Officers’ recipes to fill cookbook, aid Kocab, Curtis families
By JEFF HOUCK | The Tampa Tribune
Published: September 10, 2010
Updated: 09/10/2010 02:41 pm
TAMPA – After Tampa police Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab were shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in June, the law enforcement community and Bay area residents came forward to raise money for their families.
The support continues, this time from fellow members of the Tampa Police Department.
Officer Allison Fitzpatrick and her husband, Kevin, are collecting recipes from law enforcement agencies in all 50 states for a “Calling All Cars 911 Cookbook.” All profits are to go to the families of Kocab and Curtis.
Dontae Rashawn Morris was arrested and charged with the men’s deaths on June 29. Curtis, 31, is survived by his wife and four young sons. Kocab, also 31, is survived by his wife, who gave birth to a stillborn infant a week after the shooting.
Kevin Fitzpatrick said his wife came up with the cookbook idea in mid-August. They began e-mailing police agencies and law enforcement associations with the goal of gathering 911 recipes.
“As of today, we had recipes from 49 states, and I just got one in from Hawaii,” he said. “I leaned on every narcotics officer I ever knew who owed me.”
The cookbook is scheduled to be published by Morris Press Cookbooks in Nebraska. Fitzpatrick said the deadline for recipe submissions is Sept. 15. The plan is to have the text complete by Sept. 30 so that it can be available for sale by early November.
“Let me tell you one thing: People eat a lot of chicken,” he said. “I’ve got casseroles coming out of my ears.”
A celebrity section of the book will include recipes from Anthony Bourdain and Alton Brown. Other recipes include dishes that reflect the part of the country from which they were submitted: cedar-plank salmon from Alaska, shrimp bisque and Creole dishes from Louisiana, Crock-Pot moose from Maine and North Carolina apple cobbler made using hot coals on a cast-iron Dutch oven pot. “I can see a lot of house fires with that one,” he joked.
Law enforcement agencies can submit recipes at tpdrecipes@aol.com.
Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.
The Hungry Detective 
Thanks for posting this, Chris.