Teach a Community to Fish: Dinner with Chef Thomas McNaughton of flour + water

Join 18 Reasons and Chef Thomas McNaughton of flour + water and central kitchen for a very special dinner in support of our Cooking Matters program. In 2015, we have offered our free, six-week-long cooking series to 1,688 low-income adults, children, and teens in the Bay Area. Some highlights of the year include:

• Training and employing 30 adult and 12 teen community health promoters to teach classes to their peers
• Completing a long-term evaluation showing that graduates continue to use the skills they learned in our classes, and are cooking more and more with each month that passes after graduation
• Partnering with Revolution Foods to teach children in San Francisco's public schools how to make the healthy recipes they are served at lunch, resulting in a 5% increase in lunch participation
• Partnering with the San Francisco YMCA to make Cooking Matters an integral part of their wellness program for teens and children

 We believe that learning how to cook delicious, healthy meals on a limited budget is a vital skill for families trying to improve their health, bring their family closer together, and save money. We have big plans for 2016, and can't wait to share them with you! To learn more about our program, please enjoy this short video:

18 Reasons : Profile from VELDT on Vimeo.

MENU

ABOUT THOMAS MCNAUGHTON

Like many chefs, Thomas McNaughton got his start in a local restaurant kitchen as a dishwasher. Yet unlike many chefs, his story takes him from Southern New Jersey, to culinary school in New York, to San Francisco, where he spent a few weeks living in a barbershopturned-apartment for the chance to cook at the acclaimed La Folie. “I was looking for opportunities to cook in San Francisco and Chef Roland Passot called me back,” says McNaughton, “You don’t hesitate to pack your bags when Roland Passot calls you back!” What was supposed to be a two week stint turned into a year in the La Folie kitchen and further exploration of the San Francisco food scene, which included working and staging at other restaurants in the city. He returned to New York to complete his degree at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park and immediately came back to San Francisco, working as sous chef for the award-winning Quince. Here, he met David White, who would become his future partner in flour + water, which would open a few years later.

Over the next few years, McNaughton moved to Europe before finding his way back to San Francisco, working as sous chef at Gary Danko. Two years later, McNaughton returned to Europe by way of France, staging in a number of Michelin-star restaurants before heading to Italy. “Having worked in French restaurants both in San Francisco and France, I was looking for something different and straightforward, so I made my way to Italy where I instantly fell for the country, the lifestyle, and the cuisine.” McNaughton’s travels took him to Bologna – a city he credits with teaching him how to make pasta and, ultimately, changing the course of his career. “I was referred to Bruno e Franco’s pasta ‘laboratory’ where I trained day in and day out under a dozen Italian women making everything from fresh tortellini to gnocchi to cannelloni,” says McNaughton. “I stayed for months but realized I couldn’t live in Italy forever so I started to look for opportunities to get back to the Bay Area. I came across a job posting for a chef at a new rustic Italian restaurant called flour + water opening in San Francisco and applied instantly. Call it kismet, but the person who wrote me back was David White, my former colleague at Quince.”

Between McNaughton, White and Ne Timeas Restaurant Group partner David Steele, the vision for flour + water continued to unfold while he was still abroad. He accepted the position of executive chef over the phone, returned to the United States and opened flour + water four months later. This opening was followed by central kitchen, a restaurant inspired by Northern Californian ingredients, and later salumeria, with locations in the Mission District. He released his first cookbook, flour + water pasta in the fall of 2014 and is working on two new projects at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco, including the reopening of the historic Cafe du Nord. McNaughton’s role within Ne Timeas Restaurant Group has grown from chef de cuisine to executive chef and partner where he oversees the current restaurants and forthcoming projects for the group.

He has been nominated by the James Beard Foundation as “Rising Star Chef of the Year” in 2011, 2012, and 2013. flour + water was nominated as “Best New Restaurant” in 2010. He is an avid cookbook reader and collector, having amassed a library of more than 100 books. His innate curiosity to learn continues to inspire him in and out of the kitchen whether he’s learning how to make and store vinegar, kayaking around the Bay, or boar hunting. His dream is to one day have a goat farm just outside of San Francisco.