This Saturday (Sept. 12) the community is invited to sample food from one of the top up-and-coming chefs in America – who also happens to be a Wellington native.
Chef, Mike Castaneda is hosting a Community Block Party at 1 p.m. on Sept. 12 in Heritage Park in downtown Wellington.
“I just wanted to have an event where I could kind of cook for everybody, and meet a lot of people,” Castaneda told Studio 55. The block party will also serve as a platform for Castaneda's MasterChef audition video.
“...I thought it would be awesome to have my town behind me and supporting me as well,” he said.
The WHS Class of 2003 grad says he was always interested in cooking, and really started to take it seriously during his time in the United States Army.
“It's always been a hobby of mine,” Castaneda said. He began sharing photos of his dishes on his social media pages which lead to a job with Traeger Grills. The chef said his culinary journey to this point has been amazing.
Castaneda was recently on the Food Network's All-Star Academy, a show that featured celebrity chefs teaming up with home cooks who mentored them through a series of culinary challenges in an effort to claim the $50,000 grand prize.
MasterChef is an established show on Fox with three celebrity chef judges, most notably Gordon Ramsay, where amateur and home chefs square off against one another. The grand prize winner is selected by the judges, they receive $250,000, their own cookbook deal and a trophy.
The menu on Sept. will feature samples of Castaneda's chicken and waffles, the chef said the dish came to him out of the blue.
“I'd never had chicken and waffles before and I just decided one day to make it,” he explained. “It was incredible, it was so good...everyone just fell in love with it ,so kind of became one of my signatures.”
Organizing the block party has been a task that has taken several weeks. Wellington's local Dillion's store along with the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce helped to make it happen.
“People can come and get together, I'm trying to have some music out there, Dillion's has been awesome, they are basically supplying all of the food,” Castaneda said. “It's just going to be a good time.”
The forecast on Saturday (as of Wednesday) looks to be a gorgeous 72 degrees under mostly sunny skies, in other words, perfect block party weather. Castaneda has big goals and is glad that his hometown can be a part of helping to reach them.
“I appreciate everyone's support, it's been amazing,” the chef said. “I really feel like this is just the start of what I'm looking to do, I appreciate everyone being there with me.”
