By Gale Hemmann
Cooking with fresh, healthy ingredients. Sharing dinner around the table as a family. Connecting with the food systems that provide our nourishment. These are the simple, but very important, goals of the Human Touch Chefs Group.
The Human Touch Chefs Group seeks to “created change in the food world around us.” Formed by Executive Chef Edward Lintott in 2011, this nonprofit brings together over 20 up-and-coming chefs from around the area. They share their love of “whole” food and sustainability by holding community dinners, giving demonstrations at local events, and teaching classes to youth.
Several years ago, Lintott was having lunch with Chef Amadeus, winner of the Food Network’s Extreme Chef competition (and a friend of Lintott’s), along with several local chefs. Lintott and the other chefs had been holding rotating lunches at each other’s restaurants, sharing a mutual passion for good food. But, as he remembers, “We wanted to do more, something to serve the community.” Amadeus encouraged them to create a group to carry out their vision of teaching the community about sustainable food and cooking. And so, the Human Touch Chefs Group was born.
The group’s name refers to putting “the human touch” back into food. Their mission is “to revamp food education in our schools and communities by cultivating a more interactive food program with a focus on sustainable farming and gardening, smart shopping, and made-from-scratch cooking, and to celebrate the geographic and ethnic influences on food in our region.”
Lintott shares with me that focusing on the K-12 age group is a key goal. Their pilot program, started last fall, is at Timberline High School. They have worked with Family and Consumer Sciences teacher Elizabeth Lobe to have chefs visit the classroom once a month. The chefs give cooking demonstrations, including stir-fry and other healthy, fresh meal options the students can replicate at home. They also share important food principles with the students. The key to the program’s success, notes Lintott, is that the cooking classes also teach curriculum. Through the talks and demonstrations, students learn about nutrition, earth sciences, horticulture, and more.
As their program at Timberline grows, the group would like to explore adding a greenhouse and garden. This would enhance the “farm-to-table” element, with farmers helping kids to plant heirloom seeds, select produce to pick, and learn practical ways to prepare the fruits and veggies.
Lintott is grateful for Lobe’s early support of the education program. (She also teaches the Cooking Club at Timberline.) “We chose one school to start with, and so far the response has been very positive,” he says. The Human Touch Chefs Group would like to see the program eventually replicated by schools locally and around the nation.
Lintott hopes they are sharing not just recipes but life skills with the students. “We want to get people eating healthier, and eating together as a family – that’s our goal,” he says.
The group’s website states, “You’ll find our chefs in schools, the community, and kitchens everywhere.” And this is no exaggeration. In addition to running restaurants full-time, visiting schools, and supporting charity causes, several of the chefs also teach at the Bayview School of Cooking.
The group gave a cooking demonstration at the 2014 Pacific Northwest Mushroom Festival in Lacey, where the audience got to enjoy delectable mushroom samples. They also held a benefit dinner for Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB), with whom they have partnered in the past.
One of the businesses the Human Touch Chefs Group has really enjoyed partnering with is Olympia Olive Oil. This artisan olive oil and vinegar company provides high-quality products that the chefs often use in their cooking demonstrations (and many in their own restaurants). They have held cooking demonstrations at the shop and put on a “food as art” exhibit there for Fall Arts Walk.
The group holds two public dinners a year, in the fall and spring. They especially try to focus their fall dinner on farm-fresh produce after the local summer bounty. You can buy dinner tickets on their website and Facebook page. So far, the dinners have been popular and have consistently sold out.
One of their dinners was held at the Farmers Market of Olympia. They also hosted a dinner at the Rainier Golf and Country Club, serving over 80 people. Lintott notes that even though the chefs come from diverse culinary backgrounds and only meet a few times a year, they work together seamlessly as a team. “We’re like a family,” he says.
The group’s membership spans Western Washington, from Bellingham to Chehalis. Past and present Olympia members include Chef Mike Holbein of Catering by Chef Mike, Chef Thomas Humbock of Swing Wine Bar, Chef Bradley Thompson, Chef Joe Francis of The Evergreen State College, and Chef Kevin Gerlich of Saint Martin’s University. As word of mouth spreads, Lintott says they are getting membership requests from around the Northwest and even across the country. They formed a Board of Directors this past year.
Lintott brings a wealth of experience to coordinating the Human Touch Chefs Group. He and his wife, Martha Gray-Lintott, own Northwest Chef Products, a specialty food and spice distributor in Tumwater. He has over 25 years in the food and restaurant ownership industries. Lintott graduated from the Seattle Culinary Academy, the Culinary Institute of America, and the Washington Wine Academy. He served as the Executive Chef for the Washington State Senate for four years. He has donated dinners for the Best Buddies Foundation charity in Washington, D.C. In addition to running the Human Touch Chefs Group and running a full-time business, Lintott is also substitute teacher in the Culinary Arts program at South Puget Sound Community College.
He says the local community has been incredibly supportive of the group’s efforts. They have had many community sponsors as their work gains notice.
It will be interesting to see where the Human Touch Chefs Group ends up going in our community and beyond. With their blend of talent and dedication, I expect to see them making an impact on both the palates and minds of Thurston County residents.
For more information about the Human Touch Chefs Group, including where to find them around the community, visit them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and check out their website. You can also find some YouTube videos of their past dinners.
