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Every three weeks our entire menu is torn up and rebuilt around a new world cuisine. Four new courses to photograph, film and write about — a genuinely good portfolio to leave with. You will shoot and edit for Instagram, write the menu launches, and help tell the story of a non-profit cooking school. You will also work in the kitchen and on the floor: everyone here does, and you cannot photograph a menu you have not helped cook.
25 hours of help per week
Content Writer: Write, edit and publish inspiring content.
Photography: Take, edit and provide amazing photos.
Video Making: Create, edit and publish digital videos.
Social Media: Maintain and update social media channels.
2 days off per week
Private Room: You will have a bed in a private room. In other words, a room just for you.
Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.
Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.
Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.
Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.
Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.
Basic Internet Access: Basic speed internet for you to work remotely
Fluent English
Over 18 years old
Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers
European Union Passport
Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa
Welcome to Simone's Kitchen.
We are the Good Food Institute VZW, a non-profit cooking school that operates inside Antwerp's first vegan restaurant. Since 2016 more than 350 people from 45 nationalities have trained here.
Please understand what this is before you apply: it is a working restaurant, not a content internship. You will make photos, video and words about the food, but you will also be in the kitchen and on the floor, because that is where the material comes from and because everyone here does both.
Every three weeks we rebuild the entire four-course menu around a different world cuisine, reimagined through whole-food, organic, plant-based cooking. Korean one cycle, French the next. That rhythm is the job: a completely new set of dishes to shoot, film and write about