The Pittsburgh Dish
Do you really know the food scene of Pittsburgh?! The Pittsburgh Dish introduces you to the people, places, and recipes that make our regional cuisine so special. By sharing personal stories, weekly recommendations, and community recipes, we aim to inspire you to connect with local taste makers and experience the unique flavors that shape our city.
The Pittsburgh Dish
048 Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, Transforming Lives Through Food
(01:08) In this episode, we explore the work of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh, an organization dedicated to transforming lives through culinary education and workforce development. With a mission focused on utilizing food as a means to bring about positive change, Community Kitchen Pittsburgh provides comprehensive training programs for those facing challenging life circumstances, including formerly incarcerated individuals and those overcoming addiction. From catering services to cooking clinics, their hands-on approach develops essential culinary skills all while fostering a sense of community and belonging.
(07:34) Join us as we unpack the roles of guest chefs who inspire students, and the captivating stories behind the dishes and meals served. You'll discover how Community Kitchen Pittsburgh creates pathways for long-term success, and ultimately builds a powerful support network.
(30:55) Later in the show, we offer up CKPgh for their seasonal Lenten fish fry as a must-try, and also get a weeknight recipe form Jessica Brewster of Batch LLC for her bang-bang salmon bowls. Enjoy this episode's delicious mix of good work and good food.
Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How do you create a workforce development program for the food industry that is truly transformational, from culinary and inventory to butchery, baking and so much more? We learn about the mission and magic of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. And looking for an easy weeknight family meal, how about bang bang salmon? We get a recipe from Jessica Brewster of Batch. All that ahead, stay tuned. We want to say a quick thank you to all of our Instagram and Facebook followers out there in the social media space. We just passed the 1800 mark on Instagram and over 400 followers on Facebook. And if you're listening to us but not following us yet on your favorite podcast app, be sure to follow the show there. It helps us get discovered and it allows instant downloads to your device for the next show that comes out. Thanks so much for listening. Now on to the show. Thank you both so much for coming over and for being on the show. Can I have you introduce yourselves and what role you've got going on right now in the world of food?
Jen:I am Jen Flanagan and I am currently the executive director and the founder of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh.
Pam:I'm Pamela Luu and what's my position? We haven't made it official, Make it up and we'll roll with it. I'm Pamela Luu. I do the social media and some of the marketing over at Community Kitchen Pittsburgh.
Jen:And some fundraising and donor development.
Pam:Yeah, bits and bobs and things.
Doug:Many hats, many hats, as you're wearing here in the studio kitchen your. CKPgh hat I would love to define for our listeners. If someone hasn't experienced your organization, can we just give them the high level? What is the mission and what are you doing at Community Kitchen Pittsburgh?
Jen:So the mission of Community Kitchen Pittsburgh is we use food as the foundation to change lives and improve communities. But let me tell you how that translates for us. We are, first and foremost, a workforce development agency, so we help people overcoming barriers. What that means are people that might be coming out of incarceration or transitioning from homelessness. They might be experiencing addiction recovery, anything that has kept them out of the workforce.
Jen:It could also be poverty, because we know that poverty in itself can be a barrier to employment, and so we have a few different workforce development programs and we have centered those into social enterprises, food-based social enterprises that are. We run these businesses for the sole purpose of training people, providing transitional employment, helping people get back into the workforce. So we have a catering division, we have a food truck, we run events, we have a butchery department actually, and then of course we have our community meals that's the other half of our mission and we do meals for a school, food programs, afterschools, shelters, other nonprofits. A lot of meals go out every day, about 2,400 meals every day. It's a lot of. We have a lot going on between the catering and the food truck and the butchery and the contract meals and all of these things are integrated into our training program so that when people leave our program they know what it means to work in a professional kitchen.
Doug:And you all have been doing this for well over 10 years 2014.
Jen:2013,. We launched and our first class graduated in 2014.
Doug:My goodness and total head of folks that have gone through the programs near 500.
Pam:Did I read that Yep 500 graduates Wow.
Jen:Yeah, powering the back of the house throughout Pittsburgh.
Doug:Yes, how I encountered your organization. You do these events with guest chefs as well, and you've had some really was plant-focused, was Apteka, and it sold out.
Jessica:And he was fantastic as well. So good.
