The long-awaited first NYC project by Osteria Francescana boss Massimo Bottura is planned for this fall. As previously reported, the celebrated chef’s Manhattan debut isn’t a restaurant, it’s one of his Refectorrios, a combination of food waste control soup kitchens and community centers with multiple locations around the world.
The NYC location is in Harlem at Emanuel AME Church at 37 West 119th Street between Fifth Avenue and Lenox Avenue – not in the Bronx as previously reported. The Refettorio has been delivering meals to food insecure people in Harlem since Thanksgiving last year, in partnership with several local nonprofits. according to Tasting table that first reported the evolution.
One of Harlem refettorio Partner is the respected non-profit restaurant industry Hot Bread Kitchen. Through the group Cooking collective program, several local chefs and small business owners have created up to 600 free meals each week.
When the physical space opens to the public, the Refettorio will also host a vocational training program run by the nonprofit Youth Action Youth Build in East Harlem, a group dedicated to providing vocational training and placement to New Yorkers ages 17 to 24 . At the Harlem refettorio, participants in the program learn cooking skills and how to perform all of the operations for the center. The program is designed to help people start careers in the hospitality industry and food sustainability.
A central principle of Bottura’s program is the avoidance of food waste, with excess food and products from grocery stores or markets serving as the basis for the meals prepared in the refettorios. The most recent Instagram post of the Harlem Refettorio highlighted the work of Andy Rosa who last week sourced more than £ 300 of surplus produce from the Hunts Point Produce Market for the Refettorio.
The Refettorios are all part of Bottura and his wife Lara Gilmore’s charitable mealtimes Nourishment for the soulThe non-profit organization has now opened refettorios in Brazil, England, Italy and France. Meanwhile, Bottura made his debut at his first US restaurant, a Florence outpost, the Italian Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura. in Beverly Hills.
In New York, the Harlem Refettorio won’t open to the public until later this fall. There’s no opening date yet, but Eater has been looking for more details.
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