Cooking for good
San Rafael chef delivers meals for those in need during pandemic
Although she laughs about it now, it couldn’t have been worse timing for Dee Wagner to start her wedding and event planning company in 2020. It wasn’t long before COVID-19 started pushing or cancelling the events she’d booked.
But, life started taking her in an unexpected direction when her friend who runs the Hillside Club in Berkeley asked if she could cook meals for some of its members who were staying at home. She did, word spread, and Wagner, who has cooked for most of her life, started integrating a meal delivery service and catering into her business. She now also gives back through NoHungerHere, the nonprofit she started in 2020 to bring meals to those in need, from struggling families to the Sausalito camp for people experiencing homelessness and to San Rafael’s Service Support Area for people experiencing homelessness.
Q How did you get into the food business?
A My first career was in television journalism. I left that career, and drove across the country to San Francisco, where I’d never been, to live with a friend. I was a waitress and a bartender, and started managing restaurants and stayed on that track. My husband, Ed Vigil, who’s also a chef, and I managed the Olema Inn and Restaurant for about five years.
Q How did NoHungerHere start?
A A neighbor who works for St. Vincent de Paul Society of Marin County called me to say they were in crisis mode because they had all these people showing up every day and there’s no food because the kitchen is closed. “Can you make some food and bring it down?” and I said, “Of course.” I went to the San Rafael Elks, where I am a member, and asked if I could use their kitchen to make the food. They said yes and I called my chef friends and we started making food. Cooking is my heart, so to be able to still cook
and make people happy is such a blessing.
Q How has that experience been?
A Sometimes, it’s really tough. I think, “Is this making any difference at all?” I try really hard not to think of it that way. I just have to trust that this is what I can offer and I’m going to offer it and hope that it makes a difference.
Q When did you fall in love with cooking?
A It was through my grandmother. She lived at a farm in Arkansas, where I often spent my summers. There was a huge garden, pigs and chickens. That was just amazing. She cooked every day. If you wanted to hang out with her, which is all I wanted to do, you had to cook. And I kept on cooking, even when I was doing the TV thing.
Q When did you consider yourself a chef?
A I never looked for chef jobs because I felt like I never had the credit for that. I didn’t go to culinary school. I was very intimidated, even though I had natural inclination, natural talent and passion. When I took a job on Angel Island as operations manager of its concessions, I saw immediately the potential for it to be a food destination. The women who had been working there for years were making clam chowder and other things from a box and I said, “We are going to change the food here, we’re going to make good food.” There was this beautiful ownership of the food. These women and I learned how to make more things from scratch, started building some skills and we figured it out. And from that, I definitely came out saying, “I am a chef.”