Leadership Legacy Circle: Chef Jeff Bacon

Founder and Executive Director, Providence

Network and program tenure – 2006 through 2026

Jeff Bacon is a leader that exemplifies what it means to be a part of Catalyst Kitchens and our member programs. Jeff founded the Providence program (then called Triad Community Kitchen) in 2006, after himself experiencing barriers and being offered a second chance at a career through food, restaurants, and the culinary arts. He founded and cultivated what would become an exemplary Model Member program which has, to date, trained over 1,000 individuals in the Winston Salem community, and kept that same community fed through the production of hundreds of thousands of meals per year.

Jeff was involved with Catalyst Kitchens from the start, becoming fast friends with our founder, David Carleton, and involving his program as one of the 11 founding members of the network back in 2011. Providence soon became a vocal leader and Model Member within the network, demonstrating exemplary practices under Jeff’s leadership. Over the years, the Providence program has built and operated multiple restaurants, multi-million-dollar catering operations, massive hunger relief kitchens that worked with meals on wheels, medically tailored meals, and kept restaurant and hospitality workers fed throughout the pandemic. This is in addition to multiple cafes, a boutique hotel, and even a short-lived smoked meat incubation program, dubbed after its founder as “The Baconator”.

In addition to all the accomplishments above in Winston Salem, Chef Bacon served directly in ways that grew Catalyst Kitchens as a network and community. He helped create and sat on the Member Advisory Council at its founding, and Jeff and Providence stepped forward and hosted the first ever Catalyst Kitchens national summit to take place outside of Seattle in 2018. Jeff was a vocal advocate for job training programs in national culinary circles, including within the ACF, where he is still an active leader and member. Jeff and his team’s leadership was pivotal to readying the network for independence as a nonprofit in 2022, ensuring the network not only survived, but grew and thrived. Post-pandemic, Providence again stepped forward to host the national summit in 2023, the first major in-person event in 3 years. Each summit, at the time it was hosted, represented the largest national summit ever held by the Catalyst Kitchens network. Memorably, each event also featured live band karaoke, including Jeff on both guitar and vocals, a form of revelry that’s now become a Catalyst Kitchens summit tradition and rite of passage.

Most of all, Chef Bacon has exemplified, at every turn, what it means to build a community at Catalyst Kitchens. Jeff is a tireless ambassador for our work, for the students and graduates of all member programs, and for the growth and wellbeing of staff of programs all across the country. Despite always having a full slate of projects, Jeff always has time for everyone who needs a bit of support (though you have to text him, not email him!), and has mentored and guided countless other leaders within this field to find success. Many programs in the network first heard about Catalyst Kitchens through Jeff, and many a chef has worked as a teacher and leader at a member program thanks to Jeff’s gentle nudging and encouragement.

Jeff left his position with Providence in 2026, but continues to impact the restaurant world and his community.