Toronto pop-up takes on HIV stigma

“I’m not a cook with HIV. I’m a cook.”

“Meals just like mom used to make. If mom had HIV.”

“I got HIV from pasta. Said no one ever.”

Chefs wearing aprons emblazoned with these phrases and more are part of a campaign taking aim at the stigma that surrounds HIV and food service. In what The Guardian reports as a world’s first, June’s Eatery in Toronto served meals made entirely by HIV- positive chefs. The two four- course dinners, which took place on Nov. 7 and 8 at $125 per person, quickly sold out.

“We really wanted to be able to challenge the stigma that still exists around HIV,” Joanne Simons of Casey House told The Guardian. The hospital — Canada’s only self- contained facility for people with HIV/AIDS — partnered with ad agency Bensimon Byrne for the popup.

“Our HIV- positive chefs, who come from all walks of life, bravely came forward to show they have nothing to be ashamed of, and more importantly, cook a meal for hundreds of people in Toronto who have nothing to fear from them,” Joseph Bonnici of Bensimon Byrne told Adweek.

The t eam of 14 chefs worked with Toronto restaurateur and TV host Matt Basile to design the menu, which included a northern Thai potato-leek soup, Arctic char pappardelle, grilled skirt steak with chili-garlic rapini, and gingerbread tiramisu.

The results of a recent Casey House survey highlight the enduring stigma affecting t hose working in food prep face: nearly half of Canadians said they wouldn’t eat food made by someone who was HIV-positive. Health experts, such as the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have long established that HIV cannot be transmitted by consuming food that has been handled by someone with HIV.

“Haters be hating,” Basile told Munchies. “And by haters, I mean people who overlook science and education, to allow personal feelings of ignorance to take over. I think any sort of stigma related to HIV is rooted in personal prejudices versus actual evidence.”