Pam:We just really wanted to bring more of our supporters that love veggies to come on in and experience the dinner and get to know us better. And that sold out within three days of us releasing the tickets to the public. That sold out within three days of us releasing the tickets to the public.
Jen:The reason we do these is that it brings professional chefs into our kitchen. It's an informal interview with all of our students. It lets our students have an opportunity to work with these amazing, amazing, creative people and learn a different style of food, and it's also a way for us to connect with the community, because, obviously, doing shelter meals and school meals and all of those things that we do every day, people don't see that.
Jen:And so this is a way for us to open our doors, bring people in that normally wouldn't be in our space, and the guest chef is just such a great way to also connect our clients to the food community. Right, we can't do our work without the support of chefs and restaurants and employers all the folks that make this food industry what it is and so we really want to connect with them, and it's nice for them too, because so many chefs in our community they had their own challenging backgrounds right so they really are invested in giving back and they love working with our students for that reason.
Pam:It's really amazing to see. Since I handle the socials, I'm getting a lot of behind the scenes, so it's been incredible to watch the students absorb everything that they're learning from the guest chef when they're coming into prep. When the night of the event, they just take it all in and many times it's food they have never tried or even like had the chance to cook before, so they're learning something entirely new. And then our guests come in and they have the opportunity to see our students in action. They also have the chance to hear from the students, so it gives them more of a connection to what we're doing. We have a supporter who started coming to our fish fries and then our guest chef and she just loves coming to our guest chef dinners because she loves the interactions with the students.
Doug:You really sparked something for me as well. Just to call it out, this is a nonprofit, and so some of these big events where you're selling the tickets, this is some of the great marketing and fundraising that you're doing for the organization. Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, great marketing and fundraising that you're doing for the organization.
Jen:Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. We actually get about 65% of our operating budget from our earned revenue our businesses, but the rest of it is is donations and philanthropic support.
Jen:So it's really important for us to bring the community in and and you know, listen, we love this industry. We love this industry Hospitality it is. I could, I could just go on and on about what an amazing industry this is and and why hospitality is so important. You know it's more than just I always tell our students in the pre-meal the you know, the meeting right before the dinner is that service is filling someone's water glass but hospitality is making them feel welcome. You know that that you've invited somebody into your house and that they feel part of the family and that's hospitality. And so many restauranteurs throughout our city are so good at that and we just love being able to bring that into our space.
Doug:I think I love that connection and I got to experience one of those dinners, so I feel it. I love that we got to hear from some of the students, as well as the guest chef and some of the actual other staff chefs that are always there and you see everyone enjoying this meal that's made with a thoughtful purpose and you know it's exciting, as a community member, to go and enjoy that.
Jen:It's great, yeah, and it's, it's um, and it's a different view too of the chefs that come into work with us because, as you know, having been there, we don't have a dedicated event space, so you're kind of in our kitchen when you're there for the event.
Jen:I love that part, right Immersive, yeah, and and there's a little bit more access to the chef, because sometimes you can go to a restaurant and not actually see the chef and at these dinners the chef comes out and interacts with the, with the, you know, patrons and it's. It's a lot of fun.
Pam:Sometimes they're serving the dishes too, as you saw with Chef Galarza.
Doug:Yes, that was the one I was at, Chris Galarza right, yes. Let's tell our folks out there, if they haven't been to an event, one of the chef dinners, what the experience is. We're talking multi-course, beautifully plated I think we had like five courses the night I was there Dessert, all of it, and then you also opened up the butchery if we wanted to purchase items. Is that the general flow of most events?
Jen:Oh yeah, definitely. We leave it up to the guest chef. They plan the menu, right, so they're coming up with how many courses they want to do. Three, four, five is usually somewhere in that range. It's up to the guest chef and they try to come up with things that will teach the students something that they can do with the students, right, you know? And they, they break it down.
Jen:Sometimes they come in the day before if things require prep, um, and they work with our students, and so basically, the chefs are coming in ahead of time working with our students, kind of in a class, right, um, and an applied class, because they're in the kitchen, they're making things, or they'll give our chefs a list of what they need to have prepped, and then our chefs will follow their recipes and do it ahead of time. So things are teed up when the chef comes in and then they work with the students. They played everything. It's it's really nice, it's a, it's a really great opportunity for our students who get to work again with these amazing chefs that they wouldn't normally have access to. And we always tell students this is how you expand your professional networks, right, so make sure you introduce yourself, have those conversations and typically we do get. If these chefs have openings at restaurants. We often open up that hiring pipeline through these guest chefs because they come in and they realize how talented our students are Of course.
