HORSESHOE BEND — People in the Horseshoe Bend area wanting to celebrate Valentine’s Day will have a unique opportunity this year — they can attend a gourmet dinner while helping to provide sustenance and protection for others.
Certified executive chef David Kugler and his wife, Cheryl, will prepare a gourmet dinner for 50 people on Valentine’s Day at Papa Dick’s Restaurant in Horseshoe Bend. Proceeds will benefit the Christian Community Food Outreach Mission and Safe Passage Inc. Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault programs.
“My wife and I feel very strongly about feeding the people of America,” Kugler said. “Food is my business. Around here, there’s such a huge need for getting food on people’s tables.”
Presenting a dinner of this size takes planning.
“First, we approached Pat Behrndt, who owns Papa Dick’s,” Kugler said. “We have become friends over the years. Each time he’s in town, we enjoy having him over for dinner. When I told him about the charity-dinner idea, he offered his restaurant at no charge.”
When the Kuglers learned that Papa Dick’s didn’t have enough dishes to serve 50, the couple borrowed some from a local church.
“The menu is fairly simple,” Kugler said. “Getting the staff lined up will be the hardest. People have volunteered, but I’m not sure how hard I can work them.”
The gourmet meal will begin with appetizers: crab rangoon, smoked chicken salad in Belgium endive, and portobello pizza with fresh basil, toasted garlic and bleu and mozzarella cheeses.
The appetizers will be followed by a three-course dinner:
• A salad: Grilled anise root and asparagus in citrus vinaigrette with toasted pine nuts and craisins, and tossed with baby arugula and topped with shaved Asiago cheese;
• The entree: Roasted pork tenderloin on caramelized balsamic red onions, garlic mashed potatoes and red cabbage compote finished with cognac Dijon mustard sauce; and
• Dessert: Dual chocolate cups — one filled with chocolate mousse and the other with raspberry Bavarian cream — accompanied by an almond lace cookie, glazed raspberries and mango and raspberry sauces.
Kugler believes presentation is almost as important as the food. “The kitchen staff will pipe the mashed potatoes onto each plate to create a picture,” he said. Kugler will paint the dessert plates with mango and raspberry sauces.
Kugler became interested in cooking when he was 8 years old.
“When my mother went back to college, she only came home on weekends. My brothers and sister shoved everything off on me, so I did the cooking. Baking apple pies was such a fun mess. At 15, I was cooking at a restaurant in West Bend, Wisconsin.”
Kugler met Cheryl, his future wife, when they both worked at a Holiday Inn near Milwaukee. At 18, he was working at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee.
“I learned an awful lot about fine food and dining there,” Kugler said.
Several years later, Quad Graphics, a company that printed national magazines and catalogs, hired Kugler to manage their in-house catering.
“We did board meetings, entertaining for clients, bankers’ meetings,” he said. “I would prepare seven-course dinners for 70 people, as well as luncheon buffets and breakfasts to order.” He expanded the company’s food service to include cafeterias serving 2,500 employees with a staff of 85.
Three years later, Kugler left to open Gold Award Foods, featuring six meat sauces that he created.
“I started with one stove, a 20-gallon steam kettle and work tables in a storefront,” he said. “Cheryl and I, and later our two sons, made and bottled the sauces.”
Kugler’s first customer was Neiman Marcus department stores. In 1992, he beat out big companies such as Green Giant to win the Delta Food Communications New Products Contest.
Later, he sold his sauces exclusively through meat-company catalogs such as Omaha Steaks and Swiss Colony. When he started making cakes and dessert sauces, Kugler moved his operation to a warehouse. Sysco Foods distributed the products to restaurants.
“One day in 1995, I got a call from a guy I’d worked a dinner with at Quad Graphics,” Kugler said. “He was manager of Northern Sky, a private railway car available for charters. He wanted me to come work with him.”
Kugler worked a few trips but didn’t sign on full time with Northern Sky until 1999. By then he and Cheryl were thinking about retiring. At a log-home show in Milwaukee, Bill Pierce from Scenic Realty in Horseshoe Bend invited the couple to “come down and take a look.” Liking what they saw, the couple bought a house on Crown Point Lake in 2006.
As manager of Northern Sky and Northern Dreams railway cars, Kugler now “commutes” to Chicago.
“Each year, we do about six charter trips and six trips for Dave Hoffman, the owner. I book the trips, hire people for maintenance, plan the menus, do the shopping.”
On every trip, Kugler is the chef. The private cars are coupled onto Amtrak trains. Most trips go out west to places such as Seattle, San Francisco and Denver. Guests have included Bill Gates and European royalty.
Tickets to the Valentine’s Day Gourmet Dinner at Papa Dick’s Restaurant are $50 per person and must be purchased in advance. For tickets, call (870) 670-5951, email dkugler000@centurytel.net, or mail a check to 304 Isabella Lane, Horseshoe Bend, AR 72512.
Dee Cox is director of the Christian Community Food Outreach Mission, which will receive proceeds from the fundraiser.
“My father, Pastor Leonard Smith, began the program in 2001 at the Assembly of God in Horseshoe Bend,” she said. “A year later, Bonnie Chapman donated the building behind our church for the food pantry. All the local churches donate money and food.”
Food Outreach buys items to distribute from the Norfork Food Bank and receives food from the Rice Depot in Little Rock. The Walmart Supercenter in Ash Flat donates produce, bakery and other items. Ten volunteers accept donations Wednesday mornings and distribute food on Friday afternoons.
“Most months, we serve 135 to 150 families, usually 400 people or more,” Cox said.
For information, call (870) 751-0724. Send or deliver donations to 1001 First St., Horseshoe Bend, AR 72512.
Lora Umphries-Buck is executive director of Safe Passage Inc., which serves Izard and Fulton counties and will also benefit from the Valentine’s Day event.
“We offer shelter for victims of domestic violence,” she said. “Whether a victim needs shelter or not, we provide court advocacy and help with orders of protection, peer counseling and referrals for housing, job placement, Social Security, food stamps, rent programs and more. Last year, we served over 300 people.”
Funding comes primarily from contributions from the community and revenue from Safe Passage’s thrift store.
“We are so grateful to the Kuglers for hosting this fundraising dinner,” Umphries-Buck said. “Help like theirs is what keeps us from shutting down.”
For information or help, call Safe Passage’s 24/7 hotline at (870) 368-3222, visit the Thrift Store at 703 Main in Melbourne from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or email safepassage72556@yahoo.com. Donations may be mailed to P.O. Box 755, Melbourne, AR 72556.