Catina Smith or “Chef Cat,” as she’s affectionately known, is a woman of many talents. By day she is a line chef at Magdalena Restaurant [205 E. Biddle St., (410) 514-0303, theivybaltimore.com/magdalena] in the Ivy Hotel and by night she puts in work at Webster University, where she’s only two classes away from her master’s degree.

It’s only February and Chef Cat is already finalizing her events and endeavors for 2018. She’s launching her own apron line, is working on her own sorbet brand, and has partnered with two local non-profits— Black Girls Cook and Black Professional Men—to help create events and programming. She also has her own podcast “Taste Charm City” and is organizing several themed events throughout the year.

“I’ve had ideas for years,” she says. “I’m kind of learning as I go. I think I’m such a shy and introverted person but somehow I became the ‘culinary socialite.’ I go to all these places and talk to people because I feel that I’m not necessarily meant to be a cookie-cutter chef. I feel like I am supposed to be intermingling with people and bringing people together.”

In that vein, she is currently focused on her third installment of Taste Baltimore. This was one of her first events and it remains one of her favorites. (Arli Lima)

Baltimore Beat: What is Taste Baltimore?

Catina Smith: So Taste Baltimore in a nutshell is kind of a food expo or mini emporium. I like to highlight local businesses and local chefs. I like to invite vendors that are trying to make their mark and reach new people to grow their clientele.

It’s funny because a lot of things I do, people think they’re black-only events but this is not black-only. Just like I hold a monthly chef meet-up, it’s not only for black chefs, it’s for all chefs to start gaining that camaraderie and sense of community—we’re here to help each other. I’m on my third one now; it’s growing and it is highlighting those businesses that kind of only had a small reach . . . so I was grateful that I was able to do that for those businesses. I’m hosting this installment on Saturday, Feb. 24 at The Motor House.

BB: What type of vendors can we expect?

CS: We will have restaurants, private chefs, and caterers. We also have business owners that make juice, desserts, sauces, and spices. This year it’s going to be a wide variety of vendors. You’ll also be able to purchase their products.

BB: How will Taste Baltimore 3 surpass the other two events?

CS: Well, the first one was packed! I had it in a small space and I didn’t know what to expect, so when I saw it was packed with people my heart was so full. If you see some of the pictures, you’ll see people smiling and laughing and really enjoying themselves, everyone had a great time. The second one, we had a live band and it was really interactive. We had (local chef and personality) Chef Egg there and he did a live cooking demo and he’s doing another demo this time around. This year we also have a DJ, DJ 5 Starr is a sponsor and he’s donating his time and talent to us. We’re doing the black box challenge, it’s kind of like “Chopped” where I pop up on a few chefs with a black box and they have to come up with some creative ideas for the wacky things I put in the boxes. They will be judged on taste, creativity, plating, and the winner gets a trophy. Also, the first 25 people that arrive get an amazing swag bag.

BB: How many vendors will you have at Taste Baltimore 3?

CS: This time we have 15 vendors and it’s pretty cool too because so many people were just reaching out to me asking to be a part of it. My first event, I was begging people “please be a part of my event” and now people are telling me they want to be a part of it, so many I have to turn people away. I’m even getting hits from bigger restaurants; this year I’m having The Elephant participate as my big restaurant and I was so shocked that they reached out to me, so that’s exciting. Next year I’m putting out a call for vendors early so I can get the vendors first and then I’ll pick the venue.

BB: You seem to have this event all covered—I can’t imagine what you’ll do to top this.

CS: Well, I’ve also been working on a Taste Baltimore kids’ edition. People are reaching out to me about events for kids and I notice a lot of kid businesses are emerging so I wanted to do something to highlight them. I found a kid that does his own chicken hand pies, my friend she does lemonade, I have a couple of cupcake kids, I know one girl her business is called “What The Dill” and she makes her own pickles. My daughter Micah, she has her own project “Unicorn Magic,” it’s her little rainbow sparkle inspired treats. She’s making macaroons, rice krispies treats, bath bombs and soaps. I’m also developing something called “Chef Cat’s Kid Restaurant Week” and we’re going to develop a small curriculum and teach kids how to do the culinary basics. They will cook and we will sell their food; that will be more of a fundraiser. I’m creating my own scholarship where I’m going to try and give seed money to high school seniors going to culinary school in Baltimore City.

Taste Baltimore 3 will be held Feb. 24 from noon to 4 p.m. at The Motor House (120 W. North Avenue, [410] 637-8300). Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here.

