AN UNEMPLOYED CHEF from Dublin has offered up his home to a family in need on Christmas Day and will even cook them a full festive dinner.
Today it was revealed that another 42 families lost their homes last month and will be homeless for Christmas. Liam, who has fallen on hard times himself recently, said he wants to do his bit to help.
The 41-year-old worked from the age of 14 as a professional chef, cooking with the likes of Marco Pierre White over the years. Two years ago he suffered a heart attack and was told by his doctor he could not return to a professional kitchen ever again.
It was like losing everything. I was very, very good and when I was in the kitchen I was happy and singing. It was my one passion in the world.
Cooking on a budget
Following his recovery, being out of a kitchen and “back in the real world”, as he put it, was a real shock and he is finding the job search difficult. He is currently studying computer networking to expand his skillbase but his ideal job would be working with food again. On his Facebook and Twitter pages, called BiaMaith, he has recently started sharing recipes for simple, healthy and affordable food to show people how they can manage to eat well on a budget.
“I get €188 a week and €150 of that goes to the house so I just have my €38,” he told TheJournal.ie. “You can’t do anything, you don’t have a life. I haven’t even got the money to go to job interviews down the country. I have enough to feed myself and that’s about it”.
The affordable recipes he has shared include glazed ham and home made fried chicken, which Liam said he is now sick of.
I’m posting recipes for families of six but I’m just one person so I end up eating it for six days because I can’t afford to cook a different thing every day and tweet about it.
Christmas dinner
Just three weeks ago, the 41-year-old lost his mother, who he described as his best friend, and he will be spending this Christmas Day at his rented home in Dublin with a friend.
After reading our story about homelessness today, the chef posted a comment, offering to share the Christmas dinner he cooks with someone in need.
“I’m most definitely serious about it,” he told us. “My room mate will be away and I’ve already spoken with him about it. I’d be happy to sleep on the couch so if a family would like to have Christmas they can stay in the two rooms upstairs and I’ll cook Christmas dinner for them.”
What is life for other than for us to be nice to one another?
Celebrity chef Neven Maguire is providing a Christmas hamper full of food to help Liam with his good deed.
Despite his run of bad luck in the last two years, the 41-year-old remains positive, telling us: “I’ll get back on my feet – I’m not going to be down”.
His hope for the new year is to find work either in the food sector or with computers. His dream for the future, however, is to set up a community restaurant to train young people in cooking and pass on savings to the people in the area.
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