WCK Chef Corps members nourish the community of Asheville, North Carolina after Hurricane Helene
Chef Katie Button could have selected anywhere to open her Spanish restaurants that locals and tourists alike turn into a bustling party every night, but Asheville, NC, drew her in. “One of the reasons that we chose Asheville was because it’s the center of creativity—we have so many passionate people here who are pursuing something they care about.”
Right now, restaurants like Katie’s Cúrate and La Bodega in Asheville should be filled with fall weather seeking visitors. Instead, much of the hub of food and the arts is still without water and critical resources following Hurricane Helene that inundated the city and surrounding areas with so much water that roads disappeared and whole neighborhoods were lost to the storm that made landfall on Sept. 26. Suddenly, a different kind of creativity was required.
WCK-provided water tank at Cúrate
World Central Kitchen reached Asheville almost immediately and simultaneously began problem solving and providing meals. “For years to have supported WCK through fundraisers and various other activities and now finally, to have you all in Asheville because we are the ones in need, it feels completely surreal,” Katie said. “It’s also incredible because we’re getting to see firsthand how it works and how amazing it is. WCK is able to just jump in and activate resources like food and water.”
Katie is a member of the Chef Corps—a global network of 450 prominent culinary leaders who make WCK more nimble around the world. Chefs are some of the most trusted and connected members of their communities and the resources they share with WCK help us get cooking as quickly as possible. She’s one of several Chef Corps members who have helped WCK serve 360,000 meals in North Carolina to date. So is Chef Meherwan Irani—the co-founder and CEO of Chai Pani Restaurant Group, which is headquartered in Asheville and includes restaurants like Chai Pani and Botiwalla.
For years to have supported WCK through fundraisers and various other activities and now finally, to have you all in Asheville because we are the ones in need, it feels completely surreal.
Chef Katie Button
WCK Chef Corps
“Time and time again, Asheville has proven that it’s a community-minded and community-focused city,” Meherwan said. “As soon as cell service was restored in Asheville, folks within the restaurant community were all connected, checking on each other and asking what we can do to help. To be in the restaurant business is to truly be in love with the idea of service and hospitality, and it takes a crisis like this to reveal the highest expression of service and love.”
Katie and Meherwan’s restaurants were among the first to start cooking for their neighbors in need with logistical support from WCK. “We’ve been involved with World Central Kitchen for years because their mission is inseparable from what restaurants do: feed people and care for communities,” Meherwan said. His restaurant has been producing 1,500 meals a day that have mostly reached isolated families via helicopter. “WCK was the first relief organization on the ground here in Asheville, just one day after the flooding, and immediately started organizing restaurants to produce food and get it to those in desperate need.”
To be in the restaurant business is to truly be in love with the idea of service and hospitality, and it takes a crisis like this to reveal the highest expression of service and love.
Chef Meherwan Irani
WCK Chef Corps
WCK installed a water tank outside Cúrate so Katie’s team could safely prepare meals like sandwiches, stews, and rice and noodle dishes. “Our hurdle was really just water and World Central Kitchen solved that for us.” We’ve also brought other local Asheville restaurants like Rhubarb back online by installing similar water tanks. The more restaurant partners that can cook with WCK, the more staff small businesses can employ.
“Giving our team a sense of purpose has been just so helpful in this moment, and putting them back to work—doing something that feels good in a moment that can feel kind of overwhelmingly chaotic—creates some sense of routine and organization,” Katie said. “WCK pays the restaurants for the meals so that we can put workers back and pay them as well. That trickles down to the rest of the community.”
Food prep at Botiwalla
In addition to working with restaurant partners, WCK set up a Relief Kitchen at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Asheville helmed by Response Corps member Jamie McDonald. Once it was safe, several Chef Corps members from the surrounding region—Travis Milton, Andrew Stafford, and Christi Ferretti—traveled to Asheville to help man our signature paella pans filled with comfort food.
“Chefs are putting the same love and care into a huge paella pan of chili that they would be putting into a fine dining plate, all while laughing, hugging, and genuinely enjoying the opportunity to cook alongside each other,” Chef Travis of Hickory restaurant in Bristol, VA said. “I decided many years ago that I was gonna devote my life and work to Appalachia. Since I moved back, Asheville has been a warm, welcoming, and comforting hug of sorts for me.”
Chef Corps members love hearing feedback about the meals they prepare. “It’s like the food is so important—not just for nourishment, but you want it to taste good too,” Katie said. “And when it’s warm and it tastes good, in a moment like this, when you have no power and electricity, it’s a gesture of love.”
Chefs are putting the same love and care into a huge paella pan of chili that they would be putting into a fine dining plate, all while laughing, hugging, and genuinely enjoying the opportunity to cook alongside each other.
Chef Travis Milton
WCK Chef Corps
“Food, to me, is the absolute purest expression of love, and thankfully I get the opportunity to communicate through cooking sometimes,” Travis echoed. “The beauty of working to give someone sustenance, to feed and express hospitality, is just so pure and comforting to me. I realized not too long ago that feeding people is my love language, and I think a lot of other folks in this world share that.”
Join us in supporting families impacted by Hurricane Helene.
