Food for thought, food for a cause

NOTHING DRAWS a crowd like food. So, when Charlie Knudtsen asked Beach House executive chef Tim Heinig if he’d like to raise money for Coeur d’Alene charities with his gourmet creations, he didn’t hesitate.

” ‘Yes!’ I said, ‘We want to help.’ We want to do this every year,” Tim said last week, as he filled a chafing dish with huckleberry ribs on Charlie’s massive deck overlooking Lake Coeur d’Alene. “This is cooking for a cause.”

The event to which Charlie invited Tim was a Three Cs’ gourmet club luncheon. Three Cs – Cancer and Community Charities – raises nearly $50,000 a year for such charities as the Coeur d’Alene Women’s Center, Dirne Community Clinic and the North Idaho Cancer Center.

The money comes mostly from dues that members pay to participate in the club’s many interest groups – books, bridge, mah-jongg, gardening. Jan Ashcraft leads the gourmet group this year and heard about culinary fairs in Spokane that raise money for charity.

Since Three Cs raises money for charity, Jan visualized a mini-culinary fair as a fun event the gourmet group could organize. She bounced the idea off Tim. He saw a Three Cs’ culinary affair as the first step to a major culinary event in Coeur d’Alene for the public.

Tim has participated in plenty of Spokane food fests – as a chef, not a diner. Organizing a similar event for Coeur d’Alene wasn’t a priority until he lost his dad to cancer last year. He’ll never forget the financial and emotional struggle while his dad fought the cancer.

“We had to beg for help and key places helped,” Tim said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have made it. And those places operate on a shoestring.”

That’s why he didn’t hesitate when Charlie asked him if he’d cook for charity. He was just waiting for the right opportunity. Jan and Charlie asked restaurants, coffee bistros and bakeries all over town if they’d like to donate their food and time to raise money for charity. Every cent, they told them, would go to local causes.

“We got turned down by no one,” Jan said.

Fifteen food establishments showed up at Charlie’s spacious home last Thursday. They came bearing carrot cake and Halloween cookies, German potato salad and spring rolls, fresh Italian bread and crab stuffed mushrooms, lasagna and Asian slaw, shrimp the size of mini-doughnuts and pork tacos. Wayne Knudtsen, Charlie’s husband, added a vat of his homemade chili. Odom Distributors and Centennial Distributing provided wine from Ironstone Vineyards and beer from Bud Light.

Everyone who attended paid $10 to wander across the Knudtsens’ perfectly gardened front patio, through a house worthy of a Sunset Magazine photo spread onto a deck that doubles the size of the house and offers an unobstructed view of the lake.

About 150 people milled in the sunshine on the deck, nibbling bites of bacon, sausage and shrimp gourmet club members served like caterers.

“Whatever it is, it’s good,” one woman said, laughing as she lifted a sausage off a plate.

The event added about $1,500 to the Three Cs’ growing account for charities. Tim is certain a culinary fair open to the public could raise much more.

He envisions 25 to 30 food establishments participating and filling all the downstairs board rooms at the Coeur d’Alene Resort. Tim hopes he can find a celebrity speaker who will adopt the fair the way Patty Duke has adopted Kootenai Medical Center’s Festival of Trees. He’s certain the food will attract a crowd, but he’s also certain the right celebrity could attract an even bigger crowd.

“We’d do a dinner theme instead of lunch,” Tim said. “That would generate more money.”

The Three Cs luncheon was organized in three weeks. Tim is leading the charge for next year’s event and plans to allow himself seven or eight months to organize.

“We’ll take it to the next level next year,” he said.

Jan smiled at the enthusiasm her gourmet group’s October meeting inspired. She just wanted to try something new and fun. Instead, she created a new food source for local charities.

“I had no idea how much work it would be,” she said, chuckling. “It’s the first time I’ve done volunteer work, and it turned out well.”