After weeks of serving food at George Floyd memorial, Minneapolis chef opens kitchen
Chef Tea is opening a kitchen after serving Minneapolis community members at the George Floyd Memorial.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Hoping to bring healing through food, a local woman has cooked and distributed free meals at the site of the George Floyd memorial in south Minneapolis for the past three months. Now, Chef Tea is looking to open a kitchen of her own.
Tasheeka James is known for her cooking at Chubby Food & Catering.
“I’ve been cooking since I was nine years old, so it runs in the blood. I love to cook and I love food, and I know that food brings people together,” she said.
In a few days, the kitchen inside the Blake grocery store in Hopkins will be hers to operate.
“We’re going to have fish, chicken, salad, pastas, specials -- the works,” she said.
They’re some of the same meals she’s dished out at the site of the George Floyd memorial in south Minneapolis.
“We grew up in that neighborhood so when that happened, I instantly thought that I have to go out here and serve food. The first few days I took all of my own money and I went out and just donated whatever I could - hot meals, good food.
Chef Tea is opening a kitchen after serving Minneapolis community members at the George Floyd Memorial.
At least once a week for more than three months, at the corner of 38th and Chicago, Chef Tea used food as a tool to help people heal.
“So many people are angry, so many people have so many mixed emotions, and I know that food is an essential, right? So when you’ve got some good food, put some love in it. I’m just hoping to fill people with food and love," she said.
Chef Tea's passion for food is also stirring up her entrepreneurial spirit, with her kitchen opening on Sept. 15.
“For all those days, it did remind me of how much I love to feed people, so this is a dream come true."