On a recent Friday morning, Pilar Rocio Obando walked into the kitchen at All Souls Church, Unitarian, in Mount Pleasant, picked up bowls and paring knives, and began her day as an educator and manager.
First up in her lesson plan was food sanitation. Then there was basic prep of seven pounds of lump crabmeat for crab cakes. While chilling dough for Mexican wedding cookies, she prepared oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the Silver Spring YMCA.
Nancy Hinojosa arranges a platter during a recent wedding reception. She works with Through the Kitchen Door culinary training program.
(Michael Temchine For The Washington Post)
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_____Through the Kitchen Door_____
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Recipes
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Getting a Foot in the Door
Through the Kitchen Door has provided basic culinary training to nearly 200 women and youth in Montgomery County. About 20 participants have moved on to the advanced paid-training level, learning and earning as they work.
In addition to ingredients donated by Whole Foods Market of the Washington area and gifts from others, the program is kept afloat by money earned catering selected events.
The program's chief executive, Liesel Flashenberg, says it is meeting a community need and continues to grow. "We are always looking for support to continue and expand the training," she says. "With so much public attention on at-risk youth and soaring obesity rates among recent immigrants and children . . . we would like to see it operating on a much larger scale."
For more information about Through the Kitchen Door, contact Flashenberg at 301-657-1157 or www.kitchendoor.org. Chef Jose Andres of Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, 2250 B Crystal Drive, Arlington, will hold a fundraiser at his restaurant for Through the Kitchen Door on May 10, with three seatings. For information and reservations, call 703-413-2288.Menu prices will be charged with 40 percent of the proceeds going to Through the Kitchen Door.
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Obando is a star pupil and graduate of Through the Kitchen Door, a training program for Latina immigrants. The nonprofit program, established to help low-income Hispanic women and young people develop self-confidence and find a viable profession in cooking, is based on a similar effort that founder and CEO Liesel Flashenberg of Chevy Chase and her husband, Daniel Nachtigal, established in Costa Rica about 10 years ago.
Through the Kitchen Door offers students a five-day training course in basic cooking techniques and sanitation rules.
"We teach a ton of recipes," says Flashenberg. "But the recipes are the least of it. We also give them information about setting priorities, family stability, how to talk to their children and how to strengthen families. And for those interested in a culinary profession, we train them to be teachers or caterers by taking on selected moderately priced events to further our mission."
After the 16-hour basic training groundwork, advanced students tackle catering projects, such as two recent weddings in Garrett Park and Chevy Chase. "The advanced training is for those who want to go on and learn how to serve a meal, or to bake, or to become an administrator. We give them paid training hours," Flashenberg said.
The program features sessions on how to prepare meat or fish and how to sell hand-crafted products, such as empanadas. Empanada-making has become so popular among trainees that several of them, including Obando, mass-produce them for local occasions.
"I feel like a professional cook now," says Obando, "and an executive and manager." A native of Ecuador, she came to the Washington area about five years ago. After taking the basic Kitchen Door training, she wanted to learn more and began by working at catering events.
Eventually, she assisted in training sessions and began taking English classes. Now, not only is she Flashenberg's administrator, key trainer and a Kitchen Door board member, but she also has become a successful fundraiser. She initiated contact with Jafra Cosmetics International, winning Through the Kitchen Door's first national "Hand in Hand With the Hispanic Community" grant.
The Friday morning slips by in a whirlwind of activity and Spanish banter. Over lunch, Obando's crew of six gathers around a long table to chat about themselves and their family life. They may not share the same heritage, but they do experience the same immigrant problems of learning English and supporting their families.
Flashenberg predicts that Obando will be president of the organization one day. "My family is so proud of what I do now," Obando says. "They support and encourage my professional work, and they all help at home, so I can do even more."
Alexandra Greeley is the food editor of Vegetarian Times magazine. She last wrote for Food about a tea ceremony.
