Hell's Kitchen Winner Chef Rocks Cooks for CA
As a manager who works at Community Access’ downtown office it is not often that I get to interact directly with tenants and program participants. To stay connected, each year I try to organize some kind of event or group that brings people together.
In the past this has taken the shape of spades tournaments, live comedy shows, a poetry group, and a weekly anti-oppression group spreading the gospel according to Paulo Freire. About a year ago, I envisioned Chef Rock, the season 3 winner of the Fox reality-TV show Hell's Kitchen, coming to CA to cook a meal, and talk with tenants and residents about healthy eating.
I must confess, I have never watched Hell's Kitchen. I'm not even a fan of the cooking reality-TV genre. However, my late mother always kept me up to date on the career of Chef Rock. When he won Hell's Kitchen she sent me news articles. When he went to Las Vegas she told me by phone. And when he began working at Ben's Next Door in Washington, D.C., she suggested I go down to eat and visit him.
Chef Rock's mother Carole Harper and my mother were good friends, and growing up we were always spending time at each other's homes. Time and life drifted us apart. So my first task was finding him and hoping he would agree to a NY visit. It took about six months, but after Facebooking his sister, emailing his mother and tracking him down through his website, he finally said yes. The result was a day of laughter, cooking, discussions, healthy eating, and lots of pictures with wide grins.
Bringing Chef Rock to CA was not just about CA tenants. It was also a way to provide a morale boost to staff, including our Nutritional Technician Jean Orilus and his culinary intern – and resident in our Treatment Apartment Progam (TAP)
– Omar Jackson.
Jean, who aspires to do great things like Chef Rock, told me at the conclusion of the event, “This is one of the best days of my life.”
