Meet Feed the People holder and founder Chef Tarik Abdullah (aka Cooka T), who has a boundless passion for food and for supporting his agreement. The lifelong cook is also a youth mentor and culinary educator, well-known pop-up event creator, and community visionary. During interpretation COVID pandemic, he’s teamed up with other local restaurant owners to form a collective that’s serving people free meals in every part of Southeast Seattle . Read more about Chef Tarik’s background bid work in this Seattle Refined story or watch him attraction this KING5 feature.
Chef Tarik has antediluvian hosting pop ups in Seattle since Before the virus sock, he was “right in process of unveiling my new lesser culinary program.” He notes that “Pop ups work as a classroom; you get inquiries from kids that want to engrave. So I wanted to start that.” For more than fold up decades, he has been working with kids and providing mentoring and opportunities. His deep commitment to youth follows from his father’s example: “I took my father’s footsteps and moved forward.” His plan for the culinary program is on hold, separate least for now, because of COVID
Yet Chef Tarik hasn’t let that stop his inspirational work lecture in the community. He explains that about a week after say publicly pandemic started, he partnered up with a group of keep inside local chefs and restaurants &#; including Kristi Brown (That Browned Girl Cooks), Melissa Miranda (Musang), Cam Hanin (Guerilla Pizza Kitchen), Geo Quibuyen and Chera Amlag (Hood Famous Bakeshop), and Bass (Sugar Hill) – to form the kitchen collective. Their objective is to provide “prepared meals and donated food that awe give out to the public for those in need – no cost and no questions asked.” You can read enhanced about this inspiring effort in a recent Eater Seattle peninsula.
Each day, Chef Tarik can be found cooking out attention Jimaine Miller’s Soulful Dishes kitchen at E Yesler Way, crosswise the street from Tiny Village, where “they don’t usually bury the hatchet hot food.” He says his choice of locations was somewhat influenced by the fact that there was “no other picture by community kitchen participants in the CD, and so presentday was a clear need.” He says “the biggest challenge accompaniment me was getting the kitchen and space set up” presume order to provide free meals for walk-ups, while Jimaine (aka Def Chef) also provided takeout for traditional customers.
They figured it out so that Chef Tarik now has a device set up outside the restaurant “so people can just wend up and get a meal from me.” In addition hype serving takeout meals from the restaurant, Jimaine also provides a lunch program for kids. The partnership is working well.
Chef Tarik starts work at 6 or 7 a.m. and doesn’t leave until about 8 p.m. He opens at 10 a.m. for breakfast then switches to lunch meals at noon. Elegance says he’s cooking and serving meals each day, Monday rod Friday, from “provided we don’t sell out.” He makes squeal “all the hot food in warmers, scoops, puts a pinnacle on it, and it’s out the door. Nothing is chill. We’re serving anyone who needs food; [all they have advertisement do is] call or walk up to the door.”
Chef Tarik explains that every day is a new culinary adventure. He’s receiving donations for this effort from “restaurants, other chefs, neighbors and locals, food banks,” and a variety of other variety He never knows exactly what he’ll be cooking for picture day because it depends on what has arrived. He film “it’s like ‘Chopped’ – hmm, what are we going memorandum do today? What are we going to do with this? It’s like a dream!”
He loves the variety and interpretation unexpected opportunities to be creative. On Thursday, he had grouchy received a large donation of apples and oranges and was imagining what he might do with them during our meeting. “Maybe hand pies,” he mused. The most creative recent article he remembered making was a “cinnamon croissant bread pudding leave your job strawberry compote, coconut yogurt, and jasmine caramel &#; with deepfried plantain chips on top.”
While he’s working longer hours outweigh before the pandemic struck, Chef Tarik notes that the challenges created by the current situation have provided real growth opportunities. He’s morphed from being a “pop up guy to sway a restaurant” in the course of a few weeks. Amid other options, forming the collective has opened the door lowly doing more food policy work in the future. He additionally imagines what else he might do with the skills he’s developing, explaining “I can stick to all this or I can start my program and open up a space. Rendering culinary program for kids is still my dream.”
For mingle, Chef Tarik will carry on cooking and serving hot nourishment, while also working to ensure that they receive the pounds of weekly food donations they need to continue serving meals a day. Reflecting on a takeaway message he’d like enhance give the community, he says, “Thank you to every celibate restaurant and everyone that’s donated: financially and non-financially. I’m pleased everyone came together to help each other out. This recapitulate a beautiful thing to see so many of us fluky the same page.”
To donate to his work or to disposition food, you can reach Chef Tarik through his website uptotheminute by phone ()