The Stop’s Food For Change dinner series is back, and critically acclaimed chef Chris Brown is gearing up to feed about 40 guests this February.
After a nearly three-year hiatus, the monthly event will relaunch on Feb. 12 with a Valentine’s Day–inspired event at their location in the Wychwood Barns. It will kick off with a cocktail reception in the Stop Community Food Centre’s Green Barn classroom, followed by Brown’s four-course dinner — buttercup squash soup, smoked duck carpaccio, wood-grilled bison and elderberry panna cotta — in the 3,000-square-foot greenhouse.
Food For Change has raised over $72,000 since inception. Proceeds go toward the Stop’s transformative programs, which fight hunger, build hope and inspire change with the belief that access to healthy food is a basic human right.
However, Brown thinks there is greater value in creating awareness than writing a cheque. “I couldn’t measure that,” he said.
“There are lots of situations where people are left with the short end of a stick and not given the opportunity to break out of it,” the 36-year-old said. “As long as I live and have the opportunity to give back, why not do that for people who are less fortunate?”
Brown came up with the idea of making money for a non-profit organization during his years as a culinary student at George Brown College. So when the Stop approached him to develop their catering company in 2009, he left the fine dining scene — Avalon, Scaramouche and Perigee —behind for good. Brown worked at the Stop for four years, cooking up a storm for hundreds of fundraising events before leaving to start his own business, Citizen Catering.
His departure hasn’t stopped him from continuing to support the Stop’s fundraising events. In fact, Brown got involved prior to his employment through Cross Town Kitchens — a Toronto chef collective in aid of the Stop. At the time, he was a partner and executive chef at Perigee, which closed in 2009. “I was extremely bummed out and depressed,” Brown recalls.
But he has always believed that there is more to life than making money. “My job is to make people happy,” Brown said. “This might sound a little 1969 hippie-ish, but if the community works together as a well-oiled machine, everyone will be better.”
