Chef Sean Raspberry of Bel Air, Md. has joined the St. Michaels Community Center in a new role leading SMCC’s expanding culinary programs. Chef Raspberry comes to the St. Michaels Community Center as part of his return to the Eastern Shore, where many may remember him through his work at the Inn at Perry Cabin, Harrison’s Harbour Lights, Bistro St. Michaels, and Out of the Fire.

Chef Sean Raspberry

Raspberry is responsible for creating healthful, nutritious menus for SMCC’s Community Café, which serves eat-in and take-out meals during select hours each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. He’ll also be working with local chefs and food distribution programs to coordinate food donations, including fresh produce and cooked dishes.

“We are fortunate to have Sean back on the Shore and at the Community Center,” said SMCC Executive Director Patrick Rofe. “His knowledge, relationships, and talents will help lead our future culinary programming while bringing more fresh, nutritious meals to our community and the people we serve.”

Rofe says SMCC has recently given its Café a fresh look with new branding and a new menu featuring fresh salads and entrees. The Community Cafe was previously run by St. Michaels resident Jeannie Butler, with her service spanning more than four years.

One of Raspberry’s early responsibilities includes receiving food donations from St. Vincent de Paul in Easton, Md. each Monday and Friday.

“It’s like Christmas morning every Monday and Friday, and I’m really enjoying planning the menus from the ingredients we receive,” says Raspberry. “This week we received shrimp and catfish, and I’m already making plans for dinner grits, made with celery, onion, and cheese.”

Raspberry says his love of cooking began more than 40 years ago when he was very young watching his mother and grandmother cook.

“I was seven or eight years old, and I had watched them enough to imitate what they were doing,” he says. “Soon, they felt comfortable leaving me in the kitchen to cook.”

He says he developed his specialties in cooking purple cabbage and making crab cakes early on.

“My family would eat steamed crabs on a Friday night, and they would leave all the claws,” said Raspberry. “Saturday morning, I would get up early and pick all of the claw meat and then make crab cakes for everyone.”

Raspberry’s crab cake recipe has since transformed through his experiences working in some of the area’s top restaurants over the last 20 years.

Raspberry says his transition from the restaurant world to the Community Center is an evolution in his career that lands in giving back in a high-profile environment.“It’s more gratifying to cook for a not-paying customer and give back to people, Raspberry says. “Especially to those in need.”

Raspberry says he hopes to reinforce St. Michaels Community Center’s role serving at the heart of the community and looks forward to establishing a culinary workforce training program for Chesapeake College and other students.

“I’m looking forward to working with our youth not only as a teaching chef but as a mentor to help prepare them for life,” says Raspberry.

Raspberry will soon be relocating to the Eastern Shore from his current home in Harford County and says he enjoys music as much as he enjoys cooking.

“Sean’s experience, knowledge, and skills as an Executive Chef make him an outstanding choice to lead our programs,” said SMCC Advisory Board President Langley Shook. “Our Advisory Board is dedicated to growing our culinary programs to include cooking classes and workforce training, for example, and Chef Sean is the right person to lead us into the future.

“My wife Karen and I enjoyed the Chef’s Southwestern Chicken Enchilada and salad last night for dinner,” said Shook. “The man can cook! And we’ll soon be back for more!”

Shook says SMCC is planning a major renovation of its Railroad Avenue building to transform the old lumber warehouse into a modern, efficient facility that includes space for culinary training and programming.

The St. Michaels Community Center’s mission is to serve, empower, and connect the community, with year-round programs and activities. Donations to SMCC and proceeds from its Treasure Cove Thrift Shop on Railroad Ave. in St. Michaels help the nonprofit provide year-round programs, services, and community events for residents of St. Michaels and the Bay Hundred area. The Community Café menu and more information are at stmichaelscc.org.

Six years ago, filmmaker and art director, George Burroughs and Lauren Giordano, were living in Washington DC., but they both had a yearning to be outdoors more and grow their own food that urban living wasn’t satisfying.  On one of many trips to the eastern shore, they stumbled upon a renovated one-room schoolhouse in Cordova on a few acres that was for sale.  In no time, they made the leap, relocated and started growing tomatoes, eggplant and more.  Burroughs was the Creative Director at the Brookings Institution and led a team that collaborated with the scholars at Brookings to develop visual presentations and Giordano has served as art director to several national and regional publications, including The Atlantic.  Now, the artistic duo has their own creative studio called, Schoolhouse Farmhouse. 

George Burroughs and Lauren Giordano with Tony Cohen

Their latest project is a 25-minute film and companion website commissioned by Adkins Arboretum. It’s called, Rooted Wisdom: Nature’s Role in The Underground Railroad.  You can view the trailer here.  Tubman biographer Kate Clifford Larson calls the film, “Simply breathtaking!.” Larson says its’, “Beautifully filmed and narrated…this remarkable film confirms freedom seekers and their families as early naturalists with enormous wells of knowledge about the flora and fauna of their worlds and offers us a fresh look at history on landscapes teeming with life.”

That landscape can be found at Adkins Arboretum, the backdrop for what the filmmakers describe as a “guided experience” allowing audiences to explore how self-liberators used the natural landscape to forge a path to freedom. The Arboretum plans to launch both the film and companion website on March 11, 2022, at 7:00 pm. with a premiere of the film via livestream hosted by the Avalon Foundation and viewable on the project’s website .  Viewers can livestream the film and watch a panel discussion with the filmmakers and historians free, though registration is encouraged. Register here..  The website contains the film as five chapters and is infused with detailed accounts of self-liberators, related historical sites and the landscape around them. Adkins wrote about Adkins Arboretum’s virtual film event here a few weeks back.

The film and website were supported by a grant from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) and funded by the Department of the Interior, National Park Service.  Additional funding was received from the Dock Street Foundation and other private funders for promotion, live tours that narrator, Anthony Cohen will lead at Adkins and school curriculums that expand the film and website.

George Burroughs and Lauren Giordano

After spending weekends hiking the 400 acres of native plants and beautifully landscaped paths at Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely, Maryland and volunteering, the couple started working with the Arboretum on a series of short films about native trees. Shortly after the completion of the project, Ginna Tiernan, the Arboretum’s Executive Director, approached Burroughs and Giordano about expanding their Underground Railroad programming. Through this project and additional Rooted Wisdom programming at the Arboretum, they hope to broaden the conventional narrative surrounding the history of the Underground Railroad.  Giordano says this project has the potential to engage a larger community,

“You can get people learning about history through nature and the environment and you can get people to learn about nature and the environment through history.”

Adkins wrote about Cohen a few weeks ago and you can read and listen to him talk about his unique approach to history here . Cohen will be leading tours at the Arboretum on April 22, June 17, and September 23.