January 21, 2015

For years the restaurant community has been an integral part of Citymeals’ success, but two years ago, Citymeals Board Co-President Chef Daniel Boulud wanted to get New York City chefs even more involved. He created Chefs Deliver, a program that provides restaurant-quality meals to homebound elderly New Yorkers.

Chef Boulud invited dozens of the city’s most highly-regarded chefs to lunch at Restaurant DANIEL where he explained his plan to them. They all felt compelled to be part of it and committed to participate. During the inaugural delivery on January 22, 2014, Chefs David Burke, Cesare Casella, Adin Langille, Marcus Ware and Citymeals Board Member Chef Charlie Palmer joined Chef Boulud at the Westbeth Artists Housing in Manhattan to deliver meals they had specially prepared for their most vulnerable neighbors.

Since that first delivery last year, many renowned chefs have whipped up mouth-watering meals and personally delivered them to frail aged New Yorkers each month. Some of the participating chefs included Scott Conant, Amanda Freitag, Markus Glocker, Marc Forgione, Alfred Portale and Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

Thirty chefs contributed to the initiative last year alone, delivering nearly 3,000 meals in total. Chef Boulud was thrilled with the results, explaining, "Chefs and restaurants owe our success to our community. Chefs like to give back, and I received very positive feedback from all the chefs saying that it was a truly special and rewarding experience for them to be able to bring their support to the homebound elderly."

Chef Palmer added, "For someone who has spent my entire life in the food industry, it's natural to nourish those who need it the most. Chefs that participate in this initiative have an eye-opening experience and immediately see the value in what we do and the effect it has on isolated older New Yorkers."

This month, Chef Langille – the first repeat Chefs Deliver participant – will mark the anniversary of his first delivery by preparing meals for our recipients in Brooklyn. Next month Chef Boulud will commemorate the one-year anniversary of the program alongside a special guest chef.

Watch video from the launch of Chefs Deliver in 2014.

See the recipe for Chef Boulud’s recipe for Provençal lamb daube, the dish he prepared on the first Chefs Deliver delivery.