Follow Chef Cat on Instagram @naturallychefcat and @culinary_socialite.

The post Chef Catina Smith talks about her culinary event Taste Baltimore appeared first on Baltimore Beat.

Chef Casey Jenkins, owner of the popular Waverly restaurant Darker Than Blue Cafe, has been busy since the eatery closed back in 2014. He has served on the Maryland Board of Tourism, co-chaired the Baltimore restaurant co-op SKIP (Shop Keepers Independent Procurement Program), and accompanied Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Boyd Rutherford on a black restaurant tour.

Originally from White Plains, New York, Jenkins learned how to cook in the military and later attended the Culinary Institute of America. He worked at a few restaurants in New York before moving to Baltimore and opening Darker Than Blue Café, which was in business for eight years.

Jenkins has always been passionate about African-American-owned restaurants and continually strives to break boundaries and create opportunities for black food culture to thrive. This month he’s working on his newest venture, The Black Restaurant Challenge. I recently sat down with him at Terra Café (101 E. 25th St., [410] 777-5277, terracafebmore.com) to discuss the month-long event. (Arli Lima)

Baltimore Beat: In your own words, what is the Black Restaurant Challenge?

Casey Jenkins: We are challenging everyone to eat at two African-American-owned eateries per week during the month of February. It’s not only local; we’re challenging everyone around the country, but you get discounts from the Baltimore restaurants that are listed on our website (blackrestaurantchallenge.com). And it’s not only restaurants; we have eateries and food trucks also. Each week, every restaurant will come up with a certain discount for their most popular dishes. It varies per restaurant and you can go on our website and look under the discounts tab and see what discount each restaurant is offering.

BB: Is this your first year organizing the challenge?

CJ: In January of 2016 we were sitting in this room [Terra Café], myself and the owner Terrence Dixon, we were looking at this challenge they were doing with the water bucket and we thought, “OK we should do a challenge.” So we came up with The Black Restaurant Challenge. I immediately went onto Facebook and put a page together. We tried to build some media interest on it back then but it was too late into January because the media already knows what they’re doing, magazines already know what they’re printing, and radio stations already know who they will invite on their shows. Everyone thought it was a great idea but we couldn’t pick it up because it was too late. Larry Young from the radio show [ on WOLB Talk 1010] really pushed us to do it again so Terrance and I decided to do it again this year.

BB: Why did you feel Baltimore needed this challenge?

CJ: Back in 2009, my restaurant Darker Than Blue was voted one of the 50 Best Restaurants in Baltimore by Baltimore Magazine and I remember we were one of the few that didn’t participate in restaurant week. The price points didn’t work for me because my price points were already low and like most restaurants and eateries we can’t indulge in Restaurant Week. Years ago I told the people at Downtown Partnership, “Hey, you guys need to find a way to be more inclusive for people that can’t participate.”

BB: Besides the sponsorship marketing, what else are you doing to promote this challenge?  

CJ: Because it was too late to generate buzz last year, we said we have to do something big. We decided to host a free kick-off event at the Baltimore Visitor Center. Right now we have nine restaurants attending the kick-off and they will be giving away samples of their food. The response has been great! I didn’t realize it would be such a large thing. Did you see the Facebook page? Who would have thought that 37,000 people would be interested in this? The location only holds 250 people but we figured we would rotate people in and out. We originally put 500 free tickets on Eventbrite and 15 minutes later I got a notification from them saying the tickets were running low and I thought “this isn’t possible.” Then I looked and the site and it was true; five minutes after that we were out of tickets. So in 15 minutes, 500 tickets sold out. Then I put 500 more because I’m thinking we can rotate people in and out over two hours . . . half an hour later, 500 more tickets were gone. Right now we have nine restaurants attending the kick-off and they will be giving away samples of their food.

BB: What’s next for you and the Black Restaurant Challenge?

CJ: We want to keep expanding. I’ve got the Black Chef’s Network out of North Carolina flying me down for their monthly meeting because they want to hear about how I’ve organized this. As for me, I’m working on opening my restaurant again; Darker Than Blue will be back in 2019.

Black Restaurant Week runs from Feb. 2-25.

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Derrick Reed, 23, has the kind of Instagram account (@derricksworldd) that holds the city’s foodie community in rapt attention.

Reed is a line cook at Wit & Wisdom Tavern in the Four Seasons Hotel in Harbor East. Some of the meals he’s prepared: fermented mushroom tarts, smoked gouda cauliflower grits, and sous vide rabbit. And, captured online, they all look amazing.

I was thrilled, then, that after Insta-stalking Reed for some time, I finally got to meet him. He told me that his earliest memories of Baltimore City are of riding his bicycle from Dundalk (where he moved with his mom and brother in 1999 from Honolulu, Hawaii) into the city and taking photos of the scenery.

“I went to an art school, Patapsco High School and Center School for the Arts, and a lot of my classes were photography. I was always that kid in the group that documented everything, recording videos and taking pictures,” he says.

“Later, I got away from photography a little bit but when I started my career in cooking, it brought that part of me back to life. One day I just took a photo of my food and posted it online and from there it just exploded, I found a new love for it.”

Reed found his love for photography early on, but his interest in cooking wouldn’t come until later.

“I didn’t cook at all as a kid; it was the furthest thing from my mind,” he recalls. “I have stories of me trying to cook ramen noodles in the microwave and how that all went wrong.”

After high school, Reed enrolled in the Community College of Baltimore County and started working in the restaurant industry. His first job was working at Chili’s as a prep cook. He went on to work at other chains like the seafood-themed Bonefish Grill and Tex-Mex eatery On The Border. It was working at these restaurants that peaked his interest in cooking.

“I would see the older guys on the line cooking and slinging the food around on the big open flames and they were using these big knives and I thought, that looks really cool, I think I can do that maybe,” Reed says.

Later he transferred to Stratford University and graduated with his associates degree in culinary arts. While in school, Reed started his first job in fine dining at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion, a gig he thinks is serendipitous considering the first Roy’s restaurant opened in his hometown of Honolulu. At Roy’s, he learned bits and pieces of Japanese, Chinese, and Philippine cuisine and developed a “Hawaiian flare” in his own cooking style.

Cooking isn’t the only thing he learned at Roy’s. When he was just starting out, he once set fire to a fryer he was asked to clean, unaware that he needed to turn it off before dousing it with oil.

“Naturally, I freaked out and my sous chef ran over and dumped a ton of salt on it,” he says. “In that moment, it was very scary and I thought I was going to get fired because I was only working there for two weeks, but I didn’t get fired. It’s a story I look back at and laugh now.”

Before graduating, Reed landed an externship at Wit & Wisdom Tavern where he still works as a line cook. He’s been at Wit & Wisdom for two years and credits the constant learning environment and great mentorship for his tenure.

“Because it’s a hotel restaurant, we cater to a wide variety of people with different allergies and food preferences, so it’s challenging in a good way. I’m constantly learning to adjust my cooking,” he says. “And I run a lot of my recipe ideas by our sous chef, James Menges. He has taught me how to cook for the season and has given me great advice on my ideas.”

Reed’s ideas start with a pencil and paper. He says food styling is an art form. When he cooks at home, he strategically plans his meals and plating.

“I’ll draw my dishes before I plate them; I do multiple sketches and I try to transform it into something more than just your average dinner. Art has been a huge part of my life, so I like to incorporate that into my food. I don’t want it to just be food, I want it to be something you look at and admire before you eat it because you always eat with your eyes first.”

Reed has also freelanced as a private chef. His clients appreciate seeing a drawing of the meal before it’s prepared, and Reed customizes the menu to their liking.

“I give them the experience of opening their own restaurant but I bring it to them, in their own home,” Reed says.

In addition to his day job, freelancing, and cooking for himself at home, Reed also finds time to enjoy the local food scene.

“I love the Baltimore food scene and I see it growing so much. I see all these other chefs coming into town to open up shop,” he says. “With D.C. being so close to us, it’s only natural for it to happen. I really feel like we’re going to be the next city to really pop on the culinary scene.”

His favorite spots include Alma Cocina Latina and Gnocco, which he praises for its use of simple ingredients and preparation.

“They are not using the flashy ingredients or techniques,” he says. “It’s just Cooking 101 and they do it really well.”

He’s trying to soak up as much of the food scene as he can before he moves to Los Angeles in March. Reed is transferring to Culina, the Italian restaurant in the Four Seasons Beverly Hills.

“It’s more of a chance to hone my skills and meet a lot of people and learn a lot, soak up a ton of information and work my way back to Baltimore as a better chef, just in time for the revolution,” he says, “because I really feel like something special is going to come out of this city and I want to be a part of that.”

The post Wit & Wisdom line cook Derrick Reed talks craft and presentation appeared first on Baltimore Beat.