Kitchen Engine ready to rev up behind Huang

Watch demonstrations of Asian cooking and help raise money for recovery efforts in Japan on Friday.

The Kitchen Engine will host Louis Huang, a Churchill’s Steakhouse manager and mentor for Ferris High School’s ProStart Culinary team. Huang will show different styles of cooking and show guests several cultural ingredients.

The free demonstrations will take place from 3 to 6 p.m. and include fried rice; fusion cooking; ramen, soba and udon noodles; sukiyaki, bamboo steamers and sushi rice 101.

Huang will provide handouts on many of the topics. Bring a donation in any amount and money collected will be donated to The American Red Cross. The Kitchen Engine also will donate 20 percent of sales during the demonstrations to the fund.

Kitchen Engine is located in the Flour Mill, 621 W. Mallon Ave., No. 416. Reach the store at (509) 328-3335.

Madeleine’s chef headed West

Mercia Sheets, the chef at Madeleine’s Café and Pâtisserie, is heading to a new job in Seattle.

Sheets, who worked in Spokane kitchens for more than 15 years, will help open the Phinney Market Pub and Eatery in Seattle. Sheets says owners Jaimee and Caleb Papineau are turning a small neighborhood grocery into an upscale, family-friendly pub.

“It’s going to be a neighborhood hangout where people can come and have good food and a nice glass of wine or beer, but still feel free to bring their kids. Everyone is welcome,” Sheets says.

The pub is about a block away from the Woodland Park Zoo, so they’ll also offer box lunches for those spending the day at the zoo. Phinney Market Pub and Eatery is scheduled to open this summer. Check out the progress at www.phinneymarketpub.com.

Sheets’ resume also includes helping Chef Ian Wingate open Moxie. She worked at the Palm Court with Wingate before that. She also served in the kitchen at Luna and the former Fugazzi. Her last day at Madeleine’s will be April 15.

Sheets says she wasn’t looking to leave Spokane, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Her parents are longtime friends with Caleb Papineau’s parents and they approached Sheets for the job.

Madeleine’s announced on its Facebook page last week that Chef Joshua Martin will take the helm. Martin is a sous chef for the Spokane Club and formerly worked as a banquet sous chef for the Davenport Hotel.

He went to the Culinary Studies Institute in Farmington Hills, Mich., and holds a degree from DCT University in Vitznau, Switzerland where he majored in European gourmet cuisine.