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DOVER — Free community meals cooked by Table of Plenty have been a constant for Kittery and Berwick residents since 1994. Now, due to a star-power group running the kitchen, weekly restaurant-quality meals are leaving a lasting impression on locals.
Renowned Seacoast-area chefs Michele Duval, Norm Owens and Mel Harrington have formed a trio for Table of Plenty, combining their culinary talents for the greater good.
It’s a special feeling to serve the community in times where many have been hurt by the pandemic, Duval said.
“All we do is cook and eat, it’s all we talk about,” she said of her new team. “I can’t imagine being hungry, especially as a child.”
The need to feed has grown stronger since the onset of COVID-19, said Table of Plenty board chair Diana Marzinzik. Between the organization’s two distribution sites in Kittery and Berwick, nearly 200 people are fed each week. Prior to the coronavirus, that number hovered around 110 residents weekly, many of whom are isolated seniors, financially challenged or those who experience homelessness.
Duval, the former chef and owner of the Cape Neddick Inn, was first recommended to Marzinzik this winter by Take Out Hunger co-founder Helen Crowe.
Then, in February, ownership from Dover’s Chapel + Main restaurant allowed Table of Plenty to use its kitchen, as well as food products, at no cost.
Since then, Duval invited Owens and Harrington to assist her and Table of Plenty kitchen volunteer Jo-Ann Lepore in preparing top-notch meals for residents in need.
“It’s been amazing,” Marzinzik said of the support the organization has received.
Table of Plenty Berwick site coordinator Laura Smith said last week a woman stated she told everybody Table of Plenty is offering the best meal in town.
“I’ve told my friends about this and they just say, ‘It’s so really wonderful that people are getting restaurant quality meals,’” she said. “I mean we make good meals, (but) these are outstanding.”
Storied backgrounds lead to a community kitchen
Between the three, Table of Plenty’s new chefs have a deep love for feeding and resumés to prove it. Duval was the 1999 American Culinary Federation Chef of the Year, as well as the first woman invited from Maine to present a five-course dinner at the James Beard Foundation in New York City.
Owens, a fellow James Beard Foundation invitee, has worked in Massachusetts, Seattle and several California restaurants, one of which earned a Michelin star recognition. Now, he is the executive chef at York’s Sand Dollar Bar and Grille.
Harrington worked in numerous restaurants owned by restaurateur Jay McSharry, as well as Portsmouth’s Ristorante Massimo, 1652 in York and Flour Bakery + Cafe in Boston. She also owns a catering company called Sunday Supper Society.
Their culinary prowess is combined with their compatibility.
“The three of us here couldn’t believe how easy it was to work together,” Duval said. “That’s not always true. Some chefs have terrible kitchen egos.”
Harrington said she is working to get her business up and running in a new space in Kittery. Duval asked for her assistance and, with some free time on her hands, she agreed to help support the “great cause.”
“I would be so happy to get one of these meals,” she said. “”It’s really awesome that they’re doing this and that the restaurant’s supplying the food. I just love seeing the community come together like that and everybody is doing their part, which is really cool.”
Harrington said the food she’s helping create reaches "gourmet" status. Monday’s culinary creation only reaffirmed her thought, as the team prepared a fish curry with red peppers, sweet potatoes and coconut cream over rice. Using local pollock, the curry was bursting with flavor from onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, brown sugar and lime juice.
Owens joked that it’s not “light by any means,” prompting Duval to say, even so, “it’s damn delicious.”
“That’s building layers of flavor,” she said.
Owens enjoys coming together each week to play his part, especially since he shares a similar background with Duval.
“So for us to put our heads together and be able to do something like this, it’s fun,” he said.
The work will go on
Chapel + Main owners have told Duval that they can continue cooking in their kitchen with their food on Mondays throughout the summer, even as its busiest season begins. They'll also be able to continue storing the food at the restaurant until it's picked up by Table of Plenty leaders for takeout packaging and distribution.
It’s an opportunity to keep Table of Plenty participants sustained through difficult times, Duval said.
“We’re just going to keep on doing it, I don’t know, until the need goes away, hopefully,” she said.
The high-quality food created has brought a level of perspective to Table of Plenty organizers, stories that never fail to grasp attention even after 27 years of service.
Smith, the Berwick site coordinator, said she recently gave one woman two meals, which the woman excitedly said she’d be able to stretch across four nights.
“It’s just very joyful to give people this food. They’re always thanking us and we’re like, ‘No, thank you. We’re so glad you’re coming and enjoying this because it’s wonderful,’” she said.
Duval remembers a recent meal she cooked: a broccoli and beef stir fry with “beautiful"
grilled flank steaks. After meals were distributed, Duval was later told about a little boy who came to Berwick with his mother to pick up their food. Seeing the broccoli, he exclaimed, “Broccoli, that’s my favorite! It helps me grow!”
Such enthusiasm is what makes the work for Table of Plenty so memorable.
“Is there more than that I need to hear?” Duval said of the young boy. “That is unbelievably gratifying and fulfilling.”
Distributions for Table of Plenty occur between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. in both Berwick and Kittery each week. Now drive-through due to the pandemic, Berwick meals can be picked up Wednesdays at Berwick United Methodist Church, and Kittery meals can be picked up at St. Raphael's Church on Thursdays.
Information: thetableofplenty.com
Source: Foster’s Daily Democrat: “‘Unbelievably gratifying’: Trio of star chefs give Table of Plenty gourmet meals.”