World Cooks Tour for Hunger 2011

Come August 2011, South Africa will once again play host to the most incredible global culinary event of a lifetime -

The "World Cooks Tour for Hunger 2011".

This amazing event will take place throughout South Africa from 21st-30th August 2011 and will see more than 200 international and local Chefs come together to raise more than ZAR 2 million (South African Rand) helping the poor and the underprivileged to receive a warm meal and more.

Today begins a series of articles in which we will reveal the personal experiences of Chefs who have had the privilege of attending the World Cooks Tour for Hunger in South Africa.
We begin with my own reflections from the first day of the 2003 World Cooks Tour for Hunger.

Day 1. 15th August 2003
As a great many of the chefs had arrived a day or two earlier it was decided that we would stage a march protesting against Hunger through the centre of the infamous township of Alexandria finishing at the Police station Lock Up where we would feed some 200 local homeless and disadvantaged children the only warm meal that they were going to get that day and possibly the next.

"2.5 Million children in South Africa will go hungry today and tomorrow there will be more."

So there we were, about 80 International and local Chefs, looking grand in our white starched jackets and tall hats, standing on the pothole studded streets of Alex. Accompanied by three Police vehicles and a local Fire Brigade complete with a large red Fire Engine, sirens blaring and flashing lights, we felt assured that we were not going to go unnoticed. The slip of dirt on either side of the tarred road that passed for a sidewalk was overflowing with raggedy dressed, barefooted children with more and more faces cramming into small uncovered windows and doorways of rusty coloured corrugated shacks and run down, virtually falling down government erected housing of the apartheid era.

With banners and flags unfurled and our hearts filled with great pride, a little fear and much anxiety, the chefs of the World marched shoulder to shoulder as one, united in thought and purpose hoping to make but a little difference in the otherwise bleak existence of a hungry Child's life.

At the Police station the atmosphere was a biz with the excited chatter of children, all of them wanting to have their photo taken with these white clad strangers from far off places. Children singing and dancing waiting patiently as the time built up to when the food would be served. Lining up in a seemingly endless queue that snaked its way around the otherwise colourless compound and back again. With their faces filled with joy knowing that today something good was going to happen, today they were going to eat for sure but more than that they might get a souvenir pin or a flag or even a chefs hat or jacket that they could show and tell their friends and extended families and neighbours about that evening and possibly for days to come.

Then there were the children that stood quietly with their small mostly dirty hands clutching onto a still empty plate, some of them with knees trembling from hunger, smiled sheepishly as they slowly chewed a mouthful of fresh bread trying to make each bite last longer than the one before until it was their turn at last to stand before the enormous pots of food and receive their portion of Spaghetti and Meat Balls in Tomato sauce over Mashed Potatoes along with a choice of orange or lime cordial. For those children, their movements were focused and careful, walking slowly selecting a quiet place to sit away from the crowd a place where they could find peace and take much needed nourishment and comfort from a warm plate of food knowing that at least for today they were safe from the endless stabbing pain of hunger.

Thus began my incredible life changing 10-day journey into the heart of the South African "World Cooks Tour For Hunger 2003."

Alan Orreal

Food Alchemist