We All Build This: Terrain Table 2022

Sep 5

We All Build This: Terrain Table 2022

BY JEFFREY FIJOLEK & MORGAN MARIE

PHOTOS BY MADDISON FOLEY

1200 water bottles.
1000 pounds of ice.
600 paper flowers.
275 guests.
10+ local businesses.
1 night to support terrain & the arts community in Spokane.

“Who puts people in dirt in white?” jokes Celeste Shaw, community staple and owner of Chaps, as we stand in a bare field where a 300-foot-long communal table will pop-up and play host to 275 guests just two days later.

“My grandma used to say when people were physically ill, get their hands in dirt and it would change their lives,” Shaw shares surrounded by the acreage and beauty of the Inland Northwest. Celeste hopes that by inviting people to experience this dirt, it can change some lives, too.

Home is very important to Celeste and her husband, Dan Coulston. They have welcomed visitors from around the world to their property situated between Inland Empire Way and Cheney-Spokane Road. The dirt in this expansive alfalfa field has hosted three weddings, but this week’s event holds a special place in Celeste’s heart and many others in the Spokane community.

Beginning in 2019, the farm and family has hosted Terrain Table here, a fundraiser for Terrain, the Spokane-based non-profit.

“I had just seen Ginger [Ewing] at Chaps one morning and she told me that Terrain was having a tough time,” Shaw recounts of the organization’s Executive Director and Co-Founder. “Then a few days later, I was looking over the alfalfa field with Dan and said to him that we should host something for them.”

Throughout the year, Terrain hosts local art shows at their downtown gallery space, an annual juried art show, Bazaar & BRRzaar art fairs and operates FROM HERE, a retail store showcasing local makers and artists at Riverpark Square, while furthering their mission to build community and economic opportunity for the artists, makers and culture creators of the Inland Northwest.

Terrain is able to achieve this work by focusing on the tremendous amount of support from the local community–in fact, one of their taglines is “We All Build This.”

Cooking & Community

Chef Joe Morris of Spokane’s Luna has worked with Terrain before, preparing a menu that paired with a gallery show as part of his Culinary Dope side project last year before volunteering for Terrain Table this year.

Joe says he’s always comfortable in the kitchen because that is where he feels most like himself. “You know, we’re like artists,” he expresses.

So with the spirit of community in mind, in addition to hosting Terrain Table and inviting like-minded friends and neighbors to her home to share dinner, Celeste opened the kitchen at Chaps to the Edible team to observe and interview the chefs that had gathered there to prepare the six-course meal.

Jason Foss, Executive Chef of Chaps, says the teamwork that this event promotes is unlike any other, “it’s a great chance for when we get out there that we come together as a group, and everybody helps out with each other. To be able to open my restaurant to other chefs and get to see what they’re doing. There are no divisions between restaurants, it is a special working environment.”

“It’s cool to have everyone here and see how every chef does things differently. To see their passions and what they love come together for one community is pretty incredible. ”

— Nick Heidal, Chaps

Chefs and staff from ten restaurants, bakeries and local businesses came together to create an unforgettable evening for patrons and a lasting impact for Terrain. Not only does this event support the growth of art but of the people behind it too.

Krista Liefker is one of the chefs who donated their time and talents to execute the dinner for Terrain Table this year. Most nights you can find Krista working in the kitchen at Latah Bistro, but as someone who got back into the restaurant industry after working in sales, she says that the opportunity to work, study and collaborate with other chefs in order to improve her own skills is just part of what makes the Terrain Table experience so special.

“This is a big deal to me. As cooks and chefs, especially women in this industry, it is really hard to kind of get a leg up. This is a great opportunity,” Krista says. She was able to work alongside longtime friend and mentor, Joe Morris. The two met 12 years ago when Krista started as a dishwasher at Luna on the South Hill before working her way up to the restaurant’s wood-fired pizza oven. For years they have remained friends and she is the reason Joe committed to Terrain Table again this year. Together they created two dishes, including the first course of the night–a crisp summer salad with celery, poached golden raisins and dressed with a peanut butter vinaigrette that Krista conceptualized as “Ants on the Farm.”

“Often cooks don’t get an opportunity to create dishes unless you’ve been doing it for a long, long time or you’ve gone to culinary school, and that’s something that I didn’t do. That’s why it’s important. It’s also important, because it helps out Terrain. I mean, it’s a great opportunity to get people together and for them to be able to have funds put towards their mission.” adds Liefker.

Krista Liefker mixes raisins and wine for her “Ants on the Farm” salad for Terrain Table 2022

“I love supporting my friends and my people. At the end of the day, I want to see everybody succeed, and I want to be able to help people get to the place that they want to be. That’s what this is to me. I’m out here supporting my friends and my community.”

— Joe Morris, Luna

Nothing is easy in events

People identify Celeste with Chaps, but she insists that being able to rely on Jason, her executive chef for more than eight years, is one of the reasons she is able to do so much and focus on other projects. Foss runs the show in the kitchen at Chaps and frequently oversees weekend breakfast and brunch shifts where his staff will send out upwards of 700 plates with ease, but he recognizes the stage that is set by Terrain Table.

