Guest Chef Dinner featuring "The Contemporary African Kitchen" with Chefs Alexander Smalls, Fernay McPherson, and bryant terry

Pop-up Guest Chef Dinner featuring The Contemporary African Kitchen with Chefs Alexander Smalls, Fernay McPherson, and bryant terry

Monday, July 27, 2026

6:30pm-9:00pm 

Welcome cocktail, 3-5 courses plus wine

Fireside chat with Author and Chef Alexander Smalls about The Contemporary African Kitchen moderated by Chef bryant terry

Menu includes recipes from Chef Alexander's cookbook prepared by Chef Fernay McPherson and Farming Hope's Apprentices

Join Farming Hope, Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, and Food for Soul for an unforgettable night of incredible food and inspiring community with special guests Chefs Alexander Smalls, Fernay McPherson, and bryant terry. All proceeds from the evening will support Farming Hope's Refettorio SF and Booker T. Washington Community Service Center's collective food justice work in San Francisco.

About Alexander Smalls:

Alexander Smalls is a James Beard Award-winning chef, author, and restaurateur. He was the co-owner of Harlem restaurants The Cecil and Minton’s, and the founder of the world’s first African food hall, Alkebulan in Dubai, which showcases the food and culture of Africa. He is also a world-renowned opera singer and the winner of both a Grammy and Tony Award.

Alexander Smalls' culinary journey has been an inspiration to many, showcasing the potential of authentic cultural cuisine to transcend borders, cultures, and prejudices. His passion for African cuisine remains instrumental in shaping the culinary scene globally and elevating the cuisine's profile. His most recent cookbook, The Contemporary African Kitchen, ˆis reflective of his passion and offers 120 warm and delicious home cooking recipes and texts contributed by 33 chefs, restaurateurs, caterers, cooks, and writers at the heart of Africa’s food movement.

About Fernay McPherson:  

Fernay McPherson grew up steeped in soul. Fernay is the Executive Chef and Owner of Minnie Bell's Soul Movement that opened in 2010, bringing authentic home-style Southern flavors to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Using traditional family recipes, Minnie Bell’s menu offers up delicious home-style food, combining soulful flavors and warmth of the south. Fernay was inspired to cook watching her great aunt Minnie and late grandmother Lillie Bell in the kitchen as a child. Fernay's family arrived in San Francisco during the Great Migration as part of the relocation of more than 6 million African Americans from the rural South to cities in the North and West. They left in search of better lives and their culinary spirit travelled right along with them. Born and raised in San Francisco's historic Fillmore district, a neighborhood shaped by families who migrated from the Deep South, Fernay continues to draw deep inspiration from her roots.

About bryant terry:  

bryant terry is a multidisciplinary artist, chef, publisher, and author. His studio practice bridges cooking, sculpture, sound, video, and social practice to explore resilience, cultural memory, and liberation. From 2015 to 2022, he served as the inaugural Chef-in-Residence at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora, curating dynamic programming connecting food, health, farming, art, and activism.

His art and ideas have been featured at leading institutions including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, The Underground Museum, The Birmingham Museum of Art, Worth Ryder Art Gallery, and The Hammer Museum at UCLA.

As founder and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books (an imprint of Ten Speed Press/Penguin Random House), he collaborates with visionary creatives of color to produce visually stunning nonfiction books. Notable 4 Color titles include The Scarr’s Pizza Cookbook by Scarr Pimentel, My Cambodia by Nite Yun with Tien Nguyen, The Black Yearbook by Adraint Khadafhi Bereal, and The Memory of Taste by Tu David Phu and Soleil Ho. Forthcoming works include cookbooks by Carla Hall, Nasim Lahbichi, Rashad Frazier, and Amethyst Ganaway.

About Booker T. Washington Community Service Center:

Booker T. Washington Community Service Center is one of the Bay Area’s oldest Black-led, Black-serving nonprofit organizations, with over 107 years of service to San Francisco. A beacon of Black joy and self-determination, we have nurtured over five generations of San Franciscans. We stand embedded as an anchor institution, fostering intergenerational bonds and working in solidarity with allied communities to reform and reimagine a more inclusive San Francisco. We prioritize serving the Black community and welcome all people from ages 0-99 who walk through our door. We are one of the few urban spaces where anyone in the community can access comprehensive services, from a hot meal to childcare to academic support to senior services. 

About Farming Hope:

Farming Hope is a culinary job training and food justice nonprofit. We provide paid transitional job training to individuals overcoming obstacles to employment, offer nutritious culturally relevant meals free of charge to food-insecure families, and rescue food that would otherwise go to waste.

The Guest Chef Series at Farming Hope's Refettorio celebrates local chefs who share our core values of inclusivity in the workplace, food access, and sustainability. Our job-trainee Apprentices have the incredible opportunity to work, learn, and grow alongside some of the best chefs in country. By purchasing a ticket to this event, you directly contribute to our Apprentices' economic empowerment and to creating a more inclusive restaurant industry.

For those who are interested in group tables, event sponsorships, or have any questions, please contact us at giving@farminghope.org. We are happy to assist you and provide further information about this exciting event.

About Food for Soul:

Food for Soul is a nonprofit organization founded by Chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore with a mission to reduce food waste and social isolation by bringing their community-based cultural project Refettorio to underserved needs, and through consumer education and advocacy. Since opening the first Refettorio in Milan in 2015, Food for Soul has developed a global network of locally operated Refettorio projects through nonprofit partnership, each transforming surplus food into nutritious meals served with dignity and hospitality. Through private and public collaborations, cultural initiatives, and sustainable food practices, the organization works to build more inclusive communities and resilient food system

www.foodforsoul.it info@foodforsoul.it  

The ticket price includes a fair-market-value cost plus $100 tax-deductible donation that will be split equally between Farming Hope and Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, 501c3 nonprofit organizations, EIN: 83-2393341 and EIN: 941160952, respectively.

Parking:

There is street parking and a few parking lots around the area. The closest parking garage is the Opera Plaza Parking Garage with entrances on Golden Gate Ave & Turk Street. Note: the metered street parking ends by 6PM.

Our gratitude to our beverage sponsors, illy Coffee and San Pellegrino, and HexClad, a global partner of Food for Soul and the Refettorio Network, for their generous support of this event and shared belief that every act of cooking is an act of love.

Supported By:

In Kind Donations: