Ric Allen-Watson worried if the food he brought home would please his mother.
At seven years old, it was his job to walk 10 minutes to the grocery store, by himself, and try to buy enough food to feed the two of them.
His mother struggled with schizophrenia and was a bootlegger. Ric, meanwhile, struggled to carry the groceries alone.
The bags would often weigh him down, so he started to leave a quarter at the supermarket so he could push the cart home. Then he’d return the cart to get his 25 cents back.
“Life was up and down, to say the least,” he said. “It was a scary situation.”
When he turned 14, his mother told him he had to move out. Ric started to sleep over at friends’ houses, but that didn’t last too long. “Parents get sick of that very quickly,” he said. “I ended up just sleeping outside, sleeping in hallways, wherever I could find a place to sleep.”
Eventually, he turned to drugs and alcohol, seeking any kind of relief. Just before his 15th birthday, he got a job as a dishwasher at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
“I kind of made that place my home,” he said. “It was weird because everyone was so nice to me and they always treated me good.”
And there was also one chef in particular who pushed Ric to go back to school. “Just kept telling me that I could do better,” he said.
So he went back to school for hotel restaurant management and got his Red Seal Chef’s papers.
Now 62, Ric Allen-Watson is better known as Chef Ric, the man who feeds hundreds of Ottawa’s low-income residents across the city every week.
In 2004, Chef Ric started the Food Services Training Program at the Mission, which teaches students the necessary skills to work in a commercial kitchen.
Ninety per cent of his graduates have found employment in the food services industry, he says. Chef Ric’s kitchen also has a catering component, which brought in over $4-million dollars in the past fiscal year.
“We take people that really want to change their lives,” he said. “They want a better life.”
His volunteering at the Ottawa Mission turned into a successful career. He currently serves as their director of food services.
When the Mission opens up its doors to feed people, Chef Ric describes it as a community hub filled with laughter and conversation while having a healthy, nutritious meal.
Peter Tilley, the head of the Mission, says having Chef Ric opened up a “whole channel of opportunities.”
Since Chef Ric’s arrival, they’ve expanded his food services training program, added food trucks that travel around the city delivering over 10,000 meals weekly to low-income residents and are about to partner with the YMCA so the Mission can provide food services to newcomers and those in transitional housing.
“It’s not because he’s here in a money-making industry,” he said. “He’s here because of his own life story. He wants to make a difference in the lives of those who are truly marginalized, those who have truly found the Mission to be the last house on the block.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Mission’s food services shut down to everyone but its residents, Chef Ric came up with a plan for a food distribution centre out of the receiving dock door. “For a year and a half, people lined up around the block so that they could pick up meals across the tables from us,” Tilley says.
The Mission then got its food truck program up and running so it could continue delivering food to marginalized communities around the city.
Chef Ric has equally opened up opportunities for people in the industry.
In 2021, Mark Rudolph was arrested for importing and exporting cannabis into the U.S., as part of Project Hammerhead. During his incarceration, Rudolph worked in the prison’s kitchen and developed a passion for making food.
When he was first released from prison, he was notified by a program officer about Chef Ric’s training program.
“To me, the program was to get my foot in the door with something culinary,” Rudolph said, who had never received a formal culinary education. “You learn from different cooks, all sorts of cultures who have so many different techniques…different vegetables.
“It was very nice to learn under a really cultured environment and they (brought in) guest chefs.”
Rudolph isn’t originally from Ottawa but says the program has made him feel like part of the community while doing something he loves. “It showed me that I can do what I love and make money with it and actually succeed.”
He now works at The Whalesbone on Elgin Street, an opportunity he says he wouldn’t have gotten without Chef Ric’s guidance and training.
“I’ve never had to seek help from anyone. I’ve always provided for myself,” Rudolph said. “This time, coming out of prison and having absolutely nothing, (the program) gave me hope and a sense of belonging.”
Chef Ric says being able to provide these services to people in need and changing their lives is an “unbelievable” feeling.
He says he always takes the time to do one-on-ones with his students biweekly and share his story as a way to inspire them towards a better life. He strives to make his kitchen as friendly as possible for his staff, mostly comprised of past students.
If there’s one thing he wants the public to know, it’s his staff’s strength and resilience. “I just want them to understand that these people have had rough times and they’ve managed to get through it, and the program’s helped them.”
We love where we live, and throughout the summer, we are running a series of stories that highlight what makes our community unique and special within Canada. Follow along with “How Canada Wins” right here.
