December 2005 Vol. 24. No. 12

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

St. Vincent de Paul chefs help the bottom line

What do I need to do now if I have Medi-Cal and Medicare?

Area Agency on Aging names Senior Friends

Home Delivered Meal program grows

Humboldt Classics win bronze medal at World Senior Games

Can the proper diet prevent Alzheimer's?

Caregiver training planned in January

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The number of people fed each week at St. Vincent de Paul's dining room in
Eureka is huge. Head chef Mark Campbell said the first of the month sees
some 200 people at lunch every day. By the last day of the month, the dining
center serves almost 600 a day. Now thanks to a grant from the Blue Lake
Rancheria, the center has been serving a growing number of dinners nightly
since mid-October.

But that's not all Campbell is up to in the modest commercial kitchen at 35
W. Third St. He and his fellow chef, Mike Lovato, who is also the "lunch
lady" at St. Bernard's High School, are the two who have created the new
income stream for St. Vinny's called the Fork in the Road.

Two years ago, when Campbell was made manager of the dining room, he
and St. Vincent's executive director, Dan Heinen, were brainstorming about
how to generate new revenues for the dining center. During his 20-year
cooking career, he had done catering with Eureka Inn, Baywood Country Club
and Avalon restaurant. So they launched a catering company, and chose the
name Fork in the Road. Campbell still keeps his hand in cooking at Eureka's
finest restaurants.

"This is extreme cooking," he said, "It's good to keep my skill up. I
don't do any sautéing here, don't touch filet mignon or lobster. We go from
government canned pork to filet, from 300 poor people to 30 rich people in
the same day." It's all in a day's work, and a new way to support the work
of the dining center, along with the retail used clothing stores St.
Vincent's operates in Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna and Willow Creek.

The Fork in the Road's first catering client was the Humboldt Area
Foundation, and the two chefs' reputation is growing by word of mouth. At
least once a week they serve parties from 20 people to almost 500.

Campbell is the third generation in his family to work for St. Vincent de
Paul - his mother, stepfather, grandparents and an aunt are all St. Vinny
volunteers in Seattle. When he moved to Humboldt County, he was headed for a
degree in fisheries management. But he ended up with only one aquarium
management course and a degree in art.

Twenty years ago, he could only fix pancakes or mac and cheese, but he
worked his way through local kitchens, learning from the best. He started
cooking at Humboldt Brewery in the '80s. "I sponged the information in," he
said. His favorite mentor was Jean Louie Hamiche, now chef at Blue Lake
Casino, who hired him at the Eureka Inn.

His catering partner Mike Lovato is a jack of all trades who has been
cooking since he was small. "I grew up in the kitchen," said Lovato. "My
parents and grandmother were great cooks. I figured if I worked in a
kitchen, I'd never go hungry and would always stay warm."

The best way to contact the Fork in the Road is by e-mail,
toocooked@sbcglobal.net, or call 445-9588. The St. Vincent De Paul Free
Dining Facility is open 365 days a year at 35 West 3rd, "providing warm
meals to all who come, no questions asked."