Doug:I can't imagine a better learning experience. You're learning all of these culinary skills new ingredients, new ways to prepare but you're also learning these social skills, not only with the chef that's coming in and that the networking profession that you're saying, but also with the guests that are coming to enjoy the meals. So there's so much that they're taking away from that one experience.
Jen:Absolutely, absolutely yes.
Pam:Definitely, so you get everything's kind of planned out for us on when we're going to talk and between the courses, of course we give the chef the chance to speak to our guests and talk about what they're serving up, and then our butchery side gets to talk for a little bit too, because that is a huge part of what we're doing here and being able to offer these locally sourced, ethically farmed meats to the general public. That is cut in-house by our butchery team and our students, because that's another experience for them. It's just awesome just to see how many people get very excited about meat season. I'm a meat eater so I get very excited about it. But it is pretty awesome to see what we have in our meat freezer available, because we want people to know that we do have that. It's accessible. It's right in Hazelwood. They can place it where they can come pick up. They can pick it up during an event.
Doug:Butchery is it a little bit newer in your program it is.
Jen:It's a few years old. We actually we got the idea during COVID because, if you remember, supply chains were a problem during. Covid and actually our grocery stores in the region were having trouble getting retail cuts because they didn't have enough trained butchers.
Jen:It was interesting they were sending all of the primals to very limited number of stores because those are the only places that had butchers and so I was on a call actually with Pittsburgh it was a zoom call Pittsburgh food policy council and, um, now our butcher partner from unified fields was also on the call and we started chatting as you do. Uh, you know, and we were talking about it. You know we should start a training program. We should teach this this kind of dying craft.
Doug:It is a lost art. It's a lost art. I would love to take a butchery program.
Jen:Absolutely right. So we got some grants and now we actually have a grant through the USDA to get a full grant of inspection, which is great. So we're working on that, but we make our own sausage, we do all of our own retail cuts, we're sourcing everything locally, so these are local producers. It's a really nice program and it's such a great opportunity for our students Even if they don't go into butchery just learning that meat cutting and learning where things come from.
Jessica:Right.
Jen:Right, you get a T-bone. Where is that? Where is that? On the cow, right? It's really neat. A lot of just talking about the difference between big ag versus small producers and the whole idea about humane processing and what that means actual, you know, on the farm.
Doug:It's a really great program, it's so much farther beyond just a culinary program. It is.
Jen:Yeah, we really try to look at all aspects of the industry and like how can we connect to it? I will tell you, I firmly believe and I know everyone at CKP believes this that the regional food industry really can be a platform for economic opportunity for a lot of people and we just need to help people get into it.
Jen:There's just so from from the farm all the way through the restaurant, the suppliers. There's so many careers in this industry and it's a huge part of our regional economy. So we want to kind of tap into all the different places that we can tap in and try to connect our local producers all the way through to the restaurant.
Doug:I couldn't agree more with the folks that I meet on this podcast. I keep learning a little bit more about this little niche or this little business, and I'm like I had no idea that these things existed beyond butchery. Are there any other like sub programs? I thought I maybe read something about baking.
Jen:Yes, we actually partnered with Chatham and they developed a baking course for us, which is really cool. So we have a couple of more in-depth programs. We have apprenticeship tracks, so these are registered apprenticeships through the PA Department of Labor.
Jen:They are 2000 hour programs. Our core program is a three month program. It's really designed to get somebody into employment quickly. But our apprenticeship programs are a year long and we have one in baking and we just got approved for butchery, and we have one in inventory control, because we actually move a considerable amount of inventory in and out of our building every day. Yes, and then of course culinary, but the baking track is something that we can go a little bit more in-depth on. We have a really nice curriculum, like I said, that Chatham helped us design.
Doug:And Jen, earlier you mentioned all of the different things that the organization does. I just want to circle back to a couple others. You do catering and you do a food truck. Are those sort of in their own spheres, or do people hire the catering and also maybe hire the food truck too?
Jen:All of the above. All of the above, yes. So again, we run these businesses for the purpose of training and transitional employment and exposing people to different parts of the industry, right? So we have a lot of clients that come in with a dream to run their own food truck, so we thought, you know, we should have one so that you can see if you really want to work on a food truck because it's hard, it's hard work.
