So Proud Of Our Global Community

I always knew there was something very special about the global foodie community. Ever since I started my blog over three years ago, I've been surrounded by friendly, supportive people from all corners of the globe. My stats report tells me that the quarter of a million people who have visited my site in that time come from a staggering 207 different countries, as far apart as Haiti, Rwanda and Norfolk Island. Not only is it a global family - it's a wonderfully generous global family. Take a look at Pim Techamuanvivit's annual Menu For Hope fundraising for the World Food Programme to see just how generous.

When on Monday 15th February I heard about the kitchen fire at Mugaritz, I was particularly moved by the story of the stagières' knives. As someone about to contract his first ever paid position as a chef without first starting as an unpaid stagière, I knew how devastated these three young trainees from Guatemala, Sweden and the US would have been to lose their most precious possessions and the tools of their apprenticeship. That night my dad and I decided to see what we could do to help. After a few days fruitlessly trying to sort out the logistics of an appeal fund, dad wrote to food blogging friend John Sconzo in upstate New York... and the rest is history.

Overnight, the appeal fund that John established a fortnight ago smashed its target of $2,500. The overwhelming generosity of chefs, foodies and bloggers everywhere means that Diego Telles, Mattias Hogebrant and Greg Kuzia-Carmel will soon be able to buy brand new knives to replace the ones destroyed in the fire. I won't acknowledge all of the individual donors here, as John Sconzo has published a comprehensive thank you on his own blog. What I will say is that seeing the names of world-famous chefs, food writers, bloggers and fund-raisers on that list of donors, inter-mixed with the names of ordinary people like dad and me, makes me so incredibly proud of the global food community.