Croatian Chefs Open Sixth Location for Petrinja Earthquake Victims, Some to Stay Until Further Notice

So far, they have prepared over 60,000 meals, and on Monday alone, about 11,000 meals were delivered. The chefs organized everything themselves, donated, paid the funds, and most importantly, were immediately in the field, ready to heal with the comfort of food.

The entire catering industry has joined in, and the National Association of Caterers, the Croatian Culinary Association, Chefs Cook at Home, JRE, and various other catering associations and chefs from all over Croatia are on the ground.

HRTurizam reports that the sixth kitchen was opened on Tuesday, the second in Sisak.

Chefs are currently cook in the following locations:

Petrinja – Croatian Veterans Square
Mošćenica – Dragutin Tadijanovic Elementary School (Cocktail bar Chef cooks at home)
Topusko – Catering school at Školska 14
Sisak – two locations – Sisak elementary school at Ul. Franje Lovrića 27 and Mije Goričkog 58 (Cocktail bar Chef cooks at home)
Glina – Drvni centar, Ulica Žrtava Domovinskog rata 71

On Tuesday, the caterers managed to arrange for the state to receive all the necessary cooking materials.

”We have arranged everything here, we have cooked about 60,000 meals as of today. Just yesterday, we shared 11,000 hot meals. Now, as we were told, the state will train Ina in Sisak to prepare 6,000 hot meals, and we chefs will stay for the next 7 days, but then we must slowly return to our jobs,” said Marin Medak from the National Association of Caterers, stating that about 200 to 300 chefs from all over Croatia are cooking for the victims of the earthquake, as well as for volunteers.

“When we arrived in Petrinja at 4 pm on Tuesday, no one from the service was here. We only cooked 800 meals that day in my ‘food truck’. We brought two units and burned through them as much as we cooked. The key for me was to feed the people, and the situation is now that the state must structurally take over the job of organizing hot meals. We will transfer all donations to them and now let Tomo Medved (Civil Protection Headquarters Chief for earthquake relief) take it over; it must not happen that people stay hungry. It’s time for the state to take the baton,” Medak said.

The team of Croatian chefs led by Mato Janković, which you may know from the Facebook page Chef kuha doma, announced on Tuesday that they will stay in Petrinja until further notice, regardless of whether they will receive state aid or not.

“The Chef Cooks at Home Association remains at the disposal of people affected by the earthquake. So we continue to cook and help everyone who needs a hot meal every day. We don’t care if the state wants to help or not. We collected donations through private and business contacts and the personal commitment and reputation we have built over the years. We distance ourselves from media reports mentioning that chefs are withdrawing from Petrinja if the state does not help.

Petrinja, Sisak, and Glina – We are still here for you!

Chef kuha doma team
Marin Rendić
Mate Janković
Igor Čimbur
Belizar Milos
Pero Savanović
Ante Božikov

We thank all our donors, partners, and people with big hearts!” they wrote.

For more on the Petrinja earthquake and to see how you can donate money, food, humanitarian, sanitary, and material aid, follow our dedicated section.