Jen:Right and it's. It's a long hours and it's difficult to work in a small space like that, and so it's been great because we can expose people and sometimes they love it and sometimes they say you know, it's not for me, but it's also a way for us to get our message out there, our mission out there, into places that we're not usually at.
Jessica:Right.
Jen:Same with catering. You know people will hire us. We do. You know lots of meetings and cocktail parties and all the different kinds of okay, we've actually catered weddings in the past, um, but again people might come to us for the catering and then discover the fact that we have this whole mission behind it. And for the same reason, with the food trucks, so many of our clients they want to run their own food. You know their dream is to have a catering company. So let's show you what that means, from from the beginning, all the way to set up, dealing with the customers, all of that. It's again. It's another way to expose people. And you know a really nice story we had. We were doing a catering at the county DHS office department of human services and the student that was setting it up said that she'd never been in that building other than as a client visiting different social service offices, and this was the first time that she had such a sense of pride going in there to set up a catering kind of on the other side.
Doug:Yeah.
Jen:So it's an interesting. You don't realize that you don't think about that, but you can kind of really change somebody's perspective just based on that, it's neat.
Doug:It is amazing. I just keep thinking the facets of experience and learning through all of these different things. It I would say it's holistic, but it's beyond that. I think it's it's just multidimensional and showing these folks all of these different possibilities.
Jen:And I'm glad you said holistic also because we do a lot of behind the scenes wraparound services. Everyone sees the culinary training that's obviously front and center, but we help people with all the other things that might prevent them from securing a job or keeping a job Right.
Jen:So, that might look like helping you get your first apartment. That might look like getting a driver's license. You know whatever that takes lots of referrals to services that you might need just to just to help you get stable. Our goal is to try to get you to a stable place so that you can maintain that position right.
Doug:So there's a lot behind the scenes that we will never see at that dinner, for instance, right Mm-hmm.
Jen:This is Jen Flanagan. This is Pamela Liu.
Pam:And you're listening to the.
Doug:Pittsburgh Dish. I do want to pivot. I want to maybe take a step back. Jen, you said you were the founder, right? We're going sort of rewinding the clock 14 years ago.
Jen:It hasn't been that long.
Doug:How did it all get started? Can you tell me a little bit about that story?
Jen:So I'll try to do this quickly. But the origin story is that I was actually in New York City, I was in marketing for a publishing firm and 9-11 happened and that, as it did for a lot of people, it was a left turn for me. I decided that I was going to quit my job and I wanted to get into nonprofits. So I decided to join AmeriCorps Vista, which is a little bit like the Domestic Peace Corps. I was placed in Pittsburgh and I got into nonprofits here and through that work I learned about this model, so I call it the mothership. They're start in Seattle and DC Central Kitchen in Washington DC they kind of launched this model of food services and training and community meals.
Jen:So I started a program underneath another nonprofit following the model and I did that for a while and then that nonprofit got acquired by and they closed all their meal programs and then, in a really nice turn of events, a lot of the donors and funders that had funded that project came to me and said it wasn't over, you got to start this again as a separate 501 C three. So I launched it again in 2013 as a separate standalone 501 C three. But you know for me, a lot of reasons wanting to start this and why I'm so into this model, but it's trying to address social problems through the market right People? There's institutional food needs, and if you're using those meals as a basis for training, it's going to be better food, because you have to make things from scratch in order to train. There are people who need good jobs and there are employers who need good people, and so having a model that marries all these things just makes so much sense to me.
Doug:Yes, so you've been in Pittsburgh for over a decade.
Jen:Yes, yeah, 2002,. I moved here.
Doug:This is a permanent kind of thing.
Jen:It is yeah, I guess, so we're glad to have you.
Doug:We love what you're doing. Where did you grow up?
Jen:All over the place. I was born in Chicago and I've lived in LA and Seattle and Baltimore all over the country. But I went to Penn State and sort of kind of back in Pennsylvania. But Pittsburgh is a really great town. When I first moved here the food scene was not what it is now. You know, big burrito group was kind of the primary non-chain Right and it's just exploded in the last decade. It's been fun to watch.
Doug:We do food really well we do food really well.
