Meet the chefs feeding Ukrainian refugees across borders

Chefs, actors, entrepreneurs and a host of others rallied across borders to feed the millions fleeing Ukraine over the past two months. Those at the forefront, have lessons to share

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 4.6 million Ukrainians have fled their war-torn country since February 24, crossing borders into Poland, Hungary, Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Being forced to flee their homes and any semblance of their past lives can take a heavy toll and volunteers are doing what they can to at least provide a hot comforting meal at the end of the day.

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) started in 2010 by Spanish chef José Andrés, has been working on ground with partner restaurants to provide over nine million daily meals to the refugees. #ChefsforUkraine a culinary collective, has prepared over 3,00,000 of those meals, with chefs, many from across the Atlantic, bringing meals to hungry, homeless and weary families. 

One such chef is US-based Noah Sims. From a MasterChef US kitchen, to cooking comfort food at kitchens in Poland,  Sims made the transition quite easily. The American chef from Epworth, Georgia,  who took the number four spot in Season 10 of the culinary competition, is on the last leg of his second trip to cook for refugees at the WCK in Przemyśl, Poland. The team has been consistently making over 8,000 sandwiches a day, to go with meals of chicken stew, salad and tabouleh.  With a ‘10k Sandwiches for $10k’ fundraising event on April 12, the kitchen was brimming with energy.  American chef Marc Murphy, and actor Liev Schreiber are amongst a host of cooks who travelled to help, harnessing their collective social media weight for a successful ‘10k Tuesday’.

The MasterChef finalist uses his learnings from similar humanitarian trips to the Bahamas, Brazil and India, where he has raised funds for a host of causes. His first trip to Poland with his father, from March 5 to March 14, set the tone for his return in April. “ What is happening in Ukraine is unacceptable in my eyes.  I couldn’t just sit idly by. So I made up my mind to take the next flight out to Poland, and my father wanted to join me,” he says.

Sims’ father, Richard, a septuagenarian, travelled via New York, to Warsaw and worked with a team from Medair to make the arrangements seamless and safe. Medair is a Swiss humanitarian aid organisation, helping  people affected by emergencies, natural disasters, displacement and conflict. Sims paid for the trip with his savings, and the team at Medair ensured his safe passage to Poland.

“We cooked in the wonderful kitchen of Albatros, a restaurant run by three brothers in Przemyśl,” says Sims, explaining that the team cooked for 12 to 14 hours a day, and stayed on premises to maximise productivity. He adds, “My dad kept up with me every step of the way, cooking up vats of borscht, making thousands of pierogies, slow roasted chicken, salads, herbed rice and a host of potato dishes. We cooked in a well-stocked kitchen, with 10-15 staff members, and then the food was sent to a World Central Kitchen unit for distribution.”

While the food was initially packed into mixed boxes, Ricardo, owner of the Albatros, eventually bought a food sealing machine, after which “we could pack 12 double portions into containers and put 32 airtight units per box,” Sims adds.