FoodBackwards: The DooF Glob (blog)

I want to express my gratitude for your generous support at our second annual DooF-a-Palooza event at Google. I had wanted to post this much sooner. It’s nearly four weeks since the event and we’ve been absolutely overwhelmed in our preparations for our public television launch next year. We also took some time to put together a digest of the event in photos, quotes and basic stats.

I am especially appreciative of the time, money, effort and materials contributed by our sponsors and Sourcerers in order to participate. Their passion and enthusiasm made the event the success it was, and it was clear that the kids and families who attended the event got a chance to experience something very wonderful and unique.

The event exceeded our wildest expectations, allowing kids and their families an intimate understanding of food through the fabulous range of hands-on activities that were the fruit of our collaborations. Looking out over the crowd, it was clear that they were completely immersed in what they were doing, and stayed that way the entire day.

From the Google side, the event was considered to be a great success! The Google Culinary team contributed over 150 volunteers to the event and very much enjoyed getting to work with all of you. We were especially appreciative of the “model sourcerers” who contributed both their time and their products to the event. A special shout out goes to:

• Barefoot Coffee Roasters
• Bassian Farms
• Charles Chocolates
• Clean Fish
• Earl’s Organic Produce
• Greenleaf Produce
• Interactive Parenting Media
• Kaiser Permanente
• King of Mushrooms
• Monterey Bay Aquarium
• Monterey Fish
• Nick Sciabica & Sons
• Obentec
• Planet Organics
• Second Harvest Food Bank
• 4H Youth Development
• Straus Family Creamery
• Sunset Scavenger

We’d also like to thank ALL of you for contributing the time and effort that it took to make our dream-event a reality. Here at Google, the culinary team is used to feeding large crowds for all sorts of reasons - from everyday lunch to large-scale celebrations and fundraisers.

This event was different, though.

At DooF-a-Palooza, the chefs were not simply the help, but the main attraction, along with all of you!

That made the work all that more enjoyable and the end result was tangibly magical.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

We hope to see you all again at the next DooF-a-Palooza.

Mike, Mirit and the entire DooF-a-Palooza Team

(Download the DooF-a-Palooza 2008 Digest)

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In 2004, after 20 years in the kitchen at Chez Panisse, I moved back to our family farm in the foothills of the Sierra Mountains, where I’d spent all my summers growing up. I didn’t really understand the importance of those summers on the farm until I moved back.

Summers during my Youth

During the school year we lived in Los Angeles, but every June we would pack up the Studebaker and later—as our family expanded—the Chevy station wagon, and drive the 400 miles up Highway 99. When we stepped out of the car at my grandparents’ house, and I could smell the red earth and the tarweed, I always felt at home.

Things to Do on the Farm

It was a place where I never lacked anything, not food, nor companionship—and certainly not things to do.

• Chores - My uncle and grandpa were in charge of the fruit orchards, the main occupation of the farm. But my grandma, mom and us kids took care of a lot of the rest. There were chickens to feed, eggs to collect, cattle to tend and weeds to hoe.
• Planting - We planted a huge vegetable garden and spent much of the summer canning corn, beans, tomatoes and other things that would be needed for the winter.
• Canning - The orchards provided mountains of cull fruit that we turned into gorgeous jars of applesauce, peaches, pears and apricots.

Sometimes, late in the afternoon when our chores were done, my older brother and I had time to hike down to the creek and try our luck catching the flashy and elusive rainbow trout.

Times in the Kitchen

The best times for me were in the kitchen, helping with the daily cooking, especially preparing the main meal, our midday dinner. I dutifully peeled potatoes, shucked corn and washed greens. But I really wanted to make desserts. Every once in a while my mom or grandma would take the time to teach me. Pies were my specialty. In the farm kitchen I learned to make first-rate pie dough, working quickly with a light touch and ice water to make sure it turned out tender and flaky. Lemon meringue was my masterpiece.

Somehow we never had to worry about healthy eating or whether we were getting our vitamins or enough exercise. The life of the farm took care of all that. When we went back to the city in the fall I would always ask my friends about their exotic trips to summer camp or family vacations. I never thought of our trip to the farm as a vacation; it was just part of everyday life.

