A local chef is giving concession food in Black Diamond a whole new reputation.
Lawyer-turned-culinary instructor Ginni Kelley and husband Del are doing away with the greasy, processed food previously served at the Oilfields Regional Arena concession. They are now fueling athletes and their families with “real food” made from scratch since opening Ginni’s Kitchen last month.
“I just couldn’t give them food I wouldn’t feed my own family,” explained Kelley. “I make everything at home from scratch, always had.”
Those delighting in Kelley’s homemade meals wouldn’t have guessed her adept hands couldn’t cook a thing a decade ago.
Working as a busy lawyer, Kelley spent very little time in the kitchen. It wasn’t until she became pregnant with her son 11 years ago that she began realizing the importance of eating fresh, homemade foods.
Kelley said she cracked open a cookbook and soon found there was nothing to it. She even spent weekends creating cooking experiments with friends.
“It’s so easy to make fresh food,” she said. “At the end of a long trial it was so relaxing to cook.”
Now Kelley can’t imagine life outside of the kitchen.
“I don’t think I’d ever get away from the kitchen,” she said. “I love feeding people. If I have staff and opened other locations I still don’t think it will be possible to get me out of the kitchen.”
Kelley feels most at home elbow deep in a ball of dough, creating her mouth-watering chicken pot pies and bite-sized cinnamon sugar doughnut holes, also know as “Ginbits.”
With a British and East Indian background, Kelley adds plenty of flavour to her menu with beef, lamb and chicken curries, as well as vegetable, beef and chicken samosas and homemade sauces.
After becoming more proficient in the kitchen, Kelley published her own cookbook Mindfully Spiced Chicken and a year later was managing and teaching at the President’s Choice Cooking School in Calgary. Last year, Kelley and her family moved to Okotoks and she found herself looking for a project. That’s when she learned the Town of Black Diamond was looking for someone to operate the concession at the Oilfields Regional Arena.
“I wasn’t expecting to get the place,” she said. “I don’t have food business experience. I’m a lawyer by profession. I got approved and they wanted me to start straight away.”
That’s when the transformation began to take place.
“I realized it was all processed food,” Kelley said of the concession’s menu. “I wouldn’t feed something I wouldn’t feed my son.”
Kelley and Del revamped the menu, replacing packaged French fries with the hand-cut variety, hot dogs with salad meat wraps, nachos with homemade soups, fried chicken strips with chicken and pasta dishes and prepackaged hamburgers with homemade burger.
The changes weren’t immediately adopted by the public.
Regular arena-goers were used to the processed foods they had been eating over the years and many didn’t know what to think of the new menu.
“The first week people bought just chips and candy,” Kelley recalls. “Once they got over the initial shock that it’s real food they wanted to take food home. As soon as we start cooking, the smell goes outside and we have people coming in.”
The smells even brought students from Oilfields High School, located right next door, to Ginni’s Kitchen during lunch hours on weekdays.
With Kelley’s homemade foods catching on in Black Diamond, it’s not unusual to see a young child in the bleachers watching a hockey game while eating a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs.
Kelley said she is aware how busy parents are, especially those who have more than one child in hockey and are rushing from arena to arena several days a week.
She said many don’t have time to cook and that is where Ginni’s Kitchen comes in.
“If I’m making fresh food why not let mom take it home so she can feed her kids at home,” she said. “Everything is handy so they can just pick it up.”
Kelley not only offers take out, but also creates party platters and caters events.
To learn more about what’s on the menu at Ginni’s Kitchen go to www.ginniskitchen.com or to learn more about Kelley and get some of her recipes go to her blog at www.spicyeggplant.com
