Guest Chef Night with Chef Rachel Yang

Chef Rachel Yang takes over the kitchen at FareStart Restaurant on Thursday, December 3, for another Guest Chef Night. It's a three-course meal, and the whole thing is a bit of a community effort: Yang works alongside FareStart students to put the menu together, and volunteer community members serve the tables. All the revenue and donations from the night go toward FareStart's job training and placement programs.

Yang is a Korean native whose cooking pulls from her own history and her time at Michelin-starred restaurants in New York. She's a multiple James Beard Award nominee for Best Northwest Chef and Outstanding Chef, and she runs her restaurants with her husband and co-chef, Seif Chirchi. Together they own Joule, a contemporary Korean steakhouse that Bon Appétit named one of 2013's Best New Restaurants in America, and Revel, a more casual, street-food-style spot. Her newest project is Paper Cake Shop, which opened in Fremont in September 2023.

FareStart describes itself as an organization that transforms lives and disrupts poverty by nourishing communities through food, life skills, and job training. The Guest Chef Night is one of the ways that mission plays out in public—pairing a high-profile local chef with students who are learning the trade, with the community stepping in to help serve. The meal costs $50, and the restaurant is at 700 Virginia Street in Seattle.