Join Us to Help
End Childhood Hunger in America

No Kid Hungry Dinner San Francisco, CA

Monday, November 12, 2012

Jardinière
300 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

5:30 PM-7:00PM Alumni Sous Chefs Cocktail Party
7:00 PM- Alumni Dinner

CHEF
Traci Des Jardins, Jardinière, San Francisco, CA

GUEST CHEFS

Paul Lemieux, Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley, CA

Robbie Lewis, Oracle, Redwood Shores, CA

Morgan Mueller, Executive Chef Jardinière, San Francisco, CA

Craig Patzer, Google, Palo Alto, CA

Richard Reddington, Redd, Yountville, CA

Contact Katie Bone at kbone@strength.org or 415-326-3767 with any questions.
RSVP required, space is limited.

Through our No Kid Hungry® Campaign—a national effort to end childhood hunger in America by 2015— Share Our Strength ensures children in need are enrolled in federal nutrition programs, invests in community organizations fighting hunger, teaches families how to cook healthy, affordable meals, and builds innovative public-private partnerships to end hunger, nationally and at the state and city levels.

TRACI DES JARDINS

Chef/Co-owner of Jardinière, Mijita Cocina Mexicana

Chef/Partner of Public House and Manzanita

Traci is the quintessential California farm girl, raised in the San Joaquin Valley, influenced by her Mexican and French Acadian grandparents, she cooks from her heart with a deep love for the earth and its bounty.

Before opening Jardinière in San Francisco in 1997, James Beard award-winning chef Traci Des Jardins worked in some of the finest kitchens in Los Angeles, France, and New York City. Traci’s professional cooking career began when she followed her heart and landed a tryout with Joachim Splichal, then at 7th Street Bistro in Los Angeles. Within two weeks she was running a station in Splichal’s kitchen in an environment with uncompromising standards of excellence and discipline that spurred her to further hone her craft in France where she apprenticed with legendary chefs including Michel and Pierre Troisgros, Alain Senderens, Alain Ducasse, and Alain Passard.

Traci has earned a great number of accolades, including the James Beard Foundation’s “Rising Star Chef of the Year” in 1995 while at Rubicon; Food & Wine Magazine’s “Best New Chef”; San Francisco Magazine’s “Chef of the Year”; and the James Beard Foundation Award in 2007 for “Best Chef: Pacific”. In 1999, Jardinière won Esquire Magazine’s “Best New Restaurant,” as well as a nomination by the James Beard foundation for “Best New Restaurant”.  In addition, the San Francisco Chronicle has listed it as one of the “Top 100 Restaurants” in the Bay Area each year since opening.

In 2009 Traci opened Manzanita her destination mountain restaurant in the new Ritz-Carlton at Northstar in Lake Tahoe. Taking its name from the ubiquitous California tree, Manzanita offers Traci’s signature French inspired California cuisine, with a regional mountain resort influence, sourcing organic, sustainable and locally grown meat and produce when possible.

Heavily influenced by her years helping her Mexican grandmother in the kitchen, in 2004 Traci opened Mijita Cocina Mexicana in the San Francisco Ferry Building and in 2010 the second location at AT&T Park, combining the best of Bay Area seasonal and local ingredients with the traditional Mexican flavors of her youth. Adjacent to Mijita and located at AT&T Park, home of the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, Traci’s Public House is a modern sports bar serving California influenced pub food.

Beyond the kitchen, Traci sits on the advisory board of Bocuse d’Or USA joining fellow chefs in the quest to elevate culinary excellence in the United States. Traci is a deeply committed activist and philanthropist working with hunger-relief organizations such as Share Our Strength, Citymeals On-Wheels and other non-profits such as La Cocina and amfAR.

GUEST CHEFS

Chef Paul Lemieux, Executive Pastry Chef, Auberge du Soleil

Executive Pastry Chef at Auberge du Soleil, Paul Lemieux is the creative force behind the delectable desserts and confections produced in the kitchen at this renowned Napa Valley inn. 

