5 days ago
Chef Cardie's Culinary Therapy: Inspiring Recovery and Joy
How can I give back to all the people here who have helped me recover? Charles Mortimer, known as Chef Cardie, thought while in a rehabilitation facility in New Jersey. The longtime chef had been healing through physical therapy following spinal surgery that had left him temporarily paralyzed. There has to be a way I can repay them!
Cardie's culinary career included cooking in kitchens all over the country. But standing on his feet for upwards of 16 hours a day finally took its toll, leading to the collapse of several discs in his spine and subsequent surgery.
'Your cooking days are over,' Cardie's doctor told him.
But during his fourth month in rehab, as he was slowly learning to walk again, Cardie said to the staff, 'I want to make lunch for you. I want that to be my therapy for the day.'
The staff was flabbergasted, wondering what he was talking about. They soon found out. As three of Cardie's therapists supported him, he cooked the staff his New Orleans specialties—jambalaya and bananas Foster bread pudding.
'This is the best lunch I've ever had,' one of the workers raved, while another was in tears, amazed Cardie could even stand. I feel like I have purpose, Cardie thought. I know God has a plan for me.
Soon, an administrator at the rehab asked Cardie if he would like to cook for all the residents of the rehab facility when he got back on his feet.
'Absolutely,' the chef replied enthusiastically.
Six months after his surgery, Cardie was walking again, and he and his wife came up with an idea for a new cooking show.
'Let's call it Culinary Therapy,' his wife suggested.
The duo took the show on the road, filming in rehab facilities, hospitals and assisted living homes across New Jersey.
To see people come in with their walkers and wheelchairs and start laughing and smiling makes my heart feel three times as large, he thought.
But Cardie wasn't done finding ways to lift people's spirits and fill their bellies. In 2016, he used the inheritance from his late parents to pay to build a brand-new kitchen and food pantry at a local church in his hometown of Verona, New Jersey. The pantry now serves 200 families each month.
Cardie also donates his time with the New Orleans–based Emeril Lagasse Foundation, teaching culinary students, and wrote a cookbook, Keep On Cookin': A Celebration of Life Through Cooking, which donates all proceeds to the National Coalition for the Homeless. So far, he's helped raise $200,000 for the nonprofit.
The joy Cardie spreads, particularly through Culinary Therapy, with over 125 appearances to date, is contagious.
'I want you to know the impact you had on our residents,' one nursing home staffer said. 'You brought joy and laughter into their world!'
'I'm blessed to have the talents to be able to cook and entertain people,' Chef Cardie says. 'It's great to have an impact on those who need to be loved and supported the most.'
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