As any dinner host can attest, partygoers tend to congregate in the kitchen. Taking it to the next level, a new interactive Food Jam to support the work of Haiti Partners made an entire venue the kitchen.
Grind + Grape allowed the dining area of their restaurant to be overrun with teams of enthusiastic chefs, whipping up various tapas-style dishes. The event’s other sponsors were Daley and Company Real Estate and the Bass and Shepard Wealth Management group of Raymond James.
The Food Jam was the brainchild of Haiti Partners summer intern and Vanderbilt student Noemi Monnerville, who had participated in a similar event while studying Political Science in Cape Town, South Africa.
“I loved it so much. It’s such a fun social event,” said Monnerville of the experience. “Even people who can’t cook can do it. It’s a great way to meet other people; everyone’s out of their comfort zone.”
With ingredients, recipes and cooking apparatus all provided, everyone could just dive in.
“It is the best of both worlds. You don’t have to grocery shop, you don’t have to clean up and someone else shares the work,” said Monnerville. She later told everyone, “Don’t worry. If you mess it up, you don’t have to eat it!”
Monnerville had enlisted assistance from Rick Appel, a culinary teacher at Sebastian River High School, to choose recipes with a Caribbean bent and calculate portions. Haitian born Merline Engle, wife of Haiti Partners co-founder John Engle, brought a few authentic Haitian dishes for all to sample – pork griot (deep fried marinated pork), and traditional side dishes, pikliz (spicy slaw) and fried plantains.
Before the cooking began, John Engle thanked everyone for their support, saying, “Vero Beach has been absolutely incredible. The people of Vero have been very, very generous.”
Then, utensils and hotplates at the ready, roughly 30 participants gathered around long work tables and the chopping and stirring began in earnest. Dishes included a chicken, chorizo and seafood paella, peach and balsamic flatbreads, spring rolls, mango “lassie” tarts, Caribbean chicken kabobs, prawn and sweet potato “take-aways” and cinnamon sugar churros with chocolate sauce. Yum!
Haiti Partners, a Vero-based nonprofit, partners with Haitians to improve Haiti through education, enabling more than 1,200 students to pursue their dreams. Advanced Micah Scholars are also trained as advocates for the rights of exploited women and children.
John Engle brought samples of the handmade paper they are beginning to make on the campus of the Children’s Academy and Learning Center in Baocia, Haiti, out of mango peels, corn husks, banana bark and a common Haitian plant called Vertiver.
“We’re still testing the waters,” said Engle of this newest of their social businesses. “We’re creating an artist-in-residence program. Artists will stay on the campus at our guest house and work with an Argentinian paper master to learn how to produce paper.”
Parents must work four hours per week to have their children attend the school and can earn service hours by helping to teach the craft.
“Rather than competing with people who make paper, we envision converting the paper into artwork,” he said. “We’re recruiting artists from around the world to come to Haiti, learn a new technique and donate an original work to the school. The idea is to sell things out of Haiti that will tell the story.”