“It’s a whole magical realm of its own, really. I mean, when you’re out there at Terrain it’s like there’s nothing else in the world except for the field in the stars and the food. It’s really beautiful,” Foss shares.

Between managing orders for all of the chefs and coordinating prep-times in the lead up to Terrain Table, Jason and Nick Heidal went through over 300 pounds of beets for one of the dishes, roasting, slicing, pickling, frying and puréeing them up over the course of a few days before all the components would finally come together in a mad dash the night of the dinner.

“Jason carries the day with this. He is so humble about his value but what everyone creates is magic. It is life-changing,” Shaw says before adding, “And it’s a bit different—you’re in a field of dirt cooking instead of a kitchen.”

Dirt wasn’t the only element that chefs, organizers and guests had to compete with this year. Shortly after noon on Wednesday, as flowers were being turned into centerpieces for the evening’s dinner and the chefs at Chaps and across town started to pack up their prep work and head down to the farm, a wildfire broke out along Highway 195. As smoke billowed over the treetops, planes started flying directly over the table, set and ready to welcome guests. By 2pm, as a helicopter buzzed the roof at Chaps carrying a bladder full of water to fight the blaze, phones blared in unison declaring that a Level 3 evacuation had been issued for the area adjacent to Celeste’s farm and officials decided that the evening’s festivities would have to be postponed.

It was unfortunate, but not unfamiliar territory for Celeste and Jackie Caro, Operations Director of Terrain, who decided to cancel Terrain Table in 2020 and put the event on hold in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Emails were sent out alerting guests to stay away from the area as firefighters shut down parts of the highway to contain the blaze, but the cooks continued preparing for the dinner nonetheless.

By Thursday morning, the fire had been taken care of and it was decided that Terrain Table would go on. All the food prepared was still good, except for the smoked leg of lamb Chef Chad White of Uno Más Taco Shop and Zona Blanca planned to serve as the evening’s main course. Quick work by Jason and Celeste ensured that Chad could get enough lamb chops in time to smoke them at his TT’s Old Iron Brewery and BBQ in Spokane Valley ahead of the rescheduled event.

Photo Courtesy of Spokane County Fire District 8

Putting out Fires

24 hours later than originally planned, the chefs, their teams and volunteers arrived to Dan and Celeste’s farm, where they were treated to a family meal from Mark Starr and David’s Pizza before getting ready for the evening in their open air kitchen.

There wasn’t a single thing missing from the experience from arrival to exit. Bottles of wine provided by Wildland Cooperative dotted the table and personalized cookies from Jamie Roberts and Three Birdies Bakery served as placemats. Moments were captured with help from Electric Photoland and guests were able to cool down with ice cream and sorbet from The Scoop while they waited for the sun to set behind the trees.

In the hours to follow, the collection of staffers from all the accumulated restaurants, bakeries and businesses around town worked together to push out a total of 2,500 plates for the guests in attendance. They spoke a shared language, understood only by those who have spent time on the line.

“It is a privilege to volunteer at Terrain Table. Terrain is showcasing artists so well and the evening is a great extension of that showcase made possible through collaborative community. It is an all-hands on deck adventure. ”

— Chris Deitz

As the first plate of each course was approved, volunteer servers took over, marching 100 yards down the length of the table from the open-air kitchen to deliver the next dish of the evening to eager attendees returning from their dance breaks. With each course finished and served, more hands became available to help out with the remaining dishes. By the end of the night, 20 people were huddled around prep tables with torches, caramelizing the crème brûlée cheesecakes from Breauxdoo Bakery and delivering them to guests before they departed for the evening.

“There was a conviction to come together, no matter the adversity. It was a perfect night under the stars in the alfalfa where no strangers existed. Only community,” Celeste says to sum up the evening.

While we will have to wait until next summer to attend another dinner among the alfalfa, the year ahead is full of ways to support Terrain, the participating chefs and our community as a whole.

An event to remember. A cause to support. A community to thank. A meal to savor until the table is set and the alfalfa welcomes us back next year.

Visit terrainspokane.com for more information about Terrain

appetizers

Nicholas Decaro & Mike Bosch (Island Style Food Truck)

Pork lumpiang shanghai: filipino style spring roll with pork, onions, carrot, celery, garlic and spices with pika pineapple dipping sauce

Chicken kelaguen lettuce wrap: citrus chicken salad with fresh

Grated coconut in romaine lettuce with pika pineapple sauce

1st course

Krista Leifker (Latah Bistro) & Joe Morris (Luna)
Greens, celery, peanut butter vinaigrette, wine-poached golden raisins & roasted peanuts

2nd course

Jason Foss and Heidal (Chaps)
Tiny cherry tomato toasts

3rd course

Krista Leifker (Latah Bistro) and Joe Morris (Luna)
Smoked peach purée, lemon-herb quinoa, roasted baby carrots, peach salad, hot honey & toasted sunflower seeds