cookbooks that he completely sold out of that night. 

The kitchen started running at around 3:00pm getting prepped for the evening.  Tom has a unique combination of intensity that is complimented with a cool and laid back attitude – it really was infectious.  Tom had an awesome way of working with the students – both training and directing them on a fairly detailed menu.  For some of the students, I imagine this was by far their coolest experience yet, and probably most unforgettable. 

The clock wound down and guests started to arrive.  They were pleasantly greeted with Tom at the Stand Up Sea Bar doling out some of his most famous delectable treats – albacore tuna with aleppo peppers and blood orange, clams on the half shell with charred fennel vinaigrette and last but certainly not least, his famous Dahlia Lounge hot smoke mustard and sage Salmon (Alex’s favorite).  The first wine of the evening was an Alexandria Nicole Cellars Viognier which was quite good.  While mingling, we had passed to us onion seed rye with camilia goat cheese and hedge hog mushrooms.  Also passed were spicy eggplant and black sesame steam buns (a.k.a. little bites of heaven).  We got everyone seated and the rest of the meal began to arrive.  It started with a chive & shrimp dumpling in a star anise duck broth and was accompanied by the Alexandria Nicole, Merlot.  Next was the roasted sweet turnip with bitter sweet shallots, fava beans and sheep’s milk ricotta.  This course came with the Columbia Crest Chardonnay.  The main course consisted of salt & pepper squab with escarole, syrah jam and duck-fried jo-jo’s.  This accompaniment was the Columbia Crest Syrah.  For dessert we were treated to a chocolate soufflé tart with fresh raspberries and milk chocolate ice-cream. 

Tom Douglas and his star pastry chef, Jacob Ulii from the Dahlia Lounge & Bakery, spoke with compassion about how FareStart uses food as a tool that empowers lives, nourishes families and builds the community. As a FareStart graduate, Jacob knows the importance of helping those in need through hope, training and new opportunity.  His dialogue about his own story was really moving – people were literally in tears.

Along with all of the volunteers that evening, we had a few more “key ingredients” that played an important role in making this event possible.  Both Columbia Crest and Alexandria Nicole Cellars donated all of the wine for the evening.  The entire evening was captured by my good friend and soon to be famous photographer, Frank Huster.  Along with Tom and Jackie they have an amazing and super cool assistant, Amy Pennington who was an integral part in organizing the entire event – thanks Amy.  In addition, FareStart had a whole slew of dedicated staff that helped coordinate the entire night – Dan Johnson, Lillian Hochstein, Suzanne Sullivan and many more – thanks. 

FareStart is on the verge of starting hammers swinging at the new facility. The Futures Rising campaign is targeting a move-in date for the summer of 2006, and now is the time for the Seattle community to step up and show its support for this amazing organization, home grown in Seattle.  Even if all you do is attend a Guest Chef evening it is worth it. 

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