Chef Alonso Cooks Holiday-Inspired Menu

The scent of Chef Alonso’s lemon pepper chicken wafted through the Colton Public Library on Wednesday, Nov. 13, attracting an audience to his Family Feast Cooking Session. With the holidays coming up, Chef Alonso demonstrated a holiday-inspired menu including lemon pepper chicken, mashed potatoes, poultry gravy, homemade stuffing, and, the most popular dish of the night, a loaded potato soup. Chef Alonso attended culinary school in 2008 and has been cooking ever since, he explained. He also owns a catering company, A_2 Catering, that caters to San Bernardino and surrounding cities. Having held over 14 cooking demonstrations in the past three years, Chef Alonso has been a regular attraction at the Colton Public Library. Louie Trejo, a frequent audience member at Chef Alonso’s demonstrations, said, “I always try to come out to the cooking classes whenever I can. I’m ready to eat!” Step by step, Chef Alonso explained how to prepare a traditional family feast, but it wasn’t just about the food for Chef Alonso - it was about the entire experience. He created an atmosphere that encouraged the audience to ask questions and share their own personal cooking experiences with him, often inviting students to "get a closer look" during a few of the more advanced demonstrations. Following the cooking demonstration, audience members were invited to help themselves to the family feast Chef Alonso prepared that evening, with the help of his friend, Chef Bryan. “The soup is by far the best thing Chef Alonso has ever made with us,” said Edward Pedroza, Library Supervisor at Colton Public Library. Pedroza has been organizing Chef Alonso’s demonstrations at the library since he was first invited to demonstrate his cooking, when the demonstrations began as a basic cooking class geared towards adult literacy students, explained Pedroza. The idea was to help give basic cooking instructions to those with limited reading and writing skills, but the demonstrations grew from there when people began requesting more of Chef Alonso, he shared. The cooking classes have become popular and Chef Alonso has done a variety of meals for the library, including summer grilling, kid-friendly meals, and soups and sauces. The community plays a big role in the classes, as they keep requesting for Chef Alonso to come back. “It is the support from the community that makes events like this possible for us. My whole goal as a librarian is to give you that quality experience when you come to the library," said Pedroza. "We pride ourselves on giving people new experiences and opportunities here at the Colton Public Library."