Front Burner: Taste of a better life
Photo by Rebecca Barnett l The Roanoke Times
On a Monday evening in September, Sam Newcomer served a four-course meal to 45 people at a downtown Roanoke church.
The dinner, called “Chefs Who Care,” was part of a series held to benefit the Roanoke Rescue Mission. But the folks who munched on Thai shrimp bruschetta and savored Key lime cheesecake at Greene Memorial United Methodist Church that evening could hardly know how much that night really meant to chef Newcomer.
About three years ago, the man who had ruled restaurant kitchens for most of his adult life no longer felt in control of anything. After years of alcohol abuse, he found himself hospitalized in Daytona Beach, Fla., with nothing to his name except a nasty addiction he could not shake.
It was the love of his daughter – and, he would say, God – that brought Newcomer to the Rescue Mission. And it was his experiences in the Residential Recovery Program there that allowed him to return to what he had always loved to do.
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October 12, 2011 - 9:51 AM
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EXCELLENT column today, Lindsey! Congratulations to Mr. Newcomer’s success! If he’s able to put it together, I am interested in attending Mr. Newcomer’s Titanic dinner. Keep us posted!
I know Sam personally and can attest to his humble personality and talent as a chef. He has made incredible strides in his life over the past few years and never forgets the support and belief in something better that he experienced through the Rescue Mission.
Great column! I’m glad he was able to overcome his problems and that the dinners give him a chance to expand his talents.
Our family got to know Mr. Newcomber by volunteering in the Rescue Mission’s kitchen. He’s a great guy! I’m glad to hear he’s doing well!!!
This is awesome! I really appreciate someone taking the time to share their experiences with him! This is touching in so many different ways! He always went above and beyond the average persons expectations.He will always be in my heart and is looking down on me right now! I just pray I could be half the man he was! Karl George Strich was my father. He passed away on June 26, 1991 in his sleep. RIP! Legends never die! I love and miss you DAD!