HOME IS...WHERE THE KITCHEN IS?

Recently I was speaking with Curtis Duffy about his career as a chef.  We talked about his realizing that even as a child he felt most at home in the kitchen.  He described his increasing awareness of how important this feeling of at home was. He realized that he could trust that this feeling would be there if he was in his kitchen. I then read an interview about Curtis and discovered that he began his interest (passion?) for cooking in home economics class in the 6th grade.  His 6th grade Home Economics teacher is one of those special people who change people's lives and this was true for Curtis.  With the support and encouragement of people like his Home Economics teacher Curtis has pursued his dream and followed his heart into the kitchen.  He told me that it is important that his work in the kitchen fosters an experience of community that brings together all the local people who supply him food,  his servers and cooks and all the people who share his table with him. Curtis has followed his heart and opened his restaurant "Grace" in 2013 as an expression of his love of cooking and of community.  

So, a kitchen can be home as well as a place where love exists. It can also be a place for a community. Just check out Grace when you are in Chicago.  I wonder if any place can become a home if we open our hearts and share our love with others and then we become part of a community.  Isn't this community experience what we are about as humans? 

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

An opinion on the op-ed page of the January 22, 2014 New York Times by Stacy Torres talked about an incident in a McDonald's retaurant in Qweens, NYC where police were called to remove a number of people who had stayed in the restaurant for hours while purchasing only a cup of coffee.  There were mixed responses from the public with some applauding this and others feeling that it was not right and discriminatory. Ms. Torres points out that there is a growing population of elderly and homeless who frequent restaurants like McDonalds and will stay for hours and socialize with others.  Some of these people have indicated that they do not want to go to places for the elderly as they feel that they are places where you go to die and many of these people do not have any other place to go.  Many of them say that they like to be around other people and get lonely in their own places.  The restaurants are concerned about losing business at peak hours because of crowding as the elderly and homeless occupy a number of the seats and tables.  

So what to do? Keep calling the police to remove these people?  Hire security guards to either keep these people out of the restaurant or make them leave after a certain time limit?  Make a rule that if you only buy a drink then you can only stay for 15 minutes?  Ask these people to leave during peak times?  Ask these people to pay to stay in the restaurant when they are not buying any food?  Ask the other customers to donate money to help defray the costs of having these people stay in the restaurant and not buy food?  Ask the city to reimburse them for lost revenue?  Or should the restaurants welcome the elderly and homeless and have lower prices on meals and drinks for them?  And have neighborhood events at the restaurant that are open to anyone? 

So why is this important, or is it?  Well, we all need each other and need to be around each other or at least around some other people.  This helps us to feel better and be less stressed.  I have previously bloged about the importance of having reverence for all living things.  So it would seem clear that it is important for us to make room for each other and be with each other.  It just doesn't seem right for McDonald's to carry the responsibility for this by themself.