SANTA BARBARA CULINARY ARTS A Taste of Santa Barbara’s Culinary Bounty, a brand new cookbook featuring 62 recipes from Santa Barbara County chefs, caterers and food purveyors, will debut on May 3 with a launch party from 1-3 p.m. at the Gourmet Dining Room at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), 721 Cliff Dr.
The cookbook is a special project of the nonprofit Santa Barbara Culinary Arts, which endows the Santa Barbara Culinary Arts Scholarship in Honor of Julia Child for students at the School of Culinary Arts at SBCC.
The organization enjoys great support from local chefs like Greg Murphy of bouchon, who says,“bouchon restaurant enjoys supporting the scholarship program at the School of Culinary Arts at SBCC, but the benefits derive to just a couple of students each year. By participating in the Santa Barbara Culinary Arts cookbook I felt I could contribute in a more ‘across-the-board’ way. I also felt a collaborative effort that involved chefs from all over Santa Barbara would be a fun way to bookmark this point in time, almost like a yearbook, and I look forward to holding on to my copy for many years to come.”
Add executive pastry chef Julia San Bartolome of Sweet Arleen’s,”Sweet Arleen’s is dedicated to creating consistently happy experiences, being able to do that through participation in a book benefiting my first culinary school, well that was just icing on the cupcake!”
The first edition of the cookbook will be on sale at the event for $25 and many of the chefs featured in the book will be on hand to sign them, including Michael Blackwell (Montecito Country Club), James Sly (Sly’s), Greg Murphy (Bouchon), Alessandro Cartumini (Bella Vista at the Biltmore), Randy Bublitz (head of the School of Culinary Arts) and many more.
In addition to the chance to mingle with local chefs, guests will also taste local wines from Westerly Winery and Refugio Ranch, as well as delicious appetizers prepared by the esteemed faculty and students of the School of Culinary Arts, plus selected chefs featured in the cookbook. Dishes include Lobster Terrine, Salmon en Croute, Pan-Seared Duck Breast, Praline Bread Pudding and many others.
Tama Takahashi edited and designed the cookbooks, with gorgeous photography by Linda Blue . It will be available at the event for purchase and ll proceeds go towards our scholarship endowment for culinary students at SBCC.The event ticket price of $25 provides you with food and wine tasting and access to chefs for questions and cookbook signing.
To reserve your spot click here.
—Leslie Dinaberg
Originally published in Santa Barbara SEASONS on April 15, 2014.
“Santa Barbara is a high cost-of-living town and being a student at City College— no matter how affordable the education itself— is even more challenging,” Sjerven says. “My long-term vision is to see enough financial aid available so that each and every student in the Culinary Arts program can receive tuition assistance to some degree. To that end I challenge every Santa Barbara restaurant that has ever had a student or graduate of the program in their kitchen to create a scholarship. Our community provides unlimited possibilities to give but here is a meaningful way to give back directly to the institution that provides so many staff for so many of our local restaurants.”
