by Sohei J. Wu
On Sunday, October 24, the class of 2023, led by Marina Budrys, held a fundraiser dinner to raise money for the Waldorf School of the Peninsula’s Food Justice Initiative. This dinner was a culmination of the eleventh graders’ Cooking Arts class, taught by Marina, wherein the students learned various cooking techniques and experimented with all sorts of ingredients and dishes.
Guests were treated to a seven-course all-vegetarian dinner with music provided by Kimberlye and Rich with special guests, Christopher Otte and Members of the Soul Providers. In addition, Alison Davis, Alanta Budrys, Dirk Spencer, Sarah Jane Pinkerton, Sarah Triolo, Christine McQuade Hsu, Michael Hsu, Ami Evergreen, and Bonnee Majzun helped the class organize this event.
Each of the seven courses in the dinner was made to highlight every part of a certain vegetable.
Here is a peek into the delicious dishes that were served on Sunday:
RADISH
The first course highlighted the radish. This dish was a spring roll that was made to resemble a daikon radish. Inside the spring roll was red radish, daikon radishes, and rice noodles. The dish was topped with a dressing of cashews and radish greens and was garnished with a fried daikon radish leaf.
AVOCADO
The second course was meant to highlight the avocado. This dish was a salad of gem lettuce and tarragon leaves dressed with a green goddess dressing, made with avocado and tarragon. The dish was topped with a small cracker, made with various seeds, such as flaxseeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds. This cracker was made to resemble the pit of an avocado.
CARROT
The third course was a carrot soup. The carrots in the soup were from Live Earth Farm. The soup also included onions and potatoes. This dish was topped with a carrot top garnish (yes, carrot tops are edible!)
CHARD
This course was a chard ravioli. The pasta dough of the ravioli was handmade and was created with chard in it, giving it a vibrant green color, to resemble a chard leaf. The filling for the ravioli was made with ricotta cheese and more chard. This dish was finished with browned butter and was topped off with curled chard stems.
MUSHROOMS
This dish was all about the shroomies. This fifth course was a mushroom risotto. The risotto was made with button mushrooms. The dish was garnished with very thinly sliced trumpet mushrooms and finished with some lemon.
FENNEL
This dish was the first of the dessert dishes, and it focused on fennel. This was a fennel granita, made with fennel seeds. The dish was served with a piece of candied fennel on top.
PUMPKIN
The pumpkin dish, the last dish, was a bit of an adventure. Guests were served four small dishes, one with pumpkin cheesecake and whipped cream, one with pumpkin seed praline, and one with a sesame graham cracker. They were free to experiment with these ingredients, though they were encouraged to try at least one bite with all of the different components.
The dinner was ultimately a success (not a single dish dropped!) and managed to raise funds for the school’s Food Justice Initiative through the tickets and donations.
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