Chef’s Lab x Alexander Smalls and Friends

Monday, Oct 20th
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm (6:00 pm VIP)
VIP Tickets include a copy of the book: The Contemporary African Kitchen

Refettorio Harlem
39 W 119th St (Harlem btw 5th and Lenox)
NY, NY

The evening celebrates the culinary and creative universe of Restaurateur, James Beard award winning author, and opera singer Alexander Smalls. Menu prepared by Chef Salaam and Chef Joe Hayes with service by Ian Troost. **Alexander Smalls in conversation with Lori Stokes. Music by Malcolm Merriweather** of the NY Philharmonic and Lucia Bradford, mezzo soprano.

The Chef’s Lab is an opportunity to showcase the mission and raise support for Free Food’s food assistance and food recovery programs at Refettorio Harlem - currently serving 600 three course meals weekly, addressing food insecurity, food waste, and more importantly social isolation with dignity, love and creativity. This event also directly supports a special community dinner for families, hosted with Alexander Smalls, as he shares his celebrated children’s book, When Alexander Graced the Table. Children alongside their parents will enjoy a special reading and family meal to follow on October 13th.

Alexander has a long and storied career in Harlem. His restaurants, Minton’s and The Cecil, created a lineage of young chefs that continue to define food trends. He joined the board of the Harlem School of The Arts in 2014, and served as board chair of Opus 118 Music School from 2007 to 2009. Through this Chef’s Lab we will be celebrating his latest book The Contemporary African Kitchen which presents a vibrant library of home cooking recipes and texts contributed by 33 chefs, restaurateurs, caterers, cooks, and writers at the heart of Africa’s food movement. 

The evening is presented in collaboration with Food for Soul, founding partner of Refettorio Harlem, as part of the global Refettorio Network's food and culture activities.

About Refettorio Harlem

Refettorio Harlem is a community and cultural hub located inside The Historic EMANUEL AME church on 199th street - founded by Food for Soul, Free Food Harlem and the Church during the pandemic to nourish those facing food insecurity and isolation as we unite to enable a sustainable inclusive food system.  Free Food Harlem manages the local initiative, uplifting their food and social justice work, offering hospitality dinners, at no cost for vulnerable guests, serving over 600 meals per week alongside a healthy fresh foods pantry, job training and arts education activities.  Their food recovery program in collaboration with a broad coalition of food rescue partners, recovers over 2000 lbs of food from the waste stream, transforming surplus ingredients into meals served at the table or in nourishing 100 people weekly with organic groceries from their fresh choice pantry.  In 2024, Free Food Harlem diverted close to 106,000 lbs of food from waste, saving 99,000 lbs of CO2 emissions and returning an economic value of approx. $300,000 back into nourishing the community.

Free Food Harlem is part of Food for Soul’s global Refettorio Network - 12 projects across 9 countries - working to foster social inclusion and promote healthy sustainable food.  Founded in 2015, Food for Soul launched the first Refettorio in Milan, Italy in collaboration with Caritas Ambrosiana and a network of artists, designers, chefs, and community leaders.  The model would go on to become a global movement of projects and partners - working together to  transform the traditional soup kitchen into a place of hospitality, beauty and connection where their collective efforts mobilize awareness and civic engagement to ensure sustainable good food for all.

Food for Soul is the founding partner of Refettorio Harlem, a nonprofit organization founded by chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore whose mission to prevent food waste and social isolation has inspired a global movement of Refettorio projects, nonprofit partners and change-makers working together around the world to utilize food as a tool for social change. The Refettorio model has become a catalyst to raise awareness and ensure healthy sustainable food feeds people not landfills - supporting the concept of a social kitchen to recover food from waste, empower community development, enhance well-being and pathways to better livelihood with with dignity and inclusion. The sharing of a meal becomes a story of transformation.

Supporting partnership in collaboration with RESY | AMEX