Jen:We do food really well and it's a great community. It's such a supportive community. It feels like I don't know how easy it is to launch things like this in other cities, but here it's just been such tremendous support from the industry. It's been great.
Doug:I want to ask you one more question then, Pam. I want to ask about you too. Jen, you know, you have this huge passion project. Now that is all about food. Did you grow up in a sort of a lifestyle where food was important?
Jen:Well, I will say that I had a little bit of a. You know I will just put this out there my mother was an addict and I experienced what that is like to grow up in that house, right, and you know I can say happily she's. She's sober and clean and we have a great relationship now. But it was it was a little bit of a tough childhood and I realized that part of what made my brothers and I come through it is that we had a very great family network. Right, we had grandparents, we had other people in our lives that helped us, and a lot of people don't have that. So part of my wanting to start this was the idea that we become family for some of these people and we become that safety net and just it's so important to have that right. But food, I mean people come together around food and our family was no exception. It's like it's a comfort.
Jen:It is a comfort, it's a celebration. You know one story again about 9-11,. You know, after the planes hit we couldn't get off the island of Manhattan right Because they shut down all the bridges and tunnels and public transit. So all the bars and restaurants just opened up and everybody wandered in and they were just feeding people.
Pam:Yeah.
Jen:And it was such a gift and it was just this moment of gratitude. And I remember, when they finally opened the bridges and we were walking across the Brooklyn bridge cause we all had to walk home there was a group of Hasidic Jews just handing out Kool-Aid and snacks. And again, food, right. And again it was just such a it was. I will never forget that it was. It was just this moment of grace, and food plays that role. Right, you think about whatever. If you're celebrating, if you are experiencing tragedy, if you are just getting together with friends, people come together around the table, around the table, and that is true for all walks of life. Right, I could go on about this too, because I'm very passionate about how food brings people together.
Doug:I couldn't agree more, and thank you so much for sharing all of that, anne. What about you? I would love to know, first off, how long you've been with CKP doing all those things you're doing right now.
Pam:Oh my gosh Since mid-May.
Doug:Okay, so it's newer.
Jen:Yeah, yeah, definitely she's been around us for a while.
Pam:I've been associated with CKP since about 2017.
Jen:She's no stranger to CKP, yeah.
Pam:My fiance was actually a chef instructor at. Ckp, and so I was coming around volunteering to take photos at guest chef dinners or when I could come into town, because I lived in State College at the time. So that's how I landed kind of in Jen's radar, because I was moving to Pittsburgh finally and looking for a job, I was leaving another nonprofit and it was like something is open, we can give it a try. And so, yeah, we all have a State College connection?
Doug:We do, we can give it a try, and so yeah, we all have a state college connection.
Pam:We do, we do. I also went there for nutrition.
Doug:Did you grow up in Pennsylvania? I did.
Pam:Born and raised in Lancaster County. Okay, southern Lancaster County. All right and then state college from like 1994 till 2024.
Doug:And I'll ask you the same question I asked Jen what about food in your early life and now?
Pam:What role has that played for you? Well, my parents are immigrants from Vietnam. So growing up in Southern Lancaster County, how it was in our household it was a lot of Vietnamese but also mixed in with a lot of American dishes. Because we were trying to, our family was trying to acclimate. Our parents wanted us to blend in as well as you know, as best as we could. So, um, it's always food with some way of of anything Like. For me, food is one of the things that I love. Getting together with my friends, I love getting to.
Pam:You know, my fiance is a chef, so and that's exactly, and that's one of the best ways for me to like get comfortable around people. I just like to sit down and have a meal with them.
Doug:Well, that's, me.
Pam:Yeah, exactly. So, um, um, we didn't have a huge Vietnamese uh community growing up in Southern Lancaster County which is, you know, not very Vietnamese, very hard to find that kind of connection. Um, and so I always felt like a little bit of an outsider. But trying to blend in with the kids around me is like the little girl who was not white, it was very. It was a very awkward time as a child and then growing up, like now, my, my food is very different, like from what it used to be.
Pam:Just I could. I can still sit down and have a box of macaroni and cheese, and I'm very happy with that, or try something a little fancier, like I say my adult taste buds might enjoy, but, um, yeah, like my, my food. You know, instagram is. Did you eat yet which?
