Be a Wok Star: Chef Michelle Bernstein

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Taste of Check, Please!

Chef Michelle Bernstein, host of Check, Please!

Well, you could tell just from the crowd that Chef Michy has a huge following. Everyone I talked to say they watch it religiously and many have been on the show. You can see what the show is about here. The first Taste of Check, Please! South Florida was a fundraiser event for the show. The food came from many restaurants featured on the show and was a nice mix from spicy Haitian to French cuisine. I hope you realize that I missed out tasting many because I rushed around taking photos for this blog!

Chef Michy and her husband, David Martinez opened Michy's, SRA. Martinez, MB in Cancun, Omphoy in Palm Beach and most recently, Crumb and Parchment in the Design District. I once asked her how she copes with running all the restaurants and appearing on TV, she simply said, "oh, I have good staff". Oh, she's also a James Beard Award winner, guest judge on Top Chef and started Common Threads Miami. (It was an honor to be invited to be a guest instructor at a participating Common Threads school, you can read about it here.)

Chef Michy thanked me for my cooking class certificate.

Me and Duba, a screenwriter and Wok Star!

Attending events like this isn't fun unless you hang out with foodie friends! Sorry this is so blurry, I had someone else take it and think they didn't focus first, oops!

Chef Michy's cookbook, Cuisine a Latina
Her table had the best display and decoration!

Delicious melon salad. Didn't get a chance to try the shrimp salad everyone raved about, boo!

Andrea, TV exec and Duba

Friday, March 25, 2011

Nothing Better Than Getting Kids Cooking! Updated

I love setting the tone and mood for this Common Threads class I gave to 8-12 yr. olds earlier this week at W.J. Bryan Elementary in North Miami. So honored to be invited to participate in this wonderful program and had so much fun with the kids. Glad to be part of their day and be able to show a healthy, Pineapple Stir Fried Rice dish using brown rice. If you like the sound of this, you can make it yourself at home!

Just a few decorations and a few goodies. Also brought them some Fiji Water and San-J Intl. Tamari samplers to try, they lit up their day! The students really enjoyed their moment frying in cast iron woks! New experience, score. I'm also probably the only instructor who's not a chef and the most strict. Best part for me was when one of the kids came and gave me a hug!

Here's another short post of my wonderful Common Threads experience!

There are many ways you can get involved, just visit their site, below is a brief description how it started and a little about the Miami Chapter. Many upcoming fundraising events includes numerous restaurants who will be donating a percentage to Common Threads! More details here.

Here's a short video and wonderful explanation by Chef Michelle Bernstein!

Hope to see you out there for some fun and food and all for a worthy cause!

Here's Mango and Lime's wonderful writeup about another school who participated in the Common Threads program.

Mimi Chacin, Miami coordinator for Common Threads gives a wonderful summary. Mimi is herself a chef! :
Common Threads is a non-profit organization with a mission to educate children about the importance of nutrition and physical well being, as well as foster an appreciation of cultural diversity through cooking.

A little background on the organization – founded in 2003 by Chef Art Smith in Chicago, Common Threads started with one class out of a church basement, and has grown to serve nearly 1000 students per year at public schools in Chicago, Miami, Washington DC and Los Angeles. Our Miami chapter was spearheaded by Chef Michelle Bernstein in 2009. Our programming consists of a 10 week session in which a group of 16 students, ages 8 – 12, meet once per week to learn how to prepare 2 to 3 ethnic, wholesome recipes. Led by trained Chef Instructors, (we are lucky to have Alicia as our Chef Instructor at WJ Bryan Elementary) and a dedicated team of volunteers, the students apply their new skills in our hands-on after school cooking classes, and come to learn about different cultures through their food.