“The Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA) brings back its always anticipated Tastemakers of Orange County fundraising event on Thursday, October 10 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Julianne and George Argyros Plaza at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. More than two dozen local chefs will celebrate the Asian and Pacific Islander community and culture by providing guests the opportunity to indulge in one-of-a-kind Asian and Pacific Island-inspired tapas dishes in an all-you-can-enjoy setting. Proceeds from tickets sold for this event go to support OCAPICA's numerous programs and services in mental health and health, youth development, housing assistance, policy education and combating anti-Asian racism.”
More than two dozen area celebrity chefs will be participating ranging from Executive Chef Rich Mead of Farmhouse at Rogers Garden to Chef/Restaurateur Amar Santana of Vaca.
“In addition to the food tastings, guests will have the opportunity to enjoy beverages by Brewery X and BondleWines. This fundraiser will feature groovy tunes from a live DJ, a silent auction with luxury experiences and unique items, and an exciting opportunity drawing. Tickets are available to the public for $250 for VIP, which allows early entry at 6 p.m.; and $195 for General Admission from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. More information and tickets can be found at ocapica.org/tmoc.”
OCAPICA’s long-time Chairperson of the Board, Sora Park Tanjasiri, and participating chef Tarit Tanjasiri of Crema Cafe (Seal Beach) and Crema Artisan Bakers (Irvine) join us with all the enticing details.
This is Tristan Beeman of the One Exchange in Santa Emma. We're listening to a spectacular vintage year in Food News. SoCal Restaurant Show. Cheers! And welcome back! It is the SoCal Restaurant Show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10am until 12 noon, right here on AM830KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. And you can also catch us on the AM830 Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, and we're enthusiastically presented to you each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. As I was mentioning earlier in the show, we're just getting into the fall food festival season, and what we try to do here on the SoCal Restaurant Show is highlight the best of the best, and particularly the events that benefit worthy charities definitely gets our interest. And about this time of year, one that fits into that category is the tastemakers of Orange County, that benefits the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance. That's quite a mouthful, so for short, they just call it Ocopico. And one of the founding restaurateurs that created this festival a number of years ago is Trit Tangisserie, Master Baker, and All Around Good Guy. And it is a pleasure to kind of give us some background on this, to welcome Trit back to the show, but also at the same time, welcome Trit Tangisserie, who is the executive director of Ocopico. So, Lady and Gentlemen, welcome, and thanks for jumping on a little early. Hi, everyone. Good morning to both of you. So, let's start out with you. Kind of give us the background of Ocopico and what your mission is, and the fact that probably, even though I know the organization goes back several decades, in terms of what your mission is, it's probably more relevant now than it ever has been. So, kind of, kind of, fill us in. Oh, thank you, Andy. Yeah, so, I have the pleasure of actually being the chair of the Board of Directors under the leadership of our executive director, Mary Anne Sue, who founded Ocopico in 1997 to promote the well-being and health of all Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Orange County. You know, we've got the third largest, what we call AAPI, population in the country, and before Ocapica, there was only no one to serve directly our populations. So, really, we started with a commitment to promoting health, and since that time, we have grown leaps and bounds. We have over 100 staff. We serve over 80,000 people a year with health, mental health, workforce development, health advocacy, and youth development. And I think, Andy, what you're referring to is, you know, recently, over the last few years, we've seen such an increase in anti-Asian hate on top of all of the challenges that face our communities, and I'm proud to say Ocapica is a leader across the state in promoting racial healing and understanding and support and mental health services for our diverse communities. Sorry, that was, unfortunately, what I was referring to, and it's great that their organizations like Ocapica out there that are making a difference and really doing something, because really, the fact that this is even something that we're talking about in 2024, in terms of this hate towards any minority group, it's kind of hard to fathom. Yeah, you know, our executive director has a really poignant story of growing up. You know, Marianne grew up in Northern California, and herself was a targeted anti-Asian hate. And, you know, she's really, and we have all really carried the torch, not just for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, but really for all communities. We serve everyone, and our services are no cost or low cost, so we do not differentiate by anyone's race or language. You know, we're really here to serve the communities, and hopefully, also, to be able to have a voice at the local, state, and national levels, but what Orange County and our communities need. Absolutely. Can you tell us a little bit more about the youth programs that Ocapica is involved in, Sora, because that's always, you know, a very important area. Oh, I'm so glad you asked about that. So we work with school districts across their county to offer, like I already said, direct services, so for example, mental health services, and trainings to, you know, both students and staff. But on top of that, we really believe in the future lives with our youth. And so we run leadership development programs. Our youth are out in communities, you know, during COVID. They were out in communities, assessing