“Hell’s Kitchen” fans know Rock Harper as the champion of the culinary show’s third season, but for many of the city’s homeless, he’s now become the guy behind their delicious donated meals. In November the celebrity chef took over the reins at D.C. Central Kitchen, where restaurants in town donate their leftovers to be then turned into 5,000 meals each day for the less fortunate. Harper, a longtime “volunteer and friend” of the Kitchen told Yeas & Nays it took him several weeks to mull over the unexpected job offer. “Anyways, long story short, the timing was right and I love, love, love a new challenge and this is an extreme challenge,” he said.
Harper hopes to make all sorts of improvements within the organization so that it can eventually feed even more people. “My goal is to tighten it up as a professional kitchen into a mean lean operating machine,” he explained. He also hopes to make meals healthier for the homeless and also make them restaurant quality. “I want people to be able to say they would eat this in a restaurant or they would serve this in a restaurant,” he continued. But if he learned anything from his stint on television it’s that patience is key. “I like to make my own world very intense so I like to put pressure on myself, I perform very well under pressure, but patience is key and you have to have a goal and I have plenty of them here,” he said.
As for Harper’s television career, he said he wouldn’t do a “Top Chef” or a “Chopped.” “I won the big boys show,” he laughed. But he would like his own show someday. Maybe even a reality show featuring D.C. Central Kitchen? “Absolutely, I’d love to,” he said.
