The Good Kitchen In Sicily

Love And Connection Through Food

It still amazes me that my friend Sumer shot and edited this short video taken at The Good Kitchen on his iPhone.

I launched the community kitchen here in Sicily in July 2021. Since then, many film crews have come through our doors filming moments of life, food, and community. But this little 5 minute video feels different as it captures something much deeper. For me it reflects the heart and soul of this kitchen. I first experienced how food is a great connector when I lived and worked in London for the chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver. I worked on all of Jamie’s food campaigns, helped run Fifteen restaurant and became a passionate advocate for community driven food initiatives. In 2006 I started to volunteer for San Patrignano in Italy, the world’s most successful free drug rehabilitation community. The community is like no other on the planet with an outstanding 72% success rate. I found solace in the community and their beliefs on addiction resonated with me. I still volunteer for San Patrignano and I am actively involved in the UK San Patrignano Association that continues to assist UK residents to enter the community in Italy. When it was announced that the UK was leaving the EU I started to think about how I could move to Italy and put all of the skills that I had acquired working on community food based projects to good use. The story of how I ended up in a remote town of Sicily called Mussomeli is fascinating and involves lots of exciting twists and turns and for another post for another day. In the meantime, let me tell you about The Good Kitchen.

What Happens At The Good Kitchen

I have always dreamed of opening a community kitchen, a space that was small, tangible, and real. A place where I could see the direct impact of our work in the lives we touch and the families who we look after. The Good Kitchen is exactly that, and so much more. We have partnered with Italy’s largest food rescue foundation Banco Alimentare and to date we have rescued over 24 tonnes of surplus food that was destined for the dump! Every day perfectly good food is being thrown away and yet people are going hungry. In fact, every year, a third of the world’s food is wasted and every day, millions go hungry. Whenever I finish a day volunteering and close the doors to the kitchen I think to myself even if we never offered any other activities or did nothing else, redistributing 24 tonnes of surplus food to families who really need fresh produce in this area is pretty extraordinary. I remind our volunteers of this fact every week.

Rescuing surplus food for our community kitchen

The kitchen is open from Thursday to Saturday here in Mussomeli. On Thursday we collect all of the surplus produce in the morning from the supermarkets and deliver it to around 20 families in Mussomeli. Last year we also started to deliver to families in a smaller town that is close to Mussomeli called Acquaviva Platani. The Good Kitchen is situated in the main town square of Mussomeli called Piazza Umberto and on Fridays we open the glass doors and send out an open invitation letting everyone know that we have a co working space. The WiFI is excellent and the broadband speed is very good as well and it is always a joy to welcome people from all over the world to the kitchen to work. On Saturdays we have a second collection of surplus produce and we also run workshops and cooking classes especially for the children from the town. Sunday (as you can probably imagine because we are in Italy after all) is the penultimate day in The Good Kitchen. We set out long tables outside of the kitchen on the edge of the town square and we invite guests for a free lunch at 1pm. When I first launched the kitchen all those years ago, I would open the doors, lay the table and sit there and wait for guests to arrived. No one came. It was my mission then to change the perception of the space from a soup kitchen to a joyous place full of love and compassion. Our Sunday lunches are now hugely popular with around 50 people arriving to enjoy a three course lunch prepared by our incredible team of volunteers. We also deliver a cooked meal to families in the town and elderly people who may be alone on a Sunday.

Sunday lunch at The Good Kitchen, Sicily.

Who Do We Help?

The families who we help are mostly in food poverty. They receive canned goods and ambient products from a food bank but what they really need is fresh produce and that is where we step in. For some of our families collecting food from the kitchen on a Sunday is a chance to leave the house and socialise. The environment in the kitchen is very welcoming and on a Sunday we have music playing and bottomless cups of espresso available… We also offer emergency food packages for anyone who suddenly finds themselves without food. Often this can be due to a sudden illness or loss of a family member. We also deliver cooked meals on a Sunday to elderly people who maybe alone. This is a chance to check in, greet them with a smile and make sure they are ok. There are many elderly people in smaller remote towns like Mussomeli as their families have had to leave to find work elsewhere.

