The future of the Warriors is on hold this week because of Steve Kerr. But even as the Bay Area waits to see whether Kerr will continue coaching, the head coach spent some time this week honoring a beloved San Francisco chef who died last year.
The Warriors head coach made an appearance Tuesday night at a tribute dinner for the late Charles Phan, who died suddenly on Jan. 20, 2025, due to cardiac arrest. The pioneering chef was the mastermind behind the lauded Slanted Door and other Bay Area Vietnamese restaurants. The dinner was held at the nonprofit Farming Hope, which runs a transitional employment apprenticeship for formerly incarcerated or unhoused individuals. Kerr enjoyed dishes like salmon in lemongrass broth and Hokkaido scallops that focused on “simplicity,” according to Farming Hope co-executive director Andie Sobrepeña.
“He was a great guy. He agreed to come take a photo with our apprentices in the back, who were all really excited to meet him, and he was really happy to chat with anyone that came up to him,” Sobrepeña told SFGATE in an interview. “Obviously, I hope no one asked him about the state of affairs. I think everyone was on good behavior and let him just enjoy the evening.”
Kerr was a guest of cookbook author and social media maven Lynda Marren, according to Sobrepeña, who helped run the event for Cookbook Week. He wasn’t the only prominent figure from the Bay Area sports world in attendance, though: Sobrepeña said San Francisco Giants principal owner Charles Johnson also was there on Tuesday.
The dinner featured guest chefs Tu David Phu, owner of GiGi’s, and Dong Choi, who took over as the executive chef for the Slanted Door Group following Phan’s death. They both cooked alongside the apprentices while Marren and others gave speeches that led to a “touching evening” where “tears were going the whole night,” Sobrepeña said.
This wasn’t the first time Kerr had attended a dinner hosted by Farming Hope, Sobrepeña noted. In May 2024, Kerr and Phan both attended a guest chef dinner series from Flour + Water that was held at the nonprofit’s dining room at 690 Van Ness Ave. They coincidentally sat next to each other, as guests of Marren and her husband John, Sobrepeña said. Phan was inspired by Farming Hope’s mission to help people experiencing barriers to employment find restaurant industry positions, Sobrepeña added, and so he did his own guest chef dinner later that summer. It is unclear whether Kerr has ever eaten at the Slanted Door, which was the flagship of the Ferry Building for 15 years before it closed in 2024.
“For [Farming Hope], it’s nice to have Steve Kerr and folks like that really connecting to the work that we’re doing because that’s at the core of, you know, what people are drawn to there,” Sobrepeña said.
As for Kerr’s coaching future? Sobrepeña said Kerr didn’t offer any nuggets as to what it holds, but she did say he was excited to be going on a vacation with his wife very soon.