2008 Woodie Awards
Jerry Salthouse
A Menu for Magic
Candy Peak
Issue date: 6/5/08 Section: Profile
His eyes flash widely when he speaks of his latest dinner about to be served. He thoughtfully reviews his early morning run to the market, the painstaking strategizing of the evening's entre - a cutlet with thickened meat sauce, his busy regimen of food preparation and the labored staff coordination. He's setting the stage. He has a very important date tonight. Soon he'll be serving his next unsuspecting audience of hungry stomachs a meal of magnificence, another "magnum opus."
Community service is the career he has chosen to keep himself young and enthused in his retirement years. Volunteering as the executive chef at the Pasadena Senior Center for the past 5 years, Chef Jerry Salthouse is preparing another dazzling meal that will be the focal point of the evening's social program. And he'll dress the part, donning his towering chef's hat that indicates his culinary status.
"My seniors," he says proudly.
Whether they're celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a lively dance, cloaked in green paper party hats, or celebrating a Thanksgiving dinner, lucky local seniors come to feast on one of Salthouse's juicy, slow-cooked corned beef and cabbage fit for St. Patrick himself or a turkey "dressed to the nines." A weekly lunch and dinner schedule at the center could easily include 400 to 600 lunches and 300 to 1,200 dinners. But his years of experience have prepared him to know how to well-handle the eagerly awaiting mouths.
Compliments always pour in. "Delicious Jerry!" "Best meal I ever had. We loved it!" Fit for a king, Jer!"
But little do his many local admirers know that the meal they just licked their lips over was indeed a meal Certified Executive Chef Jerry Salthouse had served to a king, or an American President, for that matter.
At 73, he never skips a beat as he glides from his weekly volunteer job at the community center to serving dinner at a neighborhood lodge, then on to prepare a feast for a friend's wedding reception. Although his tall, strong frame belies his age, it is his stories that let his listeners know that he is widely-traveled with years of golden culinary experiences that few men are able to reminisce about.
Community service is the career he has chosen to keep himself young and enthused in his retirement years. Volunteering as the executive chef at the Pasadena Senior Center for the past 5 years, Chef Jerry Salthouse is preparing another dazzling meal that will be the focal point of the evening's social program. And he'll dress the part, donning his towering chef's hat that indicates his culinary status.
"My seniors," he says proudly.
Whether they're celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a lively dance, cloaked in green paper party hats, or celebrating a Thanksgiving dinner, lucky local seniors come to feast on one of Salthouse's juicy, slow-cooked corned beef and cabbage fit for St. Patrick himself or a turkey "dressed to the nines." A weekly lunch and dinner schedule at the center could easily include 400 to 600 lunches and 300 to 1,200 dinners. But his years of experience have prepared him to know how to well-handle the eagerly awaiting mouths.
Compliments always pour in. "Delicious Jerry!" "Best meal I ever had. We loved it!" Fit for a king, Jer!"
But little do his many local admirers know that the meal they just licked their lips over was indeed a meal Certified Executive Chef Jerry Salthouse had served to a king, or an American President, for that matter.
At 73, he never skips a beat as he glides from his weekly volunteer job at the community center to serving dinner at a neighborhood lodge, then on to prepare a feast for a friend's wedding reception. Although his tall, strong frame belies his age, it is his stories that let his listeners know that he is widely-traveled with years of golden culinary experiences that few men are able to reminisce about.
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