Pam:is a very common thing to hear from a vietnamese parent. Even if they are fighting with you and are mad at you, they will still feed you. That's just how it is. You walk in, did you eat yet? No, if you still say yes, they're still going to feed you. My mom has yelled at me, been yelling at me while cooking something for me.
Pam:So yeah, food is just, it's just one of those things. I like I said, it just brings people together and that's how we met, that's how you know like our network of people have met. And just to see, like just going back to CKP itself, like because I do the socials, I capture a lot of the behind the scenes and it's amazing to see Give me a minute. Sure, I get very emotional. You need a minute. Sure, I get very emotional. You need a tissue. No, Okay, no, just to see like a pride.
Jessica:Mm-hmm.
Jen:Give me a minute. Well, I will say, you know, just today I was in a meeting and the chef brought up some cookies for us to try and like. Okay, you know, they're amazing, these key lime shortbread cookies, right. But the guy who came up with the recipe, you know, he went through our program. He has overcome a long period of addiction. We hired him. He's now our in-house baker and he's now getting to kind of explore this really creative side of himself and he's part of this family and he has, you know, knock on wood, he's kicked his addiction and so now his creativity is like, you know, he's just so proud of coming up with new recipes. And then his next thing is like okay, now I have to teach students how to do this, and it's just, it's cool to see it's this, it's this kind of paying it forward constantly.
Pam:And he's actually going to be participating in the Good taste Pittsburgh Bake It event in March.
Doug:And this is your in-house baker at Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. And what's his name?
Pam:Oh, his name is Joe Joint.
Doug:Okay, and so Joe is doing things.
Pam:Oh, he's amazing. I just want to shine a spotlight on him because he deserves to be seen and for people to taste what he has created, because it's it just makes you happy. But yeah, like just to see the pride of the students when, when they learn something, when something clicks in their head that they've.
Pam:Like with chef Don, one of our chef instructors instructors he's now known by Desarae as claw daddy because he teaches the claw grip and I have a video post of it, of him showing and it just clicks in their heads of like how to hold just how to hold a knife.
Pam:Yes, how to cut exactly and then watching them during guest chef as they're learning a new way to plate something and there's take so much pride in cleaning that plate up, getting that plate ready before it gets presented, that before they present it to the guests they're they're so excited to share what they have learned with people and to see their growth.
Pam:Like we have a student, I did a student spotlight with her and she came into the program. She learned about it through the welfare program and she started her own catering. I think on this, before she came into the program she was just learning everything she could, absorbed Everything she could. Got on the radar of one of our other graduates who's Jeff Missy got on her radar and is very excited to be working with chef Missy now at PPS doing the catering and she's like I see her social posts and she's every day is grateful to be getting up, going into work and working under Chef Missy and doing the catering that she's doing so that way she can take it to her own business down the line she mentioned a woman, Chef Missy.
Jen:So she was a client through our program. She graduated, she's a superstar, right, but she's now hiring our graduates and that is that is happening more frequently where we are now putting people out that we become managers themselves, and now they are hiring our graduates, and that's what we want to see for this industry. It's putting people into positions of authority where they're changing what their kitchen looks like, right, and all these different kitchens, and so that's the success story is that they're reaching back and hiring people. It's pretty cool.
Doug:I just love. Probably there's countless stories we could be talking about so many and the turn on for me is that emotional awakening that you're describing with some of these moments, with these folks, that pride, that feeling as part of something, but also that brain turning on for all of that creativity. I just don't think there's any better thing you could do in this training program.
Jen:You know, I will sum it up by saying food jobs matter. They do. Food jobs matter. I mean, it obviously can just be a stepping stone for you if that's what you need right now, but it can be a career, and I cannot say that enough, that there are some just such creative people in this industry doing really amazing things and caring about the food and caring about service and caring about hospitality service and caring about hospitality.
Jen:And you know, I think we saw that in COVID where all of a sudden we noticed that these people working restaurants and we all of a sudden cared about them a lot because they were our connection to community. You know, the different neighborhoods really suffer when those restaurants and bars closed, right. And so I, you know, we want to keep that energy going where people acknowledge how important this industry is and that food jobs matter, right At every level. And the great thing about the industry too, is that there's a job for every skill level and you can move up by virtue of showing up right. You don't need an advanced degree. You can be reliable and open to learning and you will progress in this industry.
