Fellowship at Montalvo allows chef to explore many culinary aspects.

Michelle Fuerst’s love affair with food and the bonding that can come with it began at a very early age.

“I grew up Catholic, and the one thing we didn’t feel guilty about was eating,” she says. “Even though my mom worked full time, we ate dinner together every night, and she made everything from scratch. It wasn’t super gourmet but it was real food, and we valued eating together and taking that time to be together.”

Now as a professional chef for many years and the newest culinary fellow at Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists Residency Program, she is bringing her passion for engaging “with food and people in a meaningful way” to the area and is hoping to affect the way the local community relates to food.

“Food is on the same level or seen as important an element in our society as the arts,” she says, “and it’s something we do every day, so let’s bring as much pleasure and connection to it that we can.”

Fuerst began her culinary fellowship in October. The 12-month program is viewed the same way as the other artist residencies at Montalvo, with the kitchen being the work studio. For the past six years, the program has welcomed one chef a year to live and work on the grounds, and provides them with the opportunity to “critically explore global, local and sustainable food practices as they relate to cultural life.”

It is the only one of its kind in the country and is allowing Fuerst the opportunity to explore a number of different culinary aspects.

“You can engage in food in so many ways while here — community building, technique, planning, organization. You’re able to do all of it,” she says.

The process to become a culinary fellow at Montalvo is a rigorous one, according to Angela McConnell, Montalvo’s executive director.

“You have to be nominated by someone in the food world or by one of our board members. We then select several finalists to come and make a tasting dinner,” she says. “We were thrilled with Michelle. She’s so passionate about the program, and she’s absolutely the perfect person.”

During her fellowship, Fuerst is responsible for planning and executing meals five nights a week for the international group of artist residents who come through the program.

“One of the things that’s so attractive about [the fellowship] is that I get to cook for people every day and have total creative freedom,” she says. “My favorite part is then getting to eat with everyone. It’s a chance to connect with people and it’s a chance to be a part of something, like meeting all of these really interesting people that are being creative and engaging with the world. It opens your mind to the way people see food and that’s so interesting.”

But aside from the nightly meals, Fuerst has other big plans for her time at Montalvo, where she is hoping to involve and engage the local community. She has been reaching out to local farmers and ranchers to provide the local, sustainable food she uses and is thinking about implementing some kind of beef and vegetable CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program at the center.

“It would really be neat to have everything that’s available to the artist community available to the larger community,” she says.

She is also looking into starting a master garden program on the grounds, where community members could learn the basics of gardening and help tend to it. Montalvo currently has a vegetable garden on its grounds that has typically been planted and tended by the culinary fellow, but Fuerst sees an opportunity to get a larger part of the community engaged in where their food comes from.

“It’s another way to get all kinds of people involved in Montalvo, too. So maybe there are people that don’t have a deep relationship with art, but they’ll come here more often to pick up their CSA boxes or work in the garden,” she says.

The grounds are also home to several fruit trees, including three persimmon trees, two tangerine trees, two fig trees and 10 other citrus trees. With all of the fruits and vegetables available on the Montalvo grounds, canning and preserving is another theme she plans to focus on.

“The ability of preserved goods to capture fruit and vegetables at the height of their season, enhance the overall flavor of meals by bringing elements of sweet, salty, spicy and bitter to the palate and in some cases, increase the nutritive values of food are a few of the major reasons why I believe that they deserve our attention and my time,” she says.

For many chefs these days, the food is about artistry. But for Fuerst, it has always been about something much more important.

“I’m interested in food from the nurturing aspect of it — feeding people and connecting people. That’s what compels me to make food, and I think the best way to do that is at the local, sustainable level. It allows you to engage in a real way with what you’re doing,” she says.

The idea of food as nourishment and keeping it simple and local is one she learned from the best. Fuerst worked under Judy Rodgers at Zuni Café in San Francisco for six years, then went on to work with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley for a year. She was also a curator for the inaugural Slow Food Nation event in San Francisco in 2008.

“Judy was definitely one of the pioneers in supporting the farm-to-table movement,” she says.

From Rodgers, she says, she learned how to be diligent about always tasting the food at each stage to know where it’s at, and she learned that you can have really assertive flavors without being aggressive.

Under Waters she says she learned to be really proud of what she does.

“She created a culture of dignity for cooks, and that’s something I felt really proud and happy to take part in. I was there in the company of other people that wanted to make the best food they could, and we were treated with a great amount of dignity and respect,” she says. “I think they both are an entirely important voice in the food style that I intuitively want to reach for.”

And since arriving at Montalvo, she has stayed true to what she knows and loves.

“She has such a commitment to the whole idea of sustainable food practice, and she’s really contributing in important ways,” McConnell says.

And though she hopes that all of her hard work will live on at Montalvo long after she has gone, perhaps one of her favorite parts of the experience is the connection and interaction she has nightly with the artists she cooks for.

“Dinner is really such a celebration of our little community and a chance to exchange ideas about food, culture and art. It’s the time where we all come together and the power and purpose of the fellowship becomes so clear,” she says. “While I have a strong vision for the things that I would like to accomplish at Montalvo, every day the experience of cooking and eating together gives me great joy.”