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The Pacific Palisades home where chef Daniel Shemtob and his wife dreamed of raising their family is now nothing more than a crater of twisted metal and rubble. Gone are the gourmet kitchen, the nursery with wallpaper of baby giraffes and elephants, and the half-century-old olive tree in the garden.
But even as wildfires continue to burn in the Los Angeles area, Shemtob continues to serve foil-wrapped breakfast burritos and tacos to first responders and weary evacuees from his award-winning food truck. It has soothed the soul by distributing it for free.
It would be easy for the two-time Food Network contestant to dwell on the loss of the home he and his wife, Elise, moved into about eight months ago, renting with an option to buy. Still, he smiles as he remembers the people he met through the gifts of food.
One man was so happy with his sweet and spicy steak tacos that he smiled and declared, for the first time since his house burned down. Another loved the chef’s simple cheese quesadillas so much that he brought his family of six to come back for more.
And then there were the National Guard, who listened sympathetically one cold morning.
“He wanted to sit and listen to me while he ate his breakfast burrito. It was very cathartic,” said Shemtob, 36.
The Palisades and Eaton fires broke out in Los Angeles County on January 7, forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes, killing at least 28 people, and destroying nearly 16,000 structures. The two fires, which ravaged entire neighborhoods, are among the most destructive in state history.
Shemtob never imagined the Palisades fire would reach his neighborhood. When I evacuated around noon on January 7, I took only my laptop for work and homemade meatballs and pasta because I was hungry.
But that night, sensors in a remote home alerted the couple to smoke in the master bedroom. Then a fire broke out. Then the windows started breaking one after another.
Two days later, he sneaked back to the neighborhood on his bike to see the ruins for himself.
“That was our garage. That was our basement,” he tells his wife in the video, pointing the camera at the scene still hot from embers and billowing smoke. “Everything is gone.”
He fell into a deep depression. Then he remembered that he had something to give him.
On the Saturday after the evacuation, Shemtob rode a Lime truck to a donation center in Pasadena.
He had always loved the intimate atmosphere of cooking in a food truck, so he volunteered with World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit founded by chef Jose Andrés that delivers hot meals to disaster areas.
He was surprised to see celebrity chef Tyler Florence standing by, ready to make tacos.
In the center, people were sad and stressed. But there were also signs of community. One woman brought out pots and bowls of homemade stew for anyone who wanted them.
“People were coming there with whatever they had to give,” Shemtob said.
Since then, thousands of people have gotten meals from his truck.
At another donation site in Pasadena last week, Shemtob exclaimed as he handed out the last two meals of the night wrapped in foil. “Great job, team,” he said, pumping his fists in the air.
Shemtob estimated he handed out 750 meals that night alone and 200 pairs of shoes from his anti-slip shoe company, Snives.
He shares his experience of loss with others when he thinks it will help.
The greedy Palisades Fire consumed the clothes Shemtob had designed himself, the kitchen tools he had collected, and the culinary awards he had won. Half of her late mother’s photographs and other belongings kept in the basement were also destroyed. The other half went up in flames at my brother’s house nearby, which also burned.
The couple liked the house not only because it was close to his brother’s house, but also to her brother’s and the house her parents were building to be near their grandchildren.
On Sunday, Shemtob returned to the neighborhood with an Associated Press photographer, driving past many flat, desolate areas and stopping at what was once his home.
Among the sharp metal and charred rubble, they found a blackened muffin mold, pieces of a Hermès wedding platter, the outline of a refrigerator and part of a car.
For now, he and Elise, who are expecting their first child in April, are staying with their aunt. They didn’t have insurance.
But Shemtob has bounced back before. Just before the coronavirus pandemic, he acquired two businesses that ultimately failed.
“Then I decided to take out my kitchen truck and feed the frontline workers, and in those moments I started to feel good again,” he said.
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