With the help of local restaurateurs during the past 17 years, the Primavera Foundation has helped to expand the meaning of “cooks” into a philanthropic endeavor that impacts the community.
Primavera Cooks has morphed into a signature fundraiser that offers multiple levels for participation: Tucsonans can work alongside chefs to plan and prepare five-course meals; and they can also choose to enjoy the specially designated dinners at participating restaurants, which include Agustín Kitchen, the Carriage House, Contigo Latin Kitchen, Feast, Vivace, Reforma Cocina Y Cantina, Tavolino Ristorante Italiano, Kingfisher Bar & Grill and Pastiche Modern Eatery.
Each dinner is unique, much like the locally owned, independent restaurants that participate, said David Elliott, Primavera Foundation philanthropy projects coordinator.
“These are just darn fun dinners; they are much more intimate than big charity dinners and the food is freshly prepared; each one is a very different experience,” Elliott said.
Kim Talerico, who will serve as an apprentice chef for the 12th time, agrees with Elliott.
“I don’t cook very much on a daily basis — my favorite line is ‘I have a kitchen because it came with the house’ — but that is one of the reasons I love Primavera Cooks. It has been so much fun to learn to make new meals and special dishes. At the planning meetings for each of the dinners, the apprentice chefs come with ideas about things they want to learn to make. It is really fun to help elect the menus, which are tweaked by the chefs,” Talerico said.
Talerico said the apprentice-chef experiences have also taught her techniques that have helped improve her basic cooking skills.
“We learn little tricks — like if you cut an onion with the grain instead of against the grain, it cuts more quickly and doesn’t burn your eyes as much, and how to cut the rind off a cantaloupe, not to mention how to clean the membrane off a bell pepper and just how to chop correctly,” she said.
Talerico values the experiences so much that she has decided to make it a family affair: She gifted apprenticeships to her son, Michael, and his wife, Candice, for Christmas and the three will apprentice together at Kingfisher in September.
Kingfisher looks forward to collaborating with the apprentice chefs as it has every year since the fundraiser began, said Jim Murphy, who co-owns the restaurant with Jeff Azersky.
He said the menu is tailored to apprentice-chef interests, and that while Kingfisher is known for seafood, it has prepared diverse wine-paired menus for the fundraiser over the years, including a New Orleans-style Dixieland Jazz Brunch.
“It is primarily an apprentice-chef-generated dinner ... plus we always prepare a couple things that they can do at home. We always do a smoked trout, which is standard on our menu and very easy to set up and master, so it is a skill that they can take home and apply to other foods for smoking,” Murphy said.
The dinner preparation is also a collaborative effort, with apprentice chefs enjoying rotations through tasks with Murphy and Azersky, executive chef Fred Harris, sous chef Richard de la Cruz and pastry chef Marianne Barnes.
Murphy said the dinners distinguish themselves each year for everyone involved.
“The apprentice chefs always rise to the occasion, and Primavera is great program to co-exist with; they are very good at what they do and are great for the community,” said Murphy, who first learned of the Primavera Foundation when its workforce development program, Primavera Works, was involved in an event that Kingfisher catered about 20 years ago.
Primavera Works, which provides job readiness training and job placement assistance, is just one component of the Primavera Foundation, which is dedicated to providing safe and affordable housing and employment as pathways out of poverty.
The foundation serves more than 8,000 people annually with programs and facilities including a 100-bed emergency shelter for men who are working or searching for jobs, and two drop-in centers for people in need of emergency services — one of which is the only center in Tucson that provides mail and phone message systems for those with no home — as well as assistance with basic needs such as hygiene items, food boxes and other resources.
“It is a barrier and a huge obstacle to putting a foundation under your feet if you don’t have an address, and we have over 3,000 people that use our mail and phone center on an annual basis. Without an address, you can’t get mail-in prescription medication, Social Security payments, voter registration or a driver’s license. It can also impact your ability to fill out job applications and leave contact information for prospective employers, and most importantly, it prevents one from being able to fully participate in community,” said JoAnn Salazar, Primavera Foundation chief philanthropy officer.
The nonprofit also offers shelter through a “scattered site” model that provides affordable apartments throughout the community for families working toward sustainability; two women’s supportive housing residences; and Las Abuelitas, a unique community comprised of individual apartments, a community center and a community garden designed by and for grandparents raising their grandchildren. Other programs offer job training, housing support and wraparound services for veterans and their families.
Additionally, Primavera offers a variety of financial empowerment and homeownership programs to help people learn to budget and build assets in an effort to break multigenerational cycles of poverty.
Primavera’s impact on the community is significant, according to Talerico, who began volunteering for the foundation in 2005 after retiring from a 26-year career in the insurance industry.
“It is amazing to be able to support nonprofits that help provide people with a new start and a new place to live,” said Talerico, who works as the annual fund manager at Old Pueblo Community Services.
Personally, she believes it is vital for everyone to give back, whether it be through in-kind donations, volunteerism or financial contributions.
“It is important that we make a choice to help other people who are less fortunate than we are,” she said.
