All For Food, Food For All

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

Read this article in Ode Magazine (p. 26 in April 08 issue)

What's your ideal dining experience? ... For Denise Cerreta, it's a "community kitchen" where there's no set menu (so customers are served whatever the chef feels like making) and where patrons pay what they think the meal is worth. And that's exactly the experience she created in 2003 at One World Cafe http://www.oneworldeverybodyeats.com in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the western US. One World meats are all organic, and guests pay the price they think the meal deserves.

Because customers choose their portions, Cerreta says, there tends to be little or no waste. If you turn up at One World and are short of cash,volunteer for an hour--washing dishes, cleaning or working in the organic garden--to earn a meal voucher. Every day, a traditional Indian meal of dal and rice is provided free.

Cerreta's One World Everybody Eats Foundation wants to put a community kitchen in every city. A first step in that direction was taken in 2006 when Brad and Libby Birky, inspired by One World, opened the So All May Eat (SAME) Cafe. http://www.soallmayeat.org in Denver CO. Like One World SAME uses fresh organic ingredients, doesn't have a set menu and allows patrons to set their own prices. Instead of a chash register, customers deposit their payments in a donation box.--James Geary

[wellstone dem]

1. I wish I lived there

thanks for sharing

[Warpy]

2. There was a restaurant in Cambridge, Mass.

that used to seat 8 people at a table and serve everything family style. People would agree on 2 menus per table and serve themselves from the dishes going around.

I doubt if the place is still there, this has to be 35 years ago, but it's not a new concept. Food was basic veggie fare and quite good. Prices were fixed, though, and contributions weren't voluntary.

It's amazing that sitting down with a table full of strangers to share a meal was so pleasant. Most times I went there, I'd never seen any of those people before and I'd never see most of them again, but it worked.

I used to go there for the company as much as the food.

[knitter4democracy]

4. I would totally eat at a place like that.

I love getting to know people like that. Over good food, the best discussions happen. :)

[jwirr]

3. In the 70s I remember eating at a restaurant in Iowa City, Iowa

that used volunteers to cook, serve and such in exchange for a meal. That of course was before all the regulations! Most of us paid cash but it was great food so we went there often.

[bobbolink]

5. Do they really mean EVERYBODY?

My experience is that the "cool" people who insist on organic, etc., wouldn't want to share their "dining experience" with the riff-raff like me.. people who can't afford to eat out at all.