Restaurant owners drive six hours to make favourite dish for customer with terminal cancer

‘That is the most beautiful act of kindness,’ one person commented

Restaurant owners drive six hours to make terminally ill customer her favourite dish (Instagram / @ekibenbaltimore)

A pair of restaurant owners are being praised for their “tremendous act of generosity” after driving six hours to make a customer dying of lung cancer her favourite dish.

Earlier this month, Brandon Jones and his wife Rina, who live in Maryland, were planning to visit Rina’s mother, who lives in Vermont and had been diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Ahead of the visit, Jones decided to reach out to the restaurant Ekiben in Fells Point, Baltimore to see if they would be willing to pass on the recipe for their broccoli tempura entree, as it is his mother-in-law’s favourite dish and he wanted to make it for her.

“She loves that broccoli, and I really wanted her to have it one more time,” Jones told The Washington Post, with his wife noting that when they had asked her mother if she needed anything special, she had joked: “Tempura broccoli!”

According to Rina, her mom became a fan of the dish, which features tempura broccoli topped with fresh herbs, diced onion and fermented cucumber vinegar, on her very first visit to the Asian fusion restaurant, and subsequently requested a visit to Ekiben each time she went to Baltimore.

“From then on, whenever she’d fly to see us or take the train, that’s the first place she wanted to go to eat,” Rina said. “She’s probably been to the restaurant with us at least 20 times.”

Read more:

• Kate Middleton ‘mortified’ by Meghan Markle telling Oprah she made her cry
• I am 31 and have had long Covid since March 2020
• Leyna Bloom becomes first transgender woman of colour in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue

However, rather than share the recipe, the restaurant’s co-owner Steve Chu responded to the email explaining that he would be happy to travel the distance from Baltimore to Vermont to make the dish in person.

“Thanks for reaching out,” he wrote, according to Jones. “We’d like to meet you in Vermont and make it fresh for you.”

Jones, who recalled that he was stunned by the response, said he replied clarifying that he meant Vermont, to which Chu said it was no problem, before asking for a time, date and location that worked best.

After working out the details, Chu, his business partner and restaurant co-owner, Ephrem Abebe, and employee Joe Anonuevo, all headed to Vermont the next day, after packing their truck with the ingredients to make the tempura broccoli. They then spent the night at an AirBnb before arriving at Rina’s mother’s condo the next day, where they set up a makeshift kitchen in the bed of the truck in the parking lot.

In addition to making the tempura broccoli, the chefs also made tofu nuggets with spicy peanut sauce and roasted garlic, which they then boxed up before knocking on the door of their 72-year-old customer’s home.

According to Rina, she encouraged her mother to answer the door, at which point she recognised both the smell of the dish and the chefs.

“My mom kept saying: ‘I don’t understand – you drove all the way up here to cook for me?’” Rina told the outlet. “She was so happy and touched to have that broccoli. She couldn’t believe it.”

Chu also said he recognised his customer, telling The Post that “she always stood out”.

“She loves the food and always made sure to tell us. She’s an amazing, sweet lady,” he said.

Despite offering the chefs an invitation to dinner, Rina says the group declined on the basis that they had to get back to Baltimore. They also declined to accept any money from the family.

After the chefs had left, Rina said that her mother “cried later about their generosity and so did I”.

“They made so much food that she had it again the next day for lunch. It’s something we’ll never forget – I’ll carry that positive memory with me, always,” she said.

The gesture has touched hundreds of others as well, after a post Jones wrote about Chu’s generosity on Facebook went viral.

“This is truly the most beautifully moving thing I have read in a long time,” one person commented.

Another said: “That is the most beautiful act of kindness.”

“What a tremendous act of generosity and kindness by restaurateurs Steve Chu and Ephrem Abebe,” someone else wrote.

According to Chu, he couldn’t imagine not doing it after receiving Jones’ email, and was simply happy that he was able to make his long-time customer’s wish come true.

“She’s a lovely lady, who has showered us with love at our restaurant for years,” he said of his decision to make the journey. “It was a powerful experience, and I’m happy that we could make it happen.”