Cooking wasn’t Charlie Trotter’s only passion. While running his eponymous Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, chef Trotter always found time to help others pursue their own paths to excellence. The Trotter Project (TTP), named in his honor, heads to Brooks Wine this weekend to raise funds to keep his legacy alive.

After Trotter died in 2013, TTP was founded as a non-profit to provide education opportunities and local initiatives spanning the culinary arts, hospitality management, food science and agriculture fields. A vital part of that program is providing scholarships of up to $10,000 to students attending any accredited college or university in the United States.

On Saturday, June 29, TTP will take over Brooks Wine in Amity for an evening of wine pairings and appetizers. The food for the “Midsummer Celebration” event will be prepared in collaboration with SavorWe by some of America’s top chefs, including Richie Farina, D’Andre Carter, Bruce Kalman, Donald Young and Maneet Chauhan.

That group of chefs has more than a few Michelin stars, so expect some world-class small bites to accompany those great Brooks wines.

TTP’s origin story has an Oregon connection. Anne Trotter Hinkamp, Trotter’s sister, said chef Homaro Cantu, who grew up in Gresham, Oregon, planted the first seed for TTP. Cantu worked at Charlie Trotter’s for several years before opening his Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant, Moto.

“We were at a gathering the night before Charlie’s funeral, and Homaro told me, ‘We have to do something to keep Charlie’s legacy going,’” Hinkamp said. At the funeral reception, Hinkamp said numerous people came up to tell her that without her brother’s mentorship, they wouldn’t be where they are today.

Hinkamp was convinced. The following year, in 2014, Hinkamp joined a collection of friends, family and alumni of Charlie Trotter’s restaurant to found TTP. Unfortunately, Cantu isn’t alive to see the TTP’s first decade of accomplishments. Cantu died in 2015, a year after TTP launched.

Those accomplishments include working with approximately 5,000 K-12 students in gardening, nutrition and wellness programs. “While COVID slowed our fundraising events the past few years, we have still been able to accomplish a lot,” Hinkamp said.

TTP also offers students three different annual scholarships to colleges and universities - The Charlie Trotter Pursuit of Excellence Scholarship for culinary arts, baking and pastry students, The Homaro Cantu Scholarship for students pursuing jobs in the hospitality management field and The Farmer Lee Jones Scholarship for food science and agricultural studies.

TTP has awarded 56 scholarships in 10 years, with a peak of $68,000 in scholarship money awarded in 2019. The scholarship recipients attended colleges and universities from The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson & Wales University to Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

One of those scholarship winners is Oregon’s own Keyesa Green, an alum of St. Mary’s Academy in Portland. Her story will make you believe in kismet.

Green was facing the likelihood that she wouldn’t have enough money to finish her senior year in DePaul University’s hospitality management program. When Green sought financial assistance, she found the TTP’s Homaro Cantu scholarship. That’s when what Green describes as “serendipity” comes into play.

Green soon realized that Cantu was the person who inspired her to go to Chicago.

“A few years earlier, I watched a TED Talk where Cantu described a sweet taco dish at Moto that just floored me. That inspired me to pursue the restaurant business,” Green said.

Ready for more serendipity? Green and Cantu share the same birthday in September.

Since winning the Homaro Cantu scholarship in 2021, Green has risen through the ranks at The Alinea Group, a Chicago-based restaurant organization led by co-owner and chef Grant Achatz. Green said that one day, she hoped to join her husband in opening their own restaurant, quite possibly in Portland.

There are so many Keyesa Greens out there who have been inspired and assisted by the Trotter Project. I asked Hinkamp what words of advice her brother might offer them if he was alive today. “Put in the work and don’t give up. The hours will be long and trying, but the rewards are worth it.”

Tickets for the Midsummer Celebration are still available. The tickets are $200 and are available through the SavorWe website listed below.

If you are unable to attend, but would like to assist the TTP in their mission, donations can be made through the TTP’s website.

5-8 p.m. June 29, 21101 S.E. Cherry Blossom Lane, Amity, savorwe.com or thetrotterproject.org

-- Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine