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In brief: Zesty enterprise

By Adriana Janovich adrianaj@spokesman.com(509) 459-5446

A local startup has developed an app to help independent and small-chain grocery stores reach customers on their mobile devices.

Zest from SlickGrocer allows shoppers to locate stores, view inventories and promotions, and build shopping lists. The new app already offers nearly 10,000 items from three stores: Hay J’s Butcher Block in Liberty Lake, Asian World Food Market in Spokane and Lam’s Seafood Market in Seattle.

Developers Fletcher Wilkens and Dustin Horn, recent college graduates from the Inland Northwest, have been working on the app since February 2014. It’s available on Google Play for Android or on the website www.zestapp.com. For more information, visit www.slickgrocer.com.

Shucks fun

Raw on the half shell, seared, baked, fried or paired with wine, oysters are cause for celebration this month at Anthony’s Restaurants.

The Northwest restaurant chain is holding its annual March Oyster Festival. The promotion features lunch, happy hour and dinner specials as well as the Friday Night Oyster Slurp contest.

Look for oyster tacos, an oyster burger and crispy seared or pan-fried oysters. Lunch starts at $10.95; dinner runs from $11.95 to $32.95. Oyster Happy Hour is available all day in the bar, with $6 oyster specials and glasses of featured wines.

The festival takes place at both Spokane locations: Anthony’s at Spokane Falls and Anthony’s Beach Café. The Friday Night Oyster Slurp contest is only offered at the Spokane Falls location. It starts at 6 p.m. in the lounge each Friday during March.

The person who can slurp nine freshly shucked oysters – hands free – wins. Weekly gold medal winners will compete March 27 to determine the Champion Slurper.

Anthony’s owns and operates a family of eateries throughout the Pacific Northwest. On the Web: www.anthonys.com.

Mentor of the year

Julie Raftis-Litzenberger was named mentor of the year in the recent Boyd’s Coffee ProStart Invitational.

Raftis-Litzenberger is a culinary arts instructor at Inland Northwest Culinary Academy at Spokane Community College and former president of the Spokane chapter of the Washington Restaurant Association. She’s been involved with ProStart for nearly 20 years. For the past eight years, she’s organized a mock competition at SCC so high school students can practice their skills in front of industry professionals and college culinary students before the invitational.

“It was a great honor to be recognized as Mentor of the Year,” she said in a recent email.

ProStart is a school-to-career program that aims to prepare high school juniors and seniors for careers in the food service industry. At its 2015 invitational, held Feb. 28 at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, students showed off their cooking, management and knife skills for the chance to win scholarships as well as compete in nationals.

A team from Lewis and Clark High School won second place in the management contest. Teams from five other regional high schools – West Valley, Ferris, Rogers, Mt. Spokane and Tekoa – also competed.

The national competition will be in California in April. For more information, visit www.nraef.org/ProStart.

Stamp of approval

Inland Northwest Culinary Academy After Dark at Spokane Community College has been approved by the American Culinary Federation to offer professional education credits.

Credits count toward ACF certification. There are 14 levels of certification, and recertification is required every three to five years.

ACF, founded in 1929, is a professional membership organization for chefs and cooks. Along with certification, it sponsors culinary competitions, offers a national apprenticeship program and holds regional and national events.

INCA After Dark received its stamp of approval in February.

Upcoming professional-level classes include Charcuterie into the Smokehouse, which takes place Monday and Tuesday for $800 and counts for 11 credit hours; Sugar Fundamentals and Trends, on March 30 for $400 and six credit hours; and Cheese Carving Fundamentals and Butter Cream Sculpting Techniques on June 23 for $400 and six credit hours. Participants must be industry professionals or graduates of a culinary or baking and pastry program.

For more information about INCA After Dark’s professional-level courses, visit http://incaafterdark. scc.spokane.edu/Home. aspx and click on “professional series” under “classes.”

For more information about ACF, visit www.acfchefs.org.

Call for recipes

“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” is looking for original, unpublished recipes – and the stories behind them – for a new cookbook.

The special collection is slated for publication in 2017 along with the 225th anniversary edition of the almanac, which debuted in 1792.

Submissions are due by 5 p.m. April 1. Entries can be submitted online at Almanac.com/favorite recipe or mailed to “The Old Farmer’s Almanac,” P.O. Box 520, Dublin, NH 03444.