How one of the greatest chefs in the world is feeding the poor with a five-star soup kitchen

Last updated on: February 10, 2018 at 5:06 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

How one of the greatest chefs in the world is feeding the poor with a five-star soup kitchen 2018-02-10T17:06:59-05:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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For chefs, worldwide renown often leads to lucrative expansion deals: Restaurants in tourism capitals like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Vegas, and Dubai are almost a given. That’s one reason why it’s so surprising that Massimo Bottura, the chef at Modena’s Osteria Francescana — one of the most critically acclaimed restaurants in Italy, and the world — has expanded in a different way, keeping just one full-service restaurant (with all of 12 tables), while focusing his expansion energy on a nonprofit initiative that aims to feed the hungry.

Lara Gilmore, Bottura’s wife, is the president of Food for Soul, a program that aims to promote awareness of hunger and food waste, while also opening ambitious “community kitchens” for needy patrons. The idea of offering food, in addition to a sense of culture and dignity, began as a happy accident in the run-up to Expo Milano 2015 — when Bottura offered to make a sustainable contribution to the city and its residents, and found eager chef-collaborators like Alain Ducasse. That was followed by Refettorio Gastromotiva, which debuted during the 2016 Olympics. Next is Refettorio Felix in London (which will feature chefs like Ducasse, Clare Smyth, and Daniel Boulud), as well as Stateside expansion, thanks to a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for more than $500,000. The first two American refettorios are scheduled to open in 2018 and 2019, with seven more locations slated to open around the country.

I love this, from the interview:

Right now, we’re scouting nine U.S. locations, including the Bronx, but also Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It’s important for us to evaluate if our model could have a positive impact on the economy and social fiber of those cities. Our model is more radical because it’s all about bringing people together to share a meal in a beautiful space, and engaging volunteers to be more physically invested in their communities. We need beauty more than we think. It’s one of the few indivisible goods, and so often it’s not given enough value in regards to social change.

We want to create places where people are going to feel dignified, because there’s a difference between eating at a plastic table and a wood table.

Read more. And check out the video above.

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