Lemieux’s passion and creativity in the art of pastry making are the result of nearly 20 years of experience honed at renowned restaurants throughout the United States. A native of Wisconsin, he spent time developing his skills at top restaurants on both coasts.  He began his career after graduating Magna cum Laude from Johnson & Wales University College of Culinary Arts in Providence, R.I., in 1992.  After early stints as a chef and pastry chef on the East Coast, he made the move to San Francisco, where he worked with renowned chef Traci Des Jardins at Rubicon. Recognizing his talent and passion for confections and chocolates, Des Jardins mentored Lemieux and, in 1996, appointed him pastry chef.  A year later, she asked him to join her as pastry chef at her new namesake restaurant, Jardinière.  An instant success, Lemieux continued to demonstrate his creativity in the world of desserts, adapting his own style of simple and pure flavors and focusing on fresh and seasonal ingredients in each dish. 

Lemieux quickly was recognized as a true culinary star, earning critical acclaim by Gourmet magazine, which referred to him as “San Francisco’s up-and-coming pastry star.”  His passion for chocolate was well known, and in 2002, he founded, with wife Michele, Paul Lemieux Chocolates, a Portland, Ore., small-production company creating artisan truffles with organic ingredients purveyed from local farmers. He was lured back into the restaurant world in 2002, when he was recruited to the position of pastry chef at Lucere Restaurant at Portland’s Riverplace Hotel.  In 2003, his culinary journey led Lemieux to the Napa Valley, where he has flourished, not only as the creative mastermind behind Auberge du Soleil’s unforgettable desserts, but also in his role as educator at the Culinary Institute of America, where, as Adjunct Baking and Pastry Instructor, he trains and mentors the next generation of pastry chefs.

Chef Robbie Lewis, Executive Chef, Oracle

Robbie Lewis has traveled a long way from his childhood days in Little Rock, Arkansas, moving to San Francisco in 1992 to embark on a culinary career. Over the last 18 years, Lewis has cooked in many of the Bay Area’s most revered kitchens, alongside renowned chefs and gained an appreciation for fine cuisine.

Lewis began his culinary career as a student at the California Culinary Academy, working nights as a prep cook at Boulevard. A chance meeting with acclaimed chef Traci Des Jardins at a wine auction initiated an enduring professional friendship that landed him in the kitchen at Rubicon, where Des Jardins was the opening chef. At Rubicon, Lewis mastered his technique, working every station building and honing his craft. Robbie continued to evolve as a chef during stages in multiple restaurants in France, Seville, Spain, and a year as the chef of a high-profile agriturismo in Tuscany, incorporating those abroad experiences into the flavors and style of his imaginative dishes.

Eager for new challenges, Lewis seized opportunities to be the opening sous chef for both 42 Degrees, a chic Mediterranean restaurant, and the award winning Woodside establishment, The Village Pub. After a brief stint at Chez Panisse, he was named Executive Chef at Traci Des Jardins’ Jardinière in 2002, where he had previously spent time as a sous chef. Lewis assumed the responsibility of this high caliber restaurant with intensity and focus, earning a reputation for adventurous, assertive excellence in the kitchen and on the plate. Lewis achieved amazing success, leading one of the most respected kitchens in the country for over 5 years, earning 3 ½ stars from The Chronicle’s Michael Bauer, was named one of StarChef’s “Rising Stars,” is a Restaurant Hospitality “Rising Star” and assisted Des Jardins in winning the title of “Iron Chef” on the Food Network’s popular show.

Known for beautifully executed presentations; Robbie is constantly seeking to expand his repertoire and adventurous technique. Promoting the use of seasonal, sustainable slow food in his Northern California cuisine with Mediterranean influences, Lewis now brings his nationally acclaimed skills to the Bon Appétit Management Company’s organization where he leads a chef team that feeds 4,000 people daily at eight different restaurants.

Lewis lives in San Francisco and is head over heels in love with his two young children.

Chef Morgan Mueller, Executive Chef, Jardinière

Morgan Mueller started working in restaurants at the young age of 15 where he began as a dishwasher and was quickly captivated by the fast pace, kitchen action, and team camaraderie of working in a restaurant. After High School Mueller left home and worked full time in the restaurant world, first in Santa Cruz at Bitter Sweet Bistro and then he headed to San Francisco to attend the California Culinary Academy (CCA).

Mueller’s first restaurant job in San Francisco was at PaulK and from there he landed an internship at Jardinière under chef Traci Des Jardins. Mueller stayed at Jardinière from 2001-2007, left to work at Bacar and returned to Jardinière in 2010 to head up the kitchen as Executive Chef.

Mueller lives in the Bay Area with his wife who is a pastry chef and their two young children.

