edible notables
A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Chef gives kids kitchen (and other) lessons.
WRITTEN BY SUE EDMONDSON
PHOTOS BY CANDICE NYANDO
Chef Chris Coclich is one busy man. Each day, the father of four drives to work at the Boys & Girls Club of Truckee Meadows in Reno from Fernley, arriving at 7 a.m. On any given morning, in addition to prepping a hot breakfast for 50-plus kids, he may have baked cinnamon rolls; piped sweetened cream into strawberries; and arranged bowls of fruit, granola, and yogurt to serve one of many nonprofits that meet in the club’s boardroom.
On a Friday by 8 a.m., he’s done just that. After literally running with the food to the boardroom, he gives the baked (no fat added) scrambled eggs a final stir.
Soon children pour into the club’s cafeteria. The first arrivals race into the kitchen.
“Can we help?” asks 10-year-old Roberto.
Kids are Coclich’s sous chefs.
“They do anything that doesn’t require a knife,” he says. “They love to help. I always have more volunteers than I can use.”
More kids pop in. They’re assigned to lunch duty.
“Wash up and put gloves on,” he says.
They do, then form an assembly line. Coclich scoops eggs onto a plate; Roberto adds sausage; Jose, also 10, places an English muffin next to the sausage; 8-year-old Victoria spoons on fresh fruit; and Maya, just 5, stands on her tiptoes to put the plates on the serving rack. It’s all business for 30 minutes.
“Great work,” Coclich says. “Now help yourselves.”
In the three years he’s been the club’s chef, he’s transformed the food program.
“When I started, it was 95 percent ‘heat-and-eat’ food,” he says. “I couldn’t see having this beautiful kitchen and not using it. Now we make 95 percent from scratch. It saves money and it’s much healthier.”
The job requires a fast-moving multi-tasker. Last year, the club served 212,000 meals to kids — for $20 a year, or less when necessary, they get three hot meals a day. That doesn’t include the 22,000 people fed at special events such as the club’s popular fundraiser, the Jack T. Reviglio Cioppino Feed and Auction, next scheduled for Feb. 23, 2013.
Coclich’s big heart is a bonus.
“The best part is working with the kids,” he says.
Not only do they learn about healthy cooking, but also he teaches responsibility. Three former helpers are now club staffers. One wrote him a Father’s Day letter this year. He grins.
“It doesn’t get better than that,” he says.
Freelancer Sue Edmondson writes for various publications in Nevada and California. She’d like to accomplish as much in a day as Chef Coclich accomplishes by 8 a.m.
Resources
For details on the annual Jack T. Reviglio Cioppino Feed and Auction, visit http://www.Bgctm.org.
