Michelin-starred chef heads restaurant entirely staffed by formerly unhoused people

Adam Simmonds is a two-time Michelin-starred chef and Catey Awards Hotel Chef of the Year recipient. And last year, he added chef director of the world’s first restaurant almost entirely staffed by previously unhoused individuals to his resume. Home Kitchen, located in Primrose Hill, London, is a nonprofit fine dining establishment that provides its staff with travel expenses, professional culinary qualifications, and the London living wage.

Aside from some senior members, the team is recruited solely from the unhoused community. If staff members pass a 90-day probation, they’re eligible for a fully paid culinary training course at Westminster Kingsway College. The goals of the whole operation are to kickstart the staff’s careers, address worker shortages in the hospitality industry, and confront the “very flawed public perceptions of what it is to be homeless,” Home Kitchen co-founder Michael Brown told The Guardian.

Simmonds is now working on additional launches in Brighton, England, and San Francisco. “Home Kitchen will act as an accelerant out of poverty for our recruits and an incubator of untapped talent for the catering industry,” he wrote ahead of the London restaurant’s opening. “I believe the restaurant business is an ideal vehicle for social impact, as changing perceptions in this industry can inspire broader societal change.”

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‘although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.’

-helen keller

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source credits: home kitchen, the guardian

going over the frozen lake to mackinac island, michigan, 1950s

once the only way to get there in the winter months

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while inside:

The Mackinac Island library’s fireplace, which roars with warmth when the temps don’t soar. the fireplace is adorned with tiles that are works of art, and above the fireplace is a Shakespeare quote from “The Tempest,” which is set on a fairy isle, not unlike Mackinac. It reads,

“The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.”

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source credits Mackinac Island Library 2023, Michigan Historical Society

this company knows how to mix things up!

what did you wear during your covid meeting days?

here’s something that i wore one day (with pajamas)

to surprise and cheer up my teaching partners and class

when we met online during this very challenging time.

channeling my inner llama

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‘if you’ve got it, flaunt it, and if you don’t got it, flaunt it.’

-mindy kaling, american comedian/actress

a little guy who i work with (age 5)

wrote this in his journal in response to my question

what a brilliant list.

translation:

1.kindness

2. goofiness

3. dignity

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‘it is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer.’