Chef Craig Patzer, Executive Chef, Google

Northern California native, Chef Craig Patzer has been part of the Bay Area food scene for the past 20 years with stints cooking in both Chicago and Dallas. In 1999, Craig met Chef Traci Des Jardins and started his long relationship with Jardinière, first as a line cook, then returning as Executive Chef.  Patzer felt right at home in Jardinières’ kitchen using seasonal, local and sustainable ingredients. He was inspired by Des Jardins’ uncompromising standards for quality and perfection. In 2009, Patzer left Jardinière to join Bon Appétit Management Company as a Chef and General Manager for Silicon Valley clients. Patzer currently focuses on training and inspiring the next generation of chefs the art for how to provide restaurant quality food on a larger scale.

Chef Richard Reddington, Owner/Executive Chef, REDD

Richard Reddington’s passion for food and wine was sparked by his travels throughout Europe as a young adult and fueled by his experiences working in some of the world’s best kitchens.  As Executive Chef at Redd, Yountville’s highly regarded new restaurant, he offers a contemporary interpretation of Wine Country cuisine, one that references his own classic French training and incorporates a variety of ethnic influences, reflecting his more than 15-year epicurean journey.  

Reddington’s culinary training had an untraditional beginning.  After graduating from college with a degree in business and traveling around Europe, he realized that his dream was not to enter the business world, but to do what he loved most – cooking – and decided that practical training was the way to go. 

He began his career working for Roland Passot at San Francisco's renowned La Folie in 1990, later moving to Postrio before heading east to David Burke's Park Avenue Café in New York City.  A stint at Rubicon in San Francisco was followed by a French sojourn at the Michelin three-star Arpege and Le Moulin de Mougins with Roger Vergé, a prelude to working with Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel in New York. 

Returning to California, he helped open Spago Beverly Hills as Sous Chef, before joining Chapeau in San Francisco, where he was named “Rising Star” by The San Francisco Chronicle’s Michael Bauer.  He spent the next 18 months as Chef de Cuisine at Jardinière.  In 2000, he was drawn North to Napa Valley and began a four-year tenure as Executive Chef at the landmark Auberge du Soleil.  There, he captured attention when he was voted “Best Rising Chef” by San Francisco magazine in 2003.  After leaving the Auberge in 2004, he took the reins at Masa’s in San Francisco, before taking the leap to launch his eponymous restaurant.

Opened in November, 2005, Redd offers food and wine lovers a new reason to visit Yountville’s gourmet “Restaurant Row.”  Reddington’s vision calls for refined yet approachable food that, in flavor and texture, perfectly complements the Valley’s bountiful array of wines.  The 90-seat restaurant features a bar and indoor and outdoor dining in a relaxed contemporary setting designed by New York architects Asfour Guzy. 

In January of 2012, Chef Reddington opened his second restaurant, Redd Wood in the North Block Hotel also located on Washington Street in Yountville.  An upscale Pizza Restaurant, it has become a favorite of locals and tourists alike.

A graduate of Miami University in Ohio, Reddington is a native of Rochester, New York.

HOST A TABLE

**** Executive Chef: $25,000

• Membership on the Host Committee
• Ten (10) tickets to the November 12th cocktail reception and dinner
• 4 VIP tickets to Taste of the Nation San Francisco 2013
• Group photo opportunity with the chefs
• Recognition on web site, email invitation, event signage and event program and in remarks as a sponsor and member of the Host Committee
• Souvenir menus signed by all the chefs for all guests
• Souvenir Share Our Strength aprons for all guests signed by all the participating chefs
• (tax deductible amount $24,000)

**** Sous Chef Table: $10,000

• Membership on the Host Committee
• Eight (8) tickets to the November 12th cocktail reception and dinner
• Premier seating during the dinner
• Group photo opportunity with the chefs
• Recognition on web site, email invitation, event signage and event program and in remarks as a sponsor and member of the Host Committee
• Souvenir menus signed by all the chefs for all guests
• (tax deductible amount $9,200)

**** Chef de Partie Table: $5,000

• Four (4) tickets to the November 12th cocktail reception and dinner
• Recognition on web site, email invitation, event signage and event program as a sponsor
• Souvenir menus signed by all the chefs for all guests
• (tax deductible amount $4,600)

**** Commis Table: $2,500

• Two (2) tickets to the November 12th cocktail reception and dinner
• Recognition on web site, signage and event program
• ((tax deductible amount $2,300)

**** Individual: $500

• One (1) ticket to the November 12th cocktail reception and dinner
• (tax deductible amount $400)