3 Chefs - 3 Perspectives on the Covid Shutdown

From left: Chefs Aaron Lee of Yale University Dining and Heartfelt Catering llc, Raquel Rivera of A Pinch of Salt Culinary Education & Catering in Bridgeport, CT, and Avi Szapiro of Roia Restaurant in New Haven, CT.

Life as a chef generally revolves around cooking up food shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen, and dishing out meals to people sitting in intimate spaces together. At this moment though, in the middle of a global pandemic, the usual business of working as a chef is just not possible.

It is no secret that the restaurant and hospitality industry has been devastated by the economic shutdown. However, not everyone in the industry is feeling it the same way. From undocumented workers NOT receiving aid, to prep cooks on unemployment, independent restaurant owners, or large corporate restaurant chains, the pandemic has heightened the many realities and deep rooted injustices in our society and throughout our food system.

In the midst of all of this are chefs who find joy and purpose through cooking and long to get back to the business of making a living and building community around food. In this episode we are joined by 3 Connecticut Chefs, each working in different parts of the food industry, and each having a different experience of the covid-19 shutdown on their work and lives. We are joined by Chef Avi Sazpiro of Roia Restaurant in New Haven, Chef Raquel Rivera of A Pinch of Salt Culinary Education and Catering Company in Bridgeport, and Chef Aaron Lee of Yale University Dining and his personal business Heartfelt Catering.

In this episode the Chefs speak to a number of issues including being a restaurant owner struggling to stay afloat and support workers, a culinary educator/mentor for many Black and Brown food entrepreneurs, and a unionized university Chef still getting paid while sheltering at home and finding joy experimenting in the kitchen.

Check The Table Underground Facebook page for live video, and the show will post here and to podcast sites shortly. Many thanks to engineer Harry Droz at The New Haven Independent and WNHH Community Radio for making this tricky live remote quarantine show happen!