At last month's event "Cheers to Pearls who Cook," the appetizers were inspired by girls aged 9-to 14-years-old. That meant, for instance, that the garnishes for spinach artichoke crostinis were hot pink. "Oh yes, Pink is my favorite color," says 12-year-old Zuri Green. "My room is pink. I love pink. It makes me happy seeing pink."
Zuri's collaboration with chef Shania Hutchins of Kinship Café last month, along with several other "PEARLS girls" and local chef participants, was orchestrated by PEARLS for Teen Girls, a local nonprofit that provides mentorship and opportunities to middle and high school girls.
The goal? To introduce the tween and teen girls to the art of cooking and to connect the community with PEARLS for Teen Girls. Those who attended described it as "phenomenal," "amazing" and "delightful!" One person even came up with a new word: "Pearlific!"
The girls participated based on their inclination towards the culinary arts.
"My dad cooks for the family," Zuri explained. "And I grew up like watching him, and him teaching me how to season food and how to cook dishes and stuff. So I got inspiration from my dad."
The evening unfolded at the Kinship Café in Bronzeville’s spectacular ThriveOn Collaboration building—also called ThriveOn King. It’s the renovated Gimbels-Schuster’s department store that was open on King Drive from the early 1900’s to about 1970. And it’s a vibe.
From inside the bright café, Green and Hutchins carried out the crostini to feed people who’ve arrived to taste their creations — people like Mike Bartell.
"Well, let me try this," Bartell said."This feels lovely. A moment of truth. So shall I be like Guy Fieri and tell you all the things that I like? or Bobby Flay?"
"Yes. It’s very hot though," Zurin cautioned.
Bartell bit into the crostini.
"Excellent crunch," he said. "The cheese stands out, and the hint of the pickle is perfect."
"Thank you," Zuri responded.
A short while later, Caitlin Cullen welcomed people in. She was instrumental in setting up the event, since she’s both on the board of PEARLS for Teen Girls and is the director of the food center that now runs the Kinship Café.
"You might know about Kinship, but you might not know that much about PEARLS," Cullen told the crowd. "You might know about PEARLS, but you might not know much about Thrive on King. And truly, you might not know these chefs yet, right?"
Cullen noted that PEARLS for Teen Girls and Kinship Community Food Center Cullen share a core value—fostering community.
"It's hard out here to be alone," Cullen expressed matter-of-factly. "And as we're looking at the future that we keep walking into day after day, it's terrifying to look two steps forward and not know who's going to walk with you. And I think Kinship and PEARLS share that very much. So, it's about walking together."
Cullen knows a lot of chefs in Milwaukee. She used to run the Tandem, formerly a restaurant in Lindsay Heights. She helped pull together this crew of chefs that are mentoring the girls.
In addition to Shania Hutchins of Kinship Café, there was Tomira White of Delicious Bites, which opened about two years ago on 66th and North, Josh Mendiola of Sanford and Micaela Erickson and Joe Sutter, who plan to open a restaurant called Radish in Bay View.
Erickson and Sutter mentored two PEARLS sisters: 9-year-old Christiae and 14-year-old Cyraiah Culpepper. They both said it felt good to be in the kitchen. "I like to learn how to cook stuff and learn new things that I can cook," Christiae said.
Erickson explained how the four sat down together the week before to get a sense of what food inspires the sisters. One sister loved sushi, specifically a shrimp roll, the other wanted a dumpling soup. "So we kind of did a hybrid and did a shrimp dumpling with some sushi familiar flavors, the ginger and the soy," Erickson noted.
Erickson said the girls’ enthusiasm reminded her of herself when she was that age. "Both of them, I overheard them talking in the kitchen, and I heard them say that they wanted to be chefs. So, I mean, I think hopefully we're steering them in the right direction!" Erickson laughed.
Josh Mendiola of Sanford Restaurant and his PEARLS co-chef, Ava Ajayi, made a Filipino-influenced ginger chicken meatball in a ginger broth. And the sweet tooths in the bunch were covered by Tomira White and PEARLS girl Trinity Harris.
"So what we did was, I made a strawberry bundt cake," White said. "We have a red velvet bundt cake with a caramel drizzle, and then we have a sort of cheesecake jars. Those are huge in the store. So we have a Biscoff, an Oreo and a peach cobbler."
Trinity Harris said it felt good to be paired with White on this. "I learned that you need a lot of patience with cooking, and like, you need to make sure you're focused with cooking," she assessed.
Trinity’s dad, Jamel Harris, says any opportunity to give kids mentorship and exposure to new skills is important.
"I want every kid to experience events like this, not just my kid. One of the things my family does is we want opportunities for all children in our community," Harris said. "Part of the reason why we fight the way we do in our community is to give every kid an opportunity to experience nights and events like this so we can hopefully inspire them to be better people tomorrow."
And if that involves a little bit of Biscoff cheesecake, chicken meatballs, winter dumplings and spinach-artichoke crostini all the better.
PEARLS for Teen Girls will be hosting their marquee event "Inspired to Lead," on April 17 at the Baird Center.
