A Well-Built Burger
Here in Southern California, PIRCH is synonymous with high-end brands and their San Diego location is arguably the place to shop for luxury home products and appliances. The experiential showroom boasts an impressive range of full lifestyle vignettes, thoughtfully curated in meticulous detail and crafted in such a way as to inspire and excite.
The expert team at PIRCH are a welcoming and gracious group that we have gotten to know well over the years through our go-to sales consultant, Freddy Dietvorst. Always ready to go above and beyond, Freddy recently pitched the idea of PIRCH hosting a West Coast GBC vs. Luce et Studio cookoff at the showroom. PIRCH regularly hosts corporate events, cooking demonstrations, and their in-house chefs entertain customers daily but a burger show-down between architects and builders was a first, and we were all in!
West Coast GBC and architecture firm, Luce et Studio have been seeing a lot of each other lately. We are in the middle of a major multi-year residential building project in Upper Hermosa, La Jolla. In the thick of a project, you don’t always remember how important it is to get off the job site and out of the studio and take time to have some good old-fashioned fun. So we all decided to take the opportunity to use the gourmet kitchens at PIRCH to do two of the most important things in life, eat good food and laugh with friends.
No detail was spared- Beautiful charcuterie spreads prepared by PIRCH for guests”
Cookoff Day
Each team was paired with one of the talented in-house PIRCH chefs, Chef David Rizzo for West Coast GBC and Chef Bryan Tran for the Luce team with Chef Maria Crow as lead chef.
Chef Maria provided each team with ½ pound each of ground beef & ground turkey, one portobello mushroom, and a basket containing a variety of bread and rolls, cheese, vegetables, seasonings, condiments, and sauces.
The challenge: Create 3 unique burgers.
The catch: No cookoff is complete without a mystery ingredient. Chef Maria unveiled “Mee Krab” a sweet & sour crispy fried rice cracker from Trader Joe’s!
Each team got to work putting their collaborative cooking skills to use. The West Coast GBC team included clients, family, company owners, and even the refined Italian culinary talents of Rich Wiesehan from Sandpoint Construction.
Burger-winning smile from Jen Luce
The Luce et Studio led by epicure and founder, Jennifer Luce made fine work of the Evo grill on the PIRCH patio and ultimately claimed victory with a three-point win. Luckily for us, everyone is a winner in the eyes of PIRCH and Miele who rewarded both teams with a coveted Miele coffee maker.
The event was a great opportunity to celebrate the most meaningful part of our work, the relationships we build through the collaborative and connective process of building fine architecture and personal homes. We are honored to have been hosted by Freddy and everyone at PIRCH. Despite the cook-off event taking over a good portion of the sales showroom, their team miraculously managed to keep it open to the public throughout, a true testament to their multi-tasking skills!
After the event, we spoke with Gene Hodges, VP of Marketing at PIRCH about the trends and changes that they are seeing in the industry and what he thinks the act of cooking and gathering to eat adds to the human experience and how we create connection.
“The global pandemic led to a lot of changes in how we interact and live in our own homes. What happened in the marketplace over the last few years is that people became a lot more aware and concerned with how to cook and entertain in their homes. The kitchen has always represented a meeting center but we saw consumers really connecting with what that means to them and how to make it more enjoyable. The island has become a really important feature beyond being functional, it represents a shared space for eating, talking, studying, or working.
We also saw a huge shift towards taking the kitchen outside, quite literally. Customers want an outdoor kitchen that can be as useful as their indoor one. This has ushered in even more impressive technology to address refrigeration needs, cooking productivity, etc… The Luce et Studio team was actually utilizing patio appliances in the cookoff, which is remarkable when you think about the basic grill that most of us grew up with! The catalyst may have been the pandemic but the concept has taken root and that is really exciting. You can entertain anyone with an outdoor kitchen and Southern Californians want to take advantage of their beautiful climate at every opportunity.”
PIRCH consultants like Freddy Dietvorst have their finger on the pulse of technology, trends, integration, and the many behind-the-scenes complexities of how to make every appliance and fixture fit and work.
Holding an exceptionally high standard for who we partner with is a part of maintaining our reputation for quality and service. We love working with PIRCH not simply for their products but because of how well they integrate into a team and prioritize client needs. PIRCH consultants like Freddy have their finger on the pulse of technology, trends, integration, and the many behind-the-scenes complexities of how to make every feature fit and work and how to make every project a success. And now that we know that their chefs utilize their onsite test kitchens daily for customers, we will be conveniently stopping in more than ever!
A big thank you to PIRCH, Miele, Luce et Studio, our clients, crew, friends, and family.
Architecture Photographer: Ian Patzke
PIRCH sales consultants:
Freddy Dietvorst
Courtney Greenholt
Rayann Rascon
Emily Svidal - Sales Manager
Tom Eberhadt - Showroom Director
Gene Hodges - Vice President - Marketing
PIRCH Chefs:
Chef Maria Crow, Chef David Rizzo, Chef Bryan Tran.