Doug:Thank you for that. I want to take us forward. We've talked so much about what's been going on. I'd love to hear a little bit more about what's on the horizon this year. We're in early 2025. Are there any events, moments, new things happening that you are excited about? Any new goals?
Pam:Oh man.
Jen:So many things. We're moving, we're moving, we yes.
Doug:Physical location yes.
Jen:We have, um, we've outgrown our our spot in. We love the Hazelwood community, we love it, but we have outgrown that building and it wasn't really designed for what we're doing in that building, such as our inventories on the third floor with a passenger elevator, and, um we're we're literally transporting half animals up the passenger elevator so it's not designed for that.
Jen:So we have a fabulous new space in the Hill District, in the uptown area of the Hill District, on Jumonville, and it's all on one floor. It's got loading docks, it's got all the things that we need. So it'll be a bigger location and as part of that location, we will be opening a small Snap retailer, so a little grocery market that accepts Snap. And you know, obviously our butchery program will have our full grant of inspection. We're working through that. But for the new space, so you know, more programming space to do what we do and accommodate more people and more community programs. So that's really exciting. We're looking at making that happen toward the end of the summer, you know, summer 2025. We are hosting the Catalyst Kitchens National Summit. So Catalyst Kitchens is our national network of programs, just like ours. I think there's now 108 of us around the country and they are all exciting.
Jen:Part is, I know many people have heard of the chef Jacques Pepin and he is celebrating his 90th birthday and so his foundation does these.
Jen:They're doing 90 dinners around the country to raise money for the foundation. He's actually hosting one of those 90 here in Pittsburgh at the summit and donating the money to. We're going to split it between us and Catalyst Kitchens, so it's going to be a fabulous gala event with featured chefs, our own people as well as chefs from the Pittsburgh area and probably one or two national chefs coming in for that. So that's all happening in August. Wow, I don't know, pam, did I miss?
Pam:anything, I feel like we're up to a lot. That's a lot, yeah, that's a lot. We're very, very excited.
Doug:All right. Well, let's do this. I think hopefully we've motivated a lot of our folks here to want to learn more about Community Kitchen Pittsburgh. If folks want to find more information, where should they go? And, Pam, since you do the socials, I'm going to ask you.
Pam:Okay, well, we're at our website ckpghorg. We're also on Instagram and Facebook as Community Kitchen PGH. We also on Instagram and Facebook as community kitchen PGH. We're on Tik TOK as C K dot PGH. We're also. We also have a YouTube channel.
Jen:It's kind of lonely.
Pam:So please come follow us over there. Um, and we're on LinkedIn, uh, so I think that's all of them.
Jen:We're on basically all of the socials and Pam does a fabulous monthly newsletter that tells you what we're doing, what we're up to, what's coming up, and so if you want to sign up for that.
Doug:It's a really great way to stay in touch with what we're up to.
Pam:I'm signed up for it and I love it. So thank you. You know, and sometimes the insiders get their first dibs on things.
Doug:Right yeah, especially if a meal sells out, absolutely Okay.
Jen:Oh, and I should mention too, um, our fish fry. Yes, fish fry is coming out. I mean, I might be biased, but I think we have the best fish fry in Pittsburgh, Um, at least one of the best.
Jen:All right and um, it is obviously a Lenten fish fry, traditional Lenten fish fry. All seven Fridays during Lent we will be doing our traditional menu. You know it's it's and cod we are, haddock, we are, we are, uh, you know, hand battered haddock and uh, with all the the usual fixings and it's a. It's a really fun time. We our beer partner for that event is hazel grove brewing. They will be on site for, uh, you know, selling their beers and we have the girl scouts selling their cookies.
Jen:So it's a real community. Uh, you know, come together and have some fun.
Pam:It couldn't be better the fish fry and then the bake it event too.
Doug:oh, that's right, Bake It event is coming up in March and that is hosted by Goodt aste Pittsburgh, so we'll see more deets from them.
Pam:Yep, yep.
Doug:All right, Jen, Pam, we're coming towards the end of our time. I have one more question for both of you to answer. The name of the show is The Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've eaten this past week?
Jen:All what's the best dish you've eaten this past week? All right, I'm going to be a little self-serving here. I made this really nice African peanut soup and it was one of those times where you're like, I feel like cooking something. These nights have been so cold, right, we're below zero.
Doug:We're recording today it's negative seven outside.
Jen:And I thought I don't want to go out to the store. What do I have? And I thought I don't want to go out to the store. What do I have? And I actually had all the assembled ingredients and it was just. It was just lovely and warm and I wanted to actually bring it into our chefs and say we should make this at the kitchen because it's something that you know.
Jen:it's like a pantry thing that if you have all the staples, you can throw a soup together really easily, and so that was my favorite.
Doug:African peanut soup. I might have to get that recipe. It was delicious, pam.
Pam:Okay, I made it last week my Vietnamese Thit Koh. It's that braised pork belly with the pork belly from our butchery. Cause I always have a stash in my freezer.
Doug:Can you describe that dish a little bit more? The Thit Koh? It's braised pork belly, so it's like a caramelized sauce.
Pam:The pork belly just becomes melt in your mouth. Amazing, just serve it over rice with a soft boiled egg, so that cooks, that braises with the belly, so it like gets that caramelized color. That's one of my childhood comfort meals. My mom didn't even tell me it was belly when I was growing up. She just said pork. So I was cooking it with the wrong pork until I realized it was belly. I never looked back because, like, all I had was belly. But she didn't tell me it was pork belly because she didn't know the english word for that.
Pam:She just called it pork and it is one of my favorite things to make, because I don't need a recipe, I just make it because it's like I think it smells right, it looks right, kind of thing.
Doug:The best way to cook.
Pam:Yeah, because moms never give you the recipe anyway. No, but that, yeah, that's. I can eat that. I can make a big thing of it and eat it for a week straight. That's one of those dishes.
Doug:Well, those both sound like the best bites we could have this week. Thank you both. Thank you and once again, Jennifer Flanagan, Pamela Luu. Thank you both so much for being on the Pittsburgh Dish.
Jen:Thank you so much for having us. This was a lot of fun.
Doug:For our weekly recommend. We're going to go back to Community Kitchen Pittsburgh and that Lenten fish fry that Jen mentioned. Going to go back to Community Kitchen Pittsburgh and that Lenten fish fry that Jen mentioned. Hopefully you'll add it to the list of your favorite spots during the season. Up next, looking for an easy weeknight meal, we have one that is bang bang good. Hey everybody, we're joined with Jessica Brewster, one of the owners of Batch LLC up in Saxonburg. Jessica, I was wondering, I know last time we talked you say you just like to cook big, especially at the store. You know big batches of soup or bread or whatever. But I was wondering, when you're at home and you're maybe doing something on a smaller scale, do you have a dish or a recipe that you like to do a lot for home cooking?
Jessica:Yeah, my daughter and my husband absolutely love it. I make a bang- bang or pow- pow or whatever you want to call it salmon and we make like bowls out of it. So it's a real simple sauce. It has mayonnaise and sriracha and maybe some soy sauce I'm trying to think off the top of my head but you coat chunks of salmon and you put them on a roasting rack and you put them in the oven.
Jessica:So that it like caramelizes and crisps up the outside and then to the bowls, it's just steamed rice and typically broccoli, and then we do an extra drizzle of like yum, yum sauce or the Kewpie mayo, you know, over top. So it's just simple and easy and it's something I can make in like less than 20 minutes, because we don't close the shop until six, so by the time I get home it's a nice thing to just whip up real quick and it sounds delicious.
Doug:It's really good. Yeah, I think it's always such a trick. I mean salmon's great, but you know you don't want to dry it out. Are you cubing up the salmon first, Like when you roll it in the sauce?
Jessica:Yep, it's like you know inch chunks, and, yeah, just coat them real quick. And a rack is essential, though, because I've tried to do it on a pan and they get foggy.
Doug:They don't get crispy all around. Yep, having that baking rack gets the air circulating all around it, and so you have more surface area, because it's already cut too. Oh, that sounds so good. It's really good. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that recipe and thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish.
Jessica:Thanks for having us.
Doug:Jessica Brewster, along with Megan Pohl, are the owners of Batch LLC, based in Saxenburg. You should give them a visit and give them a follow on Instagram at Batch LLC. Do you have a recipe? Share it with us. Just visit our website at wwwpittsburghdishcom and look for our share a recipe form. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description, and if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors and to Kevin Selecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.
Jen:This is Jen Flanagan. This is Pamela Luu.
Pam:And you're listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.
Jen:We'll try that again. That was great.
Doug:And the mail's here.
