FareStart helps homeless cook up a new life in 16 weeks

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more than a quarter-century, Seattle Post-Intelligencer readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund drive, generating more than $5 million for local charities. Today, we look at one of this year's beneficiaries: FareStart.

It's 7 p.m. on Thursday at FareStart. Time for The Spiel.

Volunteer servers stop their ceaseless pacing in and out of the kitchen, and the evening's guest chef, staff and FareStart student crew stand at the front of the room.

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Diners, who have paid $20 for the three-course gourmet Guest Chef Night meal, savor one more bite of Barking Frog chef Bobby Moore's pesto prawns, porcini risotto-stuffed quail and caramel apple bread pudding.

The Spiel begins.

Dan Johnson, the non-profit's capital campaign manager, talks about how FareStart generates between 40 and 50 percent of its operating budget through its downtown restaurant, cafes and catering service. Guest Chef Night brings in $100,000 a year.

But behind the business is a 16-week comprehensive food-service program that engages mostly homeless students in preparing more than 2,500 meals every day for homeless shelters and day-care centers. The program has outgrown its digs and has had to turn away students, so it's on the tail end of an $8 million capital campaign. Farestart needs help to continue its primary mission: to transform lives. About 80 percent of the 200 or so grads a year get jobs -- usually in big food-service companies, but sometimes as local prep cooks or bakers.


		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	R.J. Williams, a FareStart student, wraps turkey he carved for a dinner on Thursday. FareStart turns lives around by teaching food service to the homeless.

Robert Junior Williams, 53, grew up around Southern cooking. It's cooking that has the best chance of securing his future.

Williams -- RJ to those who know him -- learned to walk the line, but not before his rap sheet filled the equivalent of a holiday cookbook.

Born in Mississippi before leaving for New Orleans when he was 19, Williams is a former cocaine addict, "professional crackslinger" and former convict. He estimates that he's spent about eight years of his life in prison or on a chain gang.

His faith -- and his third wife -- helped turn him around. He got clean, went to culinary school and worked until both hips gave out and had to be replaced. He was diagnosed with lymphoma and has had nearly 20 treatments. Since 1998, he's been on probation, and it was his probation officer who directed him to FareStart.

"It's the second chance," Williams said.

One of his instructors, Chef Drew Borus, said that the only thing that might stop Williams now is his health.

"He wants to learn. He's got drive, desire and ambition. He does what you ask, he's helpful and considerate of others. He's at a point in his life to make it good," Borus said.

Williams' life was finally on the upswing when the deaths of his mother and brother -- victims of Hurricane Katrina -- forced him back into active fatherhood, bringing his 14-year-old son to live with him and his wife. It's a task he's taken to heart, even though he had to start over in the FareStart program when he got back from New Orleans.

"There's no one to run home to anymore," Williams said. "I get to be a father. I think my son is the most important thing in my life."

He and his son found housing in a one-bedroom cottage near White Center.

Williams was 4 when he learned to cook. Standing on a soapbox, he made fried chicken -- the first of many lessons from the men and women in his sprawling Southern family.

He remembered his grandmother telling him, " 'Baby, you gotta learn to do things for yourself,' " Williams said. "They prepared me."

Sundays, the women in the house would go to church while his dad cooked. It's in Williams' blood.


		Grant M. Haller / P-I
	FareStart instructor chef Drew Borus goes over the menu with R.J. Williams to plan a future meal. FareStart is "a second chance," says R.J., who has learned how to trim turkeys in the program. "He's got drive and ambition," says Borus.

"My mother told me, 'Baby, wherever you go, you find yourself in someone's kitchen,' " he said.

He loves making certain things: soups from scratch and sauces. On the line, he's first to saute or work on the dessert station. He's also learning how to trim whole turkeys -- a skill that he said will come in handy when it comes to finding work.

"The more you learn, the more you earn," he quipped. But in taking instruction from Borus, he observed carefully. "OK, chef," he said, over and over. When Borus asked if he had any questions, Williams said he wouldn't hesitate if he got stuck. "I ain't scared to holla help, 911."

In the controlled chaos that is the working kitchen of FareStart, where guest chefs juggle space with staff chefs preparing shelter meals and catering platters, Williams' booming baritone cleared the tight aisle.

"Right behind!" he said, hoisting a box of frozen turkeys from storage.

"Coming up on your left!" he yelled on his way back with the remains after his filleting.

Like other FareStart students, he loves Guest Chef Night. It's a chance to rub elbows with the pros and put together complicated recipes in a work environment. Sometimes, they also get jobs through the networking opportunities.

Williams chatted with Moore's assistant chef, Amanda Zimlich, about pastry chef Christina Longo's bread pudding and how he made his with sweet potato, but his main duties were helping nighttime instructor Borus prepare food for FareStart's catering service during its busiest season.

Williams recently was accepted into the culinary associates program at the Art Institute of Seattle. His goal is to teach, and eventually become a chef on public access television. He's even got a name for his future show: Ghetto Gourmet.

"It's not the American dream, but it's getting close," Williams said.

P-I reporter Athima Chansanchai can be reached at 206-448-8041 or athimachansanchai@seattlepi.com.

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