CONNECT

We love making new friends and expanding our community. Our current process for participation is referral based in order to maintain the group dynamic. Former participants in good standing refer other chefs as participants that are open minded, positive, talented, and community driven. We maintain the group dynamic in this way because we've found that chef sponsors not only recommend amazing talent, they tend to recommend just plain ol' great people too. If you want to participate, please find a past participant that can act as a sponsor for your involvement. Currently, all available slots for COMMUNE are secured, but we'd love to connect about future ICC events.

This is truly a culinary-community-organized, experiential dining compound that is run by the participants. Most volunteer roles are handled by chef participants when they're not cooking or prepping for an event. Our second group of volunteers is invited via a referral process and we make sure that all volunteers have a hospitality career background, their participation as a volunteer won't impact their financial well-being, and they adhere to our strict Code of Conduct. We are still filling roles for COMMUNE and we may bring on a small group of additional volunteers that work in hospitality. If you're interested, click the link above and email communevolunteer@indiechefs.com.

A first of its kind festival, Indie Chefs’ COMMUNE is a two week long series of micro-events run by a collective of acclaimed chefs. Consider it the “anti-food festival” of the year - a festival that is equitable, gives back to the community, champions social justice, and is committed to addressing systemic issues facing the hospitality industry.


Because we wanted to. The COVID era brought a host of challenges for our society, and one of the hardest hit sectors has been the hospitality industry and specifically, the wonderful, hardworking folks that work in restaurants. Indie Chefs was forced to shut down operations in 2020 out of an abundance of caution and 15 cities of events that would have included over 300 chef participants, 18 restaurants, and 8000 guests. COMMUNE is meant to be a reunion of sorts that provides an opportunity to highlight the wonderful work so many of our members lead in their communities, in our halls of Congress, and across our continent. We want to give back and offer a moment of catharsis during a challenging time. The COVID vaccines provided us this opportunity.

We're also tired of the corporate festival model and strongly feel it's outdated, usurious, and unfair to the culinary community. We wanted to show there is another way. So here we are.