Bracken's Kitchen works every day to combat food insecurity in Orange County.
The Garden Grove-based nonprofit's rescued food and community feeding programs are well known and well received, but chef Bill Bracken said about 500,000 people in the county — roughly one in six people — are food insecure, a number that has risen since the pandemic began.
Culinary school wasn't necessarily a piece of the puzzle for Bracken, who has an interesting background having worked as a chef at the Peninsula Beverly Hills and the Four Seasons Hotels in Newport Beach before turning to nonprofits to effect change.
Bracken began to realize that culinary training programs could be beneficial for at-risk youth, especially those who can’t afford the tens of thousands of dollars in tuition typically associated with culinary school.
“We realized that what we had been doing wasn't enough,” he says, “so we wrote an entire curriculum and are running the school in a way that we never imagined possible, and it's working. Obviously, it's been extremely beneficial for the students, and workforce development is something that's really needed to give people a pathway out of poverty.”
Students Lucas Romero and Matt Plonski chop and prepare red onions at Bracken's Kitchen in Garden Grove.
(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)
Bracken's Kitchen's culinary training program currently has up to 16 aspiring chefs in two groups: Food 4 Less/Foods Co. has donated $100,000 since last year as part of its Zero Hunger | Zero Waste program to support Bracken's Kitchen's food pantry and through its training program.
Huntington Beach residents Matt Plonsky and Lucas Romero would certainly give the program rave reviews: On Tuesday, they wrapped up 18 weeks of training and cooked their final dish to be judged by an on-site panel of tasters.
Pronski, 22, paid homage to his roots by serving up two Polish dishes: cabbage rolls and soupless Polish food, as well as a side dish of tomato sauce, sour cream and basil. Queso fresco. Romero, 21, decided to prepare spinach and artichoke dip, a beef Wellington main dish and a chocolate soufflé dessert.
But the food choice is not as important as the choice to follow your passion.
“It's so gratifying to see our students really blossom,” Bracken said, “and of course, a lot of what we do goes beyond culinary skills; it's case management, encouragement and building the self-confidence of each individual.”
Plonsky, a Marina High School graduate, had been receiving support from Robbie's Nest, a Huntington Beach-based nonprofit, since his senior year of high school, when he met the organization's criteria for an at-risk youth.
He's already been working as a cook at the local Great Wolf Lodge for over a year, but the training program has helped him take it to the next level.
Students Lukas Romero and Matt Plonski (front row) with chef Bill Bracken, chef instructor Charlie Negrete and Food 4 Less director of public relations Salvador Ramirez at Bracken's Kitchen in Garden Grove.
(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)
“This program meant a lot to me,” he says. “I didn't do very well in school and I always questioned my expertise and my culinary skills. It was something I never expected to receive praise for. For me, it was kind of necessary in the sense that I needed to understand why I was so passionate about it in the first place. I really love giving to others.”
Romero struggled during the pandemic with not many people to talk to. He lived with his father, who is an essential worker, and had to distance himself from him. He suffered from depression and was drinking to numb the pain, he said.
But his cousin worked at Bracken's Kitchen and told him about the culinary training program, and now Romero has someone to talk to, fulfills his inquisitive, affable personality, and is on the path to sobriety.
“It's nice to be able to be part of a program that's free, helps people, doesn't waste food, and gets paid,” Romero said. “It's a dream come true for someone on a budget who's trying to go to culinary school. It's satisfying for me to be able to practice cutting carrots, onions, celery, whatever, and nothing goes to waste.”
Students are paid minimum wage during their training, and Bracken's Kitchen will continue to pay them during the four-week training period when the chefs are paired with local restaurants, Bracken said.
Plonsky and Romero will soon be working at Duke's restaurant, next to the Huntington Beach Pier, with Suzanne Larkin, a longtime friend of Bracken's, who works there.
“There are a lot of great introductory culinary arts courses out there, but no one graduates with actionable skills,” Bracken says. “We're not going to teach pastry. We're not going to teach you how to decorate a cake. We're not going to teach you how to make a soufflé. We want our graduates to be able to work successfully as what we call an entry-level chef in any restaurant in Orange County.”
From left, students Matt Plonsky and Lucas Romero wash dozens of red onions at Bracken's Kitchen in Garden Grove.
(Don Leach/Staff Photographer)
Romero said he hopes Duke's will hire the two Surf City residents after they finish their four-week stint in the kitchen.
Either way, their future is bright, which is one of the reasons Bracken likes the program so much.
He said the first student in the reimagined culinary training program was a woman named Maria, who worked in a fast-food restaurant and lived in a rehabilitation center.
“We found that some of our students are struggling to make ends meet,” Bracken said. “It's part of a cycle of poverty, having to work just to get by and not having any opportunities to learn, grow or get ahead.”
He added that three graduates of the culinary training program are now employees at Bracken's Kitchen.
