Visiting Chef Program

The Visiting Chef Program partners with exceptional volunteer chefs who come to the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run in Haymarket, VA and create once in a lifetime extraordinary meals for our injured warriors and their families. The program takes a farm-to-table approach with the goal of educating families about the benefits of cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs.

 

Saturday night is the Visiting Chef Night at the PenFed Foundation House with all dinners prepared by teams of military chefs from the Presidential Food Service at the White House. Visiting Chef Night in the Lang House is Sunday and one of 86 volunteer military, catering, personal, or restaurant chefs come. To assist the visiting chefs we have a staff of 12 volunteer chefs and sous chefs who routinely help.

 

The benefits to the Warrior and their family are overwhelming. We realize all our combat Wounded Warrior guests suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress and their spouses report it has often been years since they have been out to a restaurant. Our volunteer chefs bring a culinary experience to the family they almost always describe as the best meal they have had. The families learn valuable cooking tips from the chefs and everyone has a wonderful time.

If you are a chef interested in volunteering, please contact our program lead, Larry Zilliox , at chef@willingwarriors.org.  It is a great way for chefs and volunteers to give back doing the thing they love most.