A.V.'S TOP GRILL TEAM; SHERRI CHEFS COOK FOR CAUSES.

Byline: Karen Thacker Special to the Daily News

Planning a barbecue for several hundred or perhaps several thousand people? There is one reliable group of Antelope Valley chefs with 57 years of experience behind them.

Their rates are great. They work for free - donations only.

But don't call them for a wedding. They work for nonprofit organizations and service-oriented fund-raisers only.

The Sherri Chefs, named for founder Chris Sherri and his secret marinade recipes, cook 10 or 11 events a year.

Getting in isn't easy. First a cook must apprentice: at least one year, sometimes up to seven years.

And until a few years ago, admittance required a unanimous vote of all other chefs. Current rules allow new members on a two-thirds vote majority.

Their marinade recipes are known by a guarded few - excluding even some of the group's current 25 cooks. Their specialties are barbecued lamb and deep pit beef, but they also do a nice job with steaks, tri-tip and chicken.

The chefs say being with friends for a good cause is worth the work.

``We enjoyed the fellowship - it wasn't exactly the cooking,'' said Charles Taylor, one of the chefs who started in 1940.

``The camaraderie,'' agrees current head chef Richard Rutherford, who has been in the club for four years. ``It's one organization of men that there is never any bickering or snipping - we all enjoy our work, and we work together.''

The group's founder was a Basque sheep farmer from Albania who settled on Lancaster's west side. He grew alfalfa, herded sheep and enjoyed barbecuing.

``He did some of the cooking at home, and I think he even taught his wife some of the dishes he knew,'' said George Zarzana, one of the original chefs when the club was organized in 1940.

The tradition started with a one-lamb barbecue at Sherri's home for local merchants. He was asked to cook again the next year, but for more people. The gathering was moved to the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

Word spread of his delicious lamb barbecues, and soon his services were being requested to help raise money for local service clubs.

The functions grew larger, and soon more chefs were needed.

``As the years went by, the demand was so large they had to organize and become a club, and they became the Sherri Chefs,'' Rutherford said.

Over the years, the group has barbecued for the Elks, Kiwanis, Shriners, Quartz Hill Woman's Club, a cystic fibrosis fund-raiser - even the 1972 opening of the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Over the years, cooking techniques changed from forks and flat grates to special racks that hold up to 10 pounds of meat at a time.

The base of operation for the chefs became the Lancaster Elks Lodge, where a pit was constructed that holds 3,000 pounds of beef and a grilling area that can handle 450 lamb chops at a time.

The past three years the group has provided the barbecue for the Antelope Valley Fair kickoff party for about 1,000 volunteers. Earlier this year at the kickoff party the chefs were able to serve about 860 people in 20 minutes, using four serving lines, Rutherford says.

``We grilled from two o'clock to seven o'clock nonstop with a team of 18 people,'' he said.

The chefs cook at 10 or 11 events a year, six or seven of them being Elks functions. Sherri was an active member of the Lancaster Elks Lodge and most of the chefs have been lodge members, but membership is not a requirement.

Not too much has changed with the club over the years either.

The recipes cut out some salt when people became more health conscious, but overall the taste is the same.

How to describe the taste?

``How about delicious?'' Rutherford said.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1-2--Color only in AV edition) At top, Sherri Chefs Richard Rutherford, left, and Jim Brockway barbecue a rack of lamb, while Dominic Rotell, above, prepares more meat for the grill during a recent cookout.

Jeff Goldwater/Daily News