Everybody’s business

Iron Chef Chico
The secret ingredient is … local chefs.

Back for its second year, the Chico Farmers’ Market Dinner and Gold Chefs’ Challenge will take place Thursday, July 7, from 7 to 11 p.m. at TJ Farms Estate.

Twelve teams of local chefs will compete, and not all of the slots are full, so if you think you have the goods and the guts, contact Allyson Bedene at A Friend of the Family Catering: 859-3095 or a.bedene@att.net.

The chefs will use Farmers’ Market produce to grill up meat and vegetable dishes, including appetizers.

Dinner guests, who get to watch the food being made, will judge the results. Drinks, music and a dessert buffet by the Stirling City Hotel will also be featured.

“We supply all of the food, though chefs may bring additional food if they choose,” said Bedene, who is co-hosting the event. “We do not limit the competition to restaurants. Craig Hall participated last year as well as a private chef, caterers and a chef from an assisted-living facility.”

Last year’s winner was Bob Pinocchio, the restaurant owner who used to be in charge of the food at Chico Heat games.

Tickets ($35 for one or $60 for two) are available at Baskin Robbins/TOGOS locations and the TJ Farms booth at the Saturday Farmers’ Market.

Pow Wow Wow
If you want to know where I’ll be this weekend, it’s the Chico Pow Wow.

The event will take place June 18 and 19 at 20th Street Community Park (not the fairgrounds as in years past). It starts at 11 a.m. and ends at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday and 6 p.m. on Sunday.

“We’re looking forward to a big attendance again—close to 2,000 or 3,000,” said Bebba Aguayo, a Pow Wow board member and Yankton-Nakota. “We’re expecting drummers and dancers from as far away as Montana and down to New Mexico.”

Organizers have worked hard to raise money to put on the event, which took a one-year hiatus due to funding issues.

The Pow Wow honors native traditions and has a sobriety theme. There will be arts and crafts, Indian tacos and more.

Century club
Feather River Hospital is the only California hospital to be named in the new 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders study, put out by Solucient, an Evanston, Ill.-based company that deals in health care institution performance and marketing.

The 54-year-old hospital is located in Paradise and was among 20 winners in the “medium community hospitals” category.

Solucient says it judges hospitals based “solely upon empirical findings from publicly available performance data.” The company studied things as diverse as mortality rates, length of stay and cashflow-to-debt ratio.

The study becomes a report that hospital managers and others can purchase for a cool $2,500. Solucient also provides winners with marketing materials to promote the honor.