Evan Allumbaugh, Che Fico, featuring K & J Orchards
Saturday, May 12, 2018, 10:30 am - 11:15 am
Stop by the CUESA Classroom for a cooking demo featuring the seasonal bounty of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. This demo will highlight a farmer-chef relationship forged and sustained at the farmers market, featuring K & J Orchards.
Evan Allumbaugh was cooking for his parents in Orange County by the time he was 12. At 16, his career got a kick-start when he took a pasta class in Tuscany with his mother. Upon returning, Allumbaugh worked for a Naples born-and- rasied chef at a trattoria. But it would take a little parental shove for Allumbaugh to realize his future was in food.
Two years into the architecture program at Arizona State University, Allumbaugh wasn’t happy. At his mother’s encouragement, he switched gears and enrolled at the San Diego Culinary Institute. Fortuitously, his parents had hosted a foreign exchange student whose family printed menus for Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy. So, after graduation Allumbaugh staged at the two Michelin-starred Villa Crespia, developing an affinity for Italian cuisine and a bond with fellow cooks. Returning to the States, Allumbaugh spent a year making pasta in Scottsdale before leaving for California to work for Michael Mina, and then for Thomas McNaughton at flour + water, where he added butchery and charcuterie to his repertoire. Finding his voice, Allumbaugh ascended to chef de cuisine. In 2015, he was named to the “Zagat 30 Under 30” list for San Francisco. He is part of the opening team, as chef de cuisine, at Che Fico.
Wife-and-husband team Kalayada Ammatya and James Beutel (“K” and “J”) started farming in 1982. James was a professor of pomology, the branch of horticulture that is concerned with the study and cultivation of fruit. He grew up on an avocado orchard in Orange. Kalayada was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and worked as a registered nurse.
The family believes in using natural growing methods and maximizing the use of the sun. They prune most of their fruit trees in the summer after harvest to provide the most sun exposure to each tree, which then stimulates growth and, they believe, leads to sweeter fruit.
All demos take place in the CUESA Classroom (under the white tents in front of the Ferry Building) and are free to the public, with recipes and samples for all.