needs, helping to organize events like the COVID vaccination event. And now fast forward today. It's actually many of our youth leaders who have now become these amazing young adults who are leading the charge in understanding the mental health needs specifically of youth. You know, it's a myth that people believe the reason why Asian Americans Pacific Islander youth have mental health challenges. It's because, oh, they're all driven to academic success. No, much of the reason is because they're hidden. Their needs are not discussed. They're the staff do not, do not identify them at high risk. And so we are just completing a whole round of assessments with youth with service providers and with parents and young adults, the graduate of our youth programs who are meeting these programs. You know, really outstanding work. Obviously, housing assistance is a very important concern these days for any socioeconomic group. Tell us a little bit more about the programming that Acapeka does that helps with housing assistance. Yeah. I'm so glad you also mentioned that because one of the others in need in our many communities is housing and security. This is such a point of invisibility. And so Acapeka through a lot of their mental health and background services also offers assistance to clients in meeting their housing needs. So we help to place clients. We help to pay for housing vouchers and housing assistance. You know, and this is personal. I work as a professor at the University of California Irvine. And Acapeka provides $50,000 a year to support students at UCI with their housing needs. And there's no one ever thinks that university students are housing as youth culture, but they are. And Acapeka directly supports people who are suffering from those kinds of challenges. Now, Sora, your position as chairman of the board of Acapeka is obviously a volunteer position. You come from a very high level academic background. You hinted a little bit about what your current university association is. But can you tell us a little bit more, you know, because in terms of the work that you do for Acapeka, given the busy nature of your day job, I'm not exactly sure where you find all the time. Well, I don't want to bore you with the details, but, you know, I'm a public health professor, meaning that I do a lot of work behind a computer. You know, I'm writing a lot. I'm looking at data a lot and doing data analysis. But honestly, I got into this profession because I want to see real impacts and improvements in communities. So it is my privilege and pleasure to volunteer for Acapeka because I get to see the board being done. I can assess needs, mental health, health, you know, cancer, chronic diseases. But then I write a report and, you know, I don't get to see what gets done. It's my collaboration with Acapeka, my ability to help support in every way possible. I find the time because it just means I get to see the results. So I feel like I'm the winner in all this. It's just such a pleasure being able to work with Acapeka. So how many years have you been involved with Acapeka? Oh boy, I'm going to date myself, Andy. Ever since the beginning, I've known-- Oh, washer, it goes back to '97. Wow. Okay. He has got a vision, and I said, "Count me, and I'll help you for as long as you want, you know, want and could use my skills." That is very noble. Let's bring Tariq into the conversation. Tariq, we're going to pick up the conversation on the other side, and, you know, we're really going to talk about the wild factor of tastemakers of Orange County. But before we go out to our break, just give us a very brief overview of what is coming up Thursday evening, October 10th, because if you're a foodie, tastemakers of Orange County is definitely for you. Yes. Hi, again, Andy. Yeah, October 10th, we have 24 Orange County chefs that have been-- most of them have been along with us for the ride for the past nine years. They're going to bring amazing dishes and probably a little bit of fall theme, and I can't wait. This event is so exciting. It's involved all our friends in the industry, and you know many and most of them, and they have such a great time to see themselves working there, and also to see all the supporters of Ocapica come by, and get to have fun, hang out with each other, and taste amazing food, and desserts, and things like that. This year, we also will feature a few new ideas, new bars, and we'll bring some craft cocktails, and so on as well. So, yeah, I can't wait. Now, before we go out to break, to read and pick up the conversation on the other side, what is the website for all the information and to buy tickets, because that's what we want to do here? Yes, I believe-- I'm sorry, you can help me correct my key if I'm wrong with it, ocapica.org/tastemakersofoc, or is that PMOC? Yeah, it's ocapica.org/tmoc. Or, I think if that's too much, just going to ocapica.org, there probably is something on the home page about taste makers. Am I warm? Absolutely. And, Sora, while you're there, I think we should spell ocapica just because we want to make sure people get to the right place. I know. We're a mouthful, huh? It's O-C-A-I-C-A, and then and then.org. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to pick up the conversation on the other side, but this is the big annual fundraiser for ocapica, a wonderful food and beverage event that's coming up October 12 in the plaza at the Segrisam Center for the Arts called "Tastemakers of Orange County." You have some of Orange County's finest that are there with taste-sized portions from their menu, just a very warm and welcoming atmosphere. The chefs are there because they want to be, not because they have been arm-twisted, and they believe in the event, and we're going to pick up the conversation on the other side with Tariit Tangisserie, who is the lead restaurateur that does a lot of the wrangling to put all this together, but never wants to take any credit for it, but I think I just did Tariit and the chairman of the board for ocapica, Sora Tangisserie. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. We're going to take a short pause, and we're going to be right back.
