The kitchen celebrated AAPI Month in May. Here is what we ate!

Gould Farm
Jun 9
3 min read

Updated: Jun 11

Gould Farm community members sitting around the dining room table singing during Morning Meeting. — Mouth-watering roasted citrus chicken served recently for lunch in Main House. Photo by kitchen manager, Ben Q.

If you walk through the quiet and empty Main House dining room between meals, you will hear music, chatter, and amazing smells wafting out of the kitchen. And if you poke your head in the kitchen doorway, you will see team members busily buzzing around, sauteéing at the stove, chopping piles of fresh veggies, or mixing up a new batch of salad dressing or hummus. Our kitchen team is a creative food hub in our community where ingredients, including from our gardens and pastures, get skillfully combined and transformed into delicious meals three times a day, year-round.

Gould Farm kitchen team members cooking shrimp and preparing greens. — Gould Farm kitchen team members preparing shrimp and prepping greens for the salad bar.

Gathering for meals in the Main House dining room is vital to our strong social fabric - it is when we slow down, talk about the day, unwind, and make important announcements. And this past May, it was also a time to learn about and celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month – through food!

“It is always fun to celebrate different cultures” quipped Ben Quinones, kitchen team manager.

“The guests and staff in the kitchen get excited about the food, but not just them – the community as well. It gives us in the kitchen the opportunity to do things we might have never cooked or eaten and you get to learn in the process. That's the great thing about cooking: you get to have fun, learn, and celebrate different people and cultures and holidays. Everything from Black History Month to AAPI, Women’s History Month, Pride Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and holidays like Diwali. We get to take everyone on a trip throughout the world right here at Gould Farm.”

The buffet at lunch and dinner at Main House always includes a variety of veggies, both fresh and cooked. Photo by kitchen manager, Ben Q.

This initiative allowed the kitchen team to stretch their culinary skills while celebrating the heritage and flavors of many countries, offering the community an opportunity to learn, connect, and grow through a shared experience.

Celebrating and honoring other food traditions also reflects the work underway to develop Gould Farm’s Food Philosophy, which both embraces experiences like exploring global cuisines and helps shape how we incorporate food as a tool in healing, learning, and community building.

By sharing meals inspired by cultures from around the world, our community experiences firsthand how food can nourish more than the body—it can spark curiosity, deepen understanding, foster connection, and create opportunities for celebration. We appreciate the kitchen team’s hard work and planning to bring this colorful and delicious menu together!

Below is a feast for your eyes -- photos of some of the dishes we enjoyed in May, including: