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Eli

12/7/2015

 
"There was a bookmobile that came around to our apartments when I was a kid, and they had a contest: whoever read the most books would win a bicycle. I was eight years old and didn't know how to ride a bike yet, but my brother did and he wanted one, so he talked me into entering. The plan was for me to read and for him to get the prize. I thought the cookbooks looked interesting, so I started checking them out, reading, and experimenting. My first attempts at cooking were disasters. I remember trying to make fried chicken and spaghetti, but they were so awful nobody would touch them. Then I bought different sized pans from the thrift store and tried to make a wedding cake. Nobody could eat it either, but I kept trying. About a year into the experimentation, my mom realized I was serious, so she started teaching me things in the kitchen and I began helping her cook for events at church. I spent the summer I was nine helping my aunt cater weddings. From there things escalated, and now I’m a chef at Caritas Village. I love what I do. I love how food can take people to places they may never be able to go and allow them to experience other cultures, other ethnicities. I love how food connects us to each other in ways we might not otherwise connect. I don’t have one particular dish that’s my favorite to cook. I enjoy making everything. Sometimes people ask, ‘What’s your secret?’ I think the secret is the love and the passion I pour into what I do.”
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Some of Eli's work below.  Photo credit: Caritas Village FB page.
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Chef Elijah Townsend, Culinary Artist-in-Residence at Caritas Village, 2509 Harvard
See more photos of Eli's dishes and the lunch menus for the week on the Caritas FB page.
  • Caritas website
  • Caritas FB page  
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