When you want a ‘good old American Breakfast’ you need a ‘good old American restaurant’ to go to. There are a couple still thriving on the main street of Novato, in California. We go to Marvin’s. The tables are crammed together, the outside dining that came in with Covid, remains – and for those new to Novato, with small fluffy dogs as accessories, those tables are fine. But for us, not locals but oldies, inside is better. The coffee comes quicker, the menu is there and you only get water if you ask for it. The restaurant is crammed and with a fluidity of a well-honed team the kitchen, and wait-staff dance between us all and even have time to smile and say hello. The clientele inside is mostly old, local, male and large. Which makes placing cardboard on the  floor of the tiny bathroom a more than sensible idea. So do the signs posted on the walls, ‘ For goodness sake clean up after yourself’, ‘Anything is possible if you have the courage to make it happen,’ ‘You never know what you have until it’s gone. Toilet paper for instance.’  Returning to our table, my second cup of coffee is ready for me and I am beginning to feel better. And that is the gift that a restaurant, worthy of the name, gives to its patrons.  

For over 50 years Cupertino-based Chefs of Compassion Cooking for a Cause has held an annual fundraiser dinner. A gala evening event of food, giving the attendees a feast fit for their dollars as they support the West Valley Community Services – serving those in need from the cratered and neglected pockets Santa Clara County. It is one of thousands of not-for-profit organizations throughout the country and the world that help those struggling with food, and to get by with things that many of us take for granted.

I stumbled across The Chefs of Compassion when reading of the sudden death of a beloved friend, Chef Steve Simmons. Steve and I first met when he was cajoled onto the board of Full Circle Programs. Barely out of apprenticeship he was far too young to enjoy sitting at meetings. He was busy claiming his place alongside other rising chefs in the Bay Area, such as Ogden Bradley. But he was game and eager to help with my first ever fund-raising event: a screening of The English Patient for the Full Circle Programs in 1997. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but Steve had everything under control and – if I remember correctly – gracefully served up oysters and champagne. The event was a modest success and we made money for the program. Steve soon became a renowned and sought-after Bay Area Chef in his own right before opening his own success story, Bubbas’ Diner in San Anselmo. Bubba’s was perfect for meetings, family gatherings and just plain, ‘let me sit-down for a moment and gather myself before the next whatever hits me’. With constant affection, our lives crossed paths for over thirty years. Steve’s sudden death from a heart attack brings a personal sadness as it does to all his friends, colleagues and family. He leaves three children to still scramble through school. But Steve’s work carried a constant in that, as well as being a fine chef, his desire to help those less fortunate was a hallmark of his work and is seen so often in other chefs, serving from small roadside kitchens or in world-renowned restaurants. Serving and sharing food is a passion that reaches out from our own kitchen table, to our communities and beyond. 

Chef José Andrés and his carrots

There are chefs who are known not only for their cooking, books, fame and fortunes but for their humanitarian work feeding the world. Such a chef is the Spanish American José Ramón Andrés who, with a matador’s flair naturally rose to the challenges ahead of him in the 1990’s when he arrived in New York. Success quickly followed success and took him to Washington DC where, dinning in his restaurants, meetings over a meal, discord could become accord. In 2010  Andrés founded the World Central Kitchen beginning by focusing on feeding communities hit with natural disasters but too quickly found itself operating – like Doctor’s without Borders – in areas of conflict – as wars marched side by side with climate change as the cause for famine and disease. While many chefs are artists in the kitchen and business men behind the till, Andrés is also a deeply caring man. Like an army General he quickly strode across the global stage with his humanitarian work.

Wherever war has brought hunger, the World Kitchen has been there, serving the food of the people to the people. The World Central Kitchen has grown to be enormous, serving food and people’s worldwide. Currently it is operating in Haiti, Ukraine, Poland, Israel and Gaza. In Ukraine, chefs and restauranteurs jockey with each other to feed the best borscht to their people, in the Middle East to honour Ramadan and other religions, and now the World Central Kitchen serves in Israel and Gaza, bringing the food of comfort to both Israelis and Palestinians. Though more at home behind a roaring grill or unloading the flatbed of a truck, Andrés fingers are now busy working the computer and phones as he looks to use any influence he has to halt the war in Gaza. Andrés is outspoken in his criticism of anyone who cannot see the need for humanitarian aid and his work is such that nobody wants to be seen not being compassionate. Both Republican and Democrat Senators are known to nod sagely when he speaks. Even in Israel, where the World Central Kitchen immediately gathered forces to feed those affected from the Hamas attack in October, Andrés can speak. But now – as that assault became a full blown war – and Netanyahu seized the excuse to attack Gaza, squeezing Palestinians into tighter corrals with less and less resources, things became personal for Andrés. A pier was built by the U.S. Military where food, water and relief could be unloaded safely and delivered to the Palestinians still trapped on the Gaza Strip. With the precision of a Military General Andrés already had supply workers lined up in a convoy. One, two and three, the vehicles were picked off by Israeli soldiers and all seven of the international volunteer workers were killed. Quickly Andrés took pen to paper and wrote op-ed pieces both in the New York Times and in Israel’s largest newspaper, plus tweets and all forms of media. He wrote “Israel is better than the way this war is being waged,” For the moment that supply route is closed. 

Andrés’ stride across the world stage is large like the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also untrained in the school of politics. Andrés’ schooling in the kitchen as Zelenskyy’s on the stage has given both men the skills of hustle, the art of seduction, both slicing and seasoning each connection to fit and join with another. Is it possible that it is these artists that can chip away at the gates of death, calm the storms of war, and bring a peace at the table. 

This has been A Letter from A. Broad. Written and read for you by Muriel Murch.

And always overseen by – beatrice @ murchstudio.com