USPCA Conference Takes on New Orleans 1 house at a time!

Wow what a great City!

The United States Personal Chef Association hosted its 12th Annual National Conference in the City of New Orleans on July 23 - 26.

Just over 200 chefs from across Canada and the United States descended upon New Orleans at the same time as the Lutheran Youth Movement of 2009. There was 36,000 teenagers in the city to work with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild homes and rebuild lives after the devastating Hurricane Katrina left most of the city in ruins 4 years ago.

The Chefs took classes, learned from some of the local culinary professionals who have never left. We dined in some of their restaurants, and had a great time.

One of the big reason's the conference made a trip to "The Big Easy" was because of one of our fellow Personal Chefs love for this city. Back in November 2007 after the Philadelphia USPCA conference Rick Sost and a group of friends decided to get together in between conferences for some fun and they decided on New Orleans. Rick was a big fan of the city and was a great humanitarian, and he understood the importance of bringing money and people to this rebuilding city

Once there the group fell in love with the people and the city and had a thought to try and bring the conference to NOLA. After working diligently over the next year and half to bring the conference to fruition. the committee was getting together in Florida to work on some finishing details. While there unfortunately and shockingly Rick passed away!

The committee pressed forward through their grief and pain and brought us a fabulous conference. Rick was there with us in spirit and we honored his memory with a second-line jazz funeral on the Saturday night of the conference. The band was great, the police were great and the costumes were outrageous. Rick would have been proud of us all.

One of the interesting things we found out true New Orleanians - everyone had a storm story. From the cabbies, to the waiters and waitresses, it was truly amazing to hear what some of them went through and the fact that they remain there is certainly a mystery to me.

I was talking with my wife after I returned home and I had told about some of the stories I had heard and we were both stunned that people would go back and want to live in the same house or the same neighbourhood. The reason I say is that I realize that that place was home, however, this event could happen again and I would hate to see all the work people have done to put their lives back together, not to mention all of the volunteers who have come down and worked so hard to help these people rebuild their lives, be all for nothing.

I admire their intestinal fortitude to remain and fight for the city they believe in and I thank them for keeping one of the most interesting cities in the US alive and well.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the ability to do some volunteer work and help rebuild a home. (I know this may go against what I just said, but if you want to stay in your home then I will be happy to help)

There were 8 of us who went to work on this house with the St. Bernard Project. With the house in the middle of completion, there was mudding to do in some rooms and sanding to do in others. I chose the sanding part, (I am not really sure why, I guess I thought I would be better at that then the mudding) It was about 92 degrees about midday amd with no power obviously no fans and no A/C. I lost a few pounds that day. We were there for approximately 6.5 hours and we got 2 large rooms mudded, 1 room sanded and half mudded. It was a dirty job, but it was a good feeling by all to have helped this family out.

I had mentioned to one of my fellow volunteers, that I felt like I really hadn't done much and she said to me "you did more then what was done yesterday and every bit helps. It takes the St. Bernard Project 12 weeks to complete a house and we were part of the rebuilding process, so just remember even though you didn't paint a room, or put down carpet, you had a part in the finished product"

I hope this family enjoys their home a second time and may it bring them many happy memories for years to come.

Have a great day and if you ever get the chance to some work with Habitat for Humanity or the St. Bernard Project, sign up and help, you will feel great and so will the family you are helping no matter how much you do. So put down your blackberry or your computer, put down that whisk and pick up a hammer and get nailing.

Chef Tim