Chef Brings Gourmet Food to Homeless

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Chef Chooses Higher Calling Over Posh Napa Scene

by Scott Shafer

August 18, 2009


California's Napa Valley is home to some of the world's finest restaurants. But one of the culinary world's rising stars left the fancy restaurant scene to cook in a far different setting: a Bay Area soup kitchen.

Leaving Napa For Richmond

During lunch time at the Bay Area Rescue Mission in Richmond, Calif., just north of San Francisco, culinary director Tim Hammack is demonstrating the best way to chop onions.

"Food's always been a big part of my life since I was young," says Hammack. "I would always cook with mom and my grandma and my dad."

Hammack grew up in the Napa Valley. After high school, his infatuation with fine food led him on a backpacking trip to Europe, where he explored the cuisines of Spain and North Africa. When he returned to California, he eventually landed a job at Bouchon, a renowned French bistro in the Napa Valley town of Yountville, Calif.

But just as his culinary career was taking off, Hammack started questioning where he was headed.

"I was cooking for very wealthy people and people of means, which there's nothing wrong with that," he says. "But I just had a passion for people who didn't have means."

So eight years ago, Hammack was hired on as head chef at the Bay Area Rescue Mission. He figured it would be a short-term gig.

"Leaving Bouchon and coming to the rescue mission seemed like a great idea," he says. "I told them I'd give them a one-year commitment."

Being able to touch the lives of others appealed to him — so much so that he didn't want to leave.

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