The Call of DooF

My experience with food and togetherness taught me respect for the land and the people around me. And while most kids do not have a farm to come home to, by cooking with their families, and understanding that real, live people grow their food, they can discover practices and values to sustain them throughout their lives.

Shortly before I left Chez Panisse to move back to the farm, I heard about DooF. I couldn’t ignore the invitation to get involved. Food backwards, they said.

It seems more like food forward to me.

“Doof-A-Palooza was exactly the opportunity we’ve been looking for to live the values we share with Doof - promoting sustainable and healthy food and eating. Since the event, the emails of praise have been pouring in from attendees and the chefs. There are festivals and events of all kinds, but everyone seemed to agree they had never seen anything like this before. Everyone wants to do it all over again. As one chef told me, his child couldn’t stop saying ‘Doof!’ all weekend. He wants to know when we’ll start planning for Doof-A-Palooza 2008. The only response I can give, is ‘not soon enough.’”

—Mirit Cohen, Sous Chef Google Cafe 150 & DooF-a-Palooza Co-Organizer

Just a couple of days ago, on the occasion of Hannukah, I finally opened my vacuum-sealed applesauce provided by Google’s Cafe 150 at DooF-a-Palooza. Though joined by sour cream and greasy latkes, the delicious, mellow-crisp apple flavor was well-preserved. My experience on that fine, October Saturday at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View is preserved in just the same way: sealed in my mind, fresh and accessible as I reach for it a couple of months later.

Occupied for most of the day running the silent auction platform, I only made it to half of the 30-odd activities, but I still had the satisfaction of dunking an Oreo well past my fingertips in Charles Chocolates impressive vat of milk-chocolate, seeing my Acme Bread-dough pizza-creation come to life exactly as planned, Pollocking a pumpkin, and grooving on the effervescent beat-boxing of Felonious and crew.

I saw a lot more as DooF’s roving reporters transmitted live feed back to Google’s jumbo screen. Walking around or staying put, I basked in the joy and success of the event, along with nearly a thousand others.

DooF Executive Producer Mike Axinn reflects, “DooF-a-Palooza was an opportunity to put into practice our mission to make good food fun and to energize the work of organizations that share our commitment to healthy and sustainable methods. A lot has been said about Google and their business model. What impressed me was their incredible commitment, their generosity and collaboration in the creation of this amazing– and hopefully annual– event.” Indeed, the event would not have been possible without the indefatigable Googlers, and dynamo chef Mirit Cohen in particular, who first suggested that Google could host a DooF event. “Not wanting to presume too much,” recalls Mike. “I imagined a small garden party with wine in plastic cups.”

“DooF-a-Palooza was by far the best family event we have been to in a long time,” emailed one enthused mom. Denis Lynch of Google, added, “If you don’t have kids, and didn’t think to borrow any for the occasion, you really missed out!”

For those who didn’t–and those who did, DooF-a-Palooza 2008 is currently in the making. Which gives you ten months to shmooze with your extended family and your neighbors so that they can partake of the joy and excitement that good food brings to kids when you let them get their hands on it . Guest Andrea Price marveled, “My kids thanked us over and over for taking them.” Honestly, how often does that happen?

With less than five days before DooF-a-Palooza, many of us are as baked as a pizza Napolitano, crusty as a load of Acme bread, and smelly as a Cowgirl Creamery Pierce Point. A lot goes into the making of a large event, but come Saturday, October 20th, we’ll be as fresh as the flowers itemized in the silent auction, courtesy of Chef Alan Tangren from his own Narrow Gauge farm.

As a production assistant from Napa, my part has been to coordinate the two-pronged silent auction. On one prong is standard fare like bouquets and getaways to Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Mendocino County. Skewered on the second prong is a slightly off-beet feature called 24 carrots. 24 carrots won’t include any veggies, diamonds, or gold nuggets. Instead, buried in a planter box of corn pellets will be 24 premium bottles of wine, cleverly disguised with orange cellophane and frondy stems as our favorite crunchy taproots. With hidden demi-carafes, regular bottles, and magnums, the shapes and varieties of the wines unearthed will come as great surprises. And since a guest can only purchase one carrot, 24 revelers will get to experience a tug that is truly unique—conceived solely and originally for DooF-a-Palooza.

Traveling up and down Northern California to create the packages, you bet I’ve used that line before. But lines have been hardly a necessity, easy as it is to pitch a concept such as DooF. The truth is that DooF’s genesis is Northern California as a whole, as worthy of partnership in Eureka or Monterey as it is in Berkeley, its birthplace. The show’s tenets flit through the same fields, streams, and harbors of many conscientious growers, purveyors, chefs, and restaurateurs.

With my attention spread between two parts of an auction, I’m still filling the final slots for the 24 carrots feature, and it was just Monday that I visited Goosecross Cellars. Colleen Topper, Hospitality and Public Relations Director, doubles as a chef and offers more than 100 recipes to be paired with Goosecross varietals. From the tasting room, the attendant phoned Colleen, who was sorry to say that they had reached their donation capacity for the year; there simply was no more wine to be given. I left graciously, but, sure that she would love the concept of our show and our exciting benefit, I insisted that Colleen at least receive my packet. 5 minutes later, Goosecross phoned and granted my request. Just like we find room in our stomachs for sweet and unique desserts, many-a-winery I’ve visited has had an unprecedented tooth for generosity. Experiences like this make it pleasurable for me to rove the coast and valleys, knight errant of DooF’s noble cause.

And it’s not just me. Organizing the legions on the Google side of this effort is Chef Mirit Cohen, who’s worked tirelessly to make sure that the o’s in Google and the o’s in DooF are like two pairs of eyes with a shared vision. At one of our large meetings at Google, after a business lunch at her own café, Mirit led us to an interdepartmental meeting still wearing her chef’s coat, a coat with the look of one who does her best work in the trenches. Alongside DooF’s executive producer, Mike Axinn, Mirit facilitated a fine meeting, the foodstuffs smeared and splattered across her chest like a DooF coat of arms.
With the excitement of a pep rally’s aftermath, it was on the car ride home that we joked about a hokey fight song for our DooF-a-Palooza, and then decided seriously that a party without pennants was not a party for a crowd like us, and a TV show like DooF.

On October 20th, somewhere near the 11th hour—so to speak—DooF-a-Palooza will completely come together and appear as natural to Google’s courtyards and cafeterias as an entrée on a shiny plate. Consider how DooF (F-o-o-D backwards) purports to change the way kids think about food by engaging them in fun alternatives to unhealthy eating, immersing them in a world of color and taste, growers, purveyors, and silly characters.

The experiences our team has had with other businesses, and, of course, Google, have held a mirror to the business world, allowing me to see it backwards. And I’ve seen the generosity, ardor, and collaboration that make many of these businesses successful on a holistic level, and that will make DooF-a-Palooza and a great success of its own.

Until Saturday, give me a D; give me an O; give me another O, F!

It was only a matter of time before DooF joined the other 57 million bloggers in cyberspace. But actually, no. We’re not a blog, we’re a glob! If you want to find out where things come from–like food–you gotta go backwards, or sideways. DooF, the food show for kids, has attracted a great deal of attention as a fun and innovative new way to get kids excited about good food. For those of you unfamiliar with DooF, here’s the ketchup.

Three years ago, an incredible group of filmmakers, foodies, and health educators joined together to create media that changes the ways kids think about food. We began with children in local schools, bringing food-based video content featuring farmers, market-sellers, restauranteurs, and kids like themselves exploring the wonders of food at its source. Next we created a website, and the prototypes for an exciting new television series.

None of this could have happened without the time, effort, and creativity of an amazing group of DooF professionals. We’ve also been fortunate in having the support of some of the true revolutionaries in the food and public health communities.

Alice Waters was an early supporter of DooF and recently her Chez Panisse Restaurant helped us put on a luncheon for some of the folks who are helping DooF achieve its mission to do for eating what Sesame Street did for reading.

Dr. Anthony Iton and the Alameda County Department of Public Health did something highly unusual for a government agency. They funded our television pilot in the belief that positive media like DooF is one of the most effective ways to target childhood obesity. DooF does this by making good food fun!

As we take the next steps towards broadcasting DooF nationwide, we’ll give you details of film shoots, events, recipes, and some amazing food experts. And one last thing which is actually the first thing, only we’re backwards…the kids!