UAE's top chefs come together to support hospitality workers in need

 

Dining is not an impersonal experience. Behind every memorable meal that one has had, there is a person — a chef, a waiter, a helper — who’s warmth has etched the experience in your minds and hearts.

Today, as the hospitality industry navigates uncertainty, a unique initiative has been designed to help the workers — from bartenders, waiters, chefs and baristas to hostesses, supervisors and back-of-house teams — affected by current circumstances. The Art of Hosting, a local catering and events agency, has launched a programme, Family Meal, to support them by offering gourmet meals prepared by top chefs.  

“The idea for Family Meal began with a message no one should ever have to send,” says Kiah Khan, CEO of The Art of Hosting. “John Gillespie, who is partner at The Art of Hosting, started receiving messages from industry colleagues, waiters, bartenders and kitchen staff who had lost their jobs. Among them, one stood out, ‘I don’t have money for food’.”

That became a turning point. Kiah adds it was around the same time that the company was collaborating with Equiti Group for a corporate social responsibility initiative that involved providing mass meals to women, children and laborers. “Recognising the urgent and growing need within the hospitality industry, we expanded the initiative to include hospitality professionals, those who had spent their lives serving others, now finding themselves in need.”

On April 10 and 17, the first and second installments of the Family Meal distribution took place, and reached out to communities across Bur Dubai, Deira, Karama and Sharjah.

The third and final installment is all set to take place on April 24. The meals are prepared at Aramtec’s kitchen in Al Quoz, where participating chefs collaborate with the team at The Art of Hosting to prepare the menus. The aim is to deliver 1,500 meals across the UAE.

“The concept was simple yet powerful: deliver restaurant-quality meals to the homes of those affected in hospitality,” says Kiah. “Chefs who had previously collaborated with Sole DXB stepped forward, creating menus designed not just to nourish, but to comfort, and to remind recipients that they had not been forgotten.”

The initiative has already touched a chord among the hospitality workers. One of the recipients of the Family Meal package, Ivy, a chef de partie, had initially signed up for the meal support. “Soon after, she reached out with a different request: to help pack meals,” says Kiah. Today, Ivy is one of the most dedicated volunteers of the initiative.

In many ways, this initiative has been a reminder that “behind every dining experience is a human story and in difficult times, those stories deserve support and compassion”.

Kiah also lauds the spirit of the hospitality industry, at large, which has come together to support each other through this initiative. The participating chefs include Chef Milan Jurkovic of 21 Grams, Chef Hadrien Villedieu of Chez Wham, Chef Sultan and Kinda Chatila of Eleven Green, Chef Shaw Lash of Lila Taqueria, Chef Robert Jhan of Aramtec along with The Art of Hosting’s Chef Elias Kandalaft, Chef Earl Roland.

“Renowned chefs, many of whom have shaped the UAE’s culinary landscape, have come together to give back to those who once worked tirelessly behind the scenes. It is a message to the community: you are seen, you are valued, and you are not alone,” says Kiah.