Update: Help Creole Chef Christopher’s Healing, Stability

Update 10-16-2025

Our friend Chef Christopher is back in DSM— and we’re reaching out today to see if you can make a contribution to his GoFundMe — your gift will help with moving expenses and ease next steps in resettling here, where he hopes to get some medical/pain relief through an upcoming procedure and period of recovery. Thank you for what you are able to give to help in this transitional time of need for a friend.

Additional info:

My friend, Creole Chef Christopher Barrow, has worked with chefs Paul Prudhomme at K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen and the "Queen of Creole Cooking," Leah Chase at the famed Dooky Chase Restaurant, among many others. He had a triple bypass open heart surgery in Des Moines on August 7, 2023. The surgery left him with severe chronic pain and limited pulmonary function the past two years. He has not been able to get back to work and is on disability, living on just over 1,100.00 a month.

Christopher left Des Moines for New Orleans end of '23 for several months to try to settle his mother's estate and sell her home, which would give him a little nest egg. But she left no will, and the five other heirs did not want to sell the house, so he did not get the nest egg he had hoped for. He did get the contents of the home including furniture, all still in storage in New Orleans, for which he pays 169.00 per month. This is more than 10% of his income, and he needs that money for other expenses. He very much wants his mother's things with him. It will cost 2,000.00-3,000.00 depending on what in-kind donations of a truck or labor might come in. Your gift would be so very helpful!

He moved to Oklahoma City, OK for eight months, hoping to be closer to New Orleans but in a better cooking wage market for when he returned to work. He got into an affordable housing program, but he found the city bus system too difficult and the doctors not helpful. Christopher has returned to Des Moines recently to get back to his original medical team, the wonderful Paratransit rides from DART, and his friends here. His housing voucher transferred, so he is in a nice, albeit empty, apartment.

He is a great guy and very worthy of your support! We are almost halfway to the goal and hope we can raise enough to get his beloved mother's furnishings out of storage and into his new 2-bedroom apartment. Creating a real feeling of Home will be a great benefit and blessing to him as he faces the next challenges of another surgery in November, and important lifestyle changes he is making. He's very happy to make Des Moines his permanent home.

Please donate whatever you can to my talented, generous friend, who is so very grateful to all of you who are helping him out. He knows he is blessed!

Additional information:

Christopher Barrow is a Creole chef in Des Moines, Iowa. Originally from New Orleans, he is a warm, generous soul who needs some help for his health and future stability. He has been a real light in my life, his food is spiced with much love from his main culinary inspiration–his mother!–and has warmed both my body and my spirit. I'm gathering some folks together to help him out in his time of urgent need. 

Christopher has congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease and diabetes. He had a triple bypass surgery August 7th, 2025, but rather than improving his health, it has caused chronic pain and diminished energy. He always hopes to get back in the kitchen, but so far he has not been well enough to work again.

In the midst of Christopher’s own health crisis, his mother passed away. A friend gifted some flyer miles, and he made it home to see her, then went back again for the funeral. She was a hard worker and loved people, two qualities she passed on to Christopher. 

When Christopher cooks the Creole dishes his mother taught him, he shares his love and history of Louisiana. He has worked in restaurants in the Des Moines Metro, including Exile, Legends, Dahl’s on Ingersoll, food trucks, and his own World-Wide Catering. 

The goal is to get him back to putting his heart into cooking again, at least part-time. 

Please give whatever you can. When the goal is met and Christopher is healthy again, he will want to cook a big Creole dinner for all who helped out! Thank you for sharing your love, prayers and gifts!

Ben Allaway