Our community

We also collaborate with two extraordinary foundations in Mussomeli that help residents who are sometimes not seen and forgotten. Casa Vanessa is a beautiful home where children live whose parents can no longer look after them. Every picture of an orphanage that you may have in your mind disappears when you walk through the doors of this place. It is a house that is full of compassion and all of the children are surrounded with love. From day one we have arranged cooking classes for the children and special events and birthday celebrations, providing them with moments of joy and a space to simply be themselves. Welcoming the children to The Good Kitchen has been one of the most meaningful and humbling parts of our journey so far.

The other group of beautiful souls who are a part of The Good Kitchen family come from a foundation called Casa Rosetta. I'm mindful here of how I write about them, because I want to do them justice. They are incredible individuals who have faced profound physical and mental challenges, and like the children of Casa Vanessa can no longer be cared for by their families. We often invite them to join us for lunch or dinner, especially during Christmas and other festive occasions in the town. One of the most extraordinary residents of Casa Rosetta is Marco. He volunteers with us at the kitchen, and last year, it was an absolute honour to feature him on the cover of the book I wrote about The Good Kitchen. If you ever join us for Sunday lunch, you’ll likely be greeted and welcomed by Marco. Just be warned though as you might leave with a copy of the book in hand, Marco is, without doubt, our best salesperson!

Our community at The Good Kitchen

Here are three invaluable lessons that I have learnt from launching The Good Kitchen:

1. Prioritising My Wellbeing To Help Others

Last year I was honoured to be invited to give a TEDx talk on The Good Kitchen. My core message from the TEDx talk was about how I have always been mindful of ensuring that I take care of myself first and foremost so that I am then able to look after others in the kitchen, our community and all of our volunteers as well. When I am not in the kitchen I spend time on my farm in Torre Salsa that is just over an hour’s drive from Mussomeli. Here I am able to rest and restore and totally wind down. This also gives me some space so that I am able to see the bigger picture for the kitchen and plan for the future. Here on my farm I am surrounded by nature, living intentionally and slowing down. I used to overthink everything, second guess myself, and not trust my instincts. Owning a farm in Torre Salsa was a choice to slow down and give myself the space to really focus on what the kitchen needs. I’m grateful for the chance to do that and for everything that comes with it.

Giving a TEDx talk and my house in Torre Salsa

2. Always Be Open To Change, It Is The One Constant In Life.

I have also learnt to be patient and always be open to the kitchen growing in an organic way that is aligned to the needs of our community. Our core focus now is social inclusion and also providing fresh food to our families, we are in Italy after all, a country where cooking and food is at the heart of every day life. When I first launched the kitchen I imagined that we would be delivering cooked meals to our families and over time I learnt that this was not what the community needed. Their preference is for fresh produce. Many people face the hardship of loneliness in Mussomeli and the kitchen has become a second home for them, providing an opportunity for friendship and a place just to be.

3. Always Be Willing To Ask For Help

I always joke with our volunteers that “my main job in the kitchen is to do myself out of a job” and I mean it. I’m always thinking about how we can make the kitchen sustainable for the long term with paid staff, funding, and a foundation that doesn’t depend on just one person that being me. Part of my bigger vision is to show that community food projects, especially here in Sicily, can be both financially sustainable and have social value. I’m constantly reaching out to other organisations and foundations across Sicily, asking questions, learning from what they’ve done, and building connections. Our volunteers are amazing, from our young people to the Nonnas and I am constantly ensuring that they all feel a part of the kitchen. I want them to know they belong here, that their time and energy matter. I’m always looking for ways to help them grow, giving each person a chance to shine and always asking for their help as well. That’s what makes this whole thing work, it’s not just about food, it’s about people.

A joy to have taken you into the world of our special kitchen in the heart of Sicily. If you’re ever in the area on a Sunday, come by for lunch at 1pm, everyone is welcome. I am looking forward to sharing a meal with you at our table. It’s a little reminder of just how good people can be to one another. In the next post about The Good Kitchen, I will be sharing some exciting news about our future plans.

Sending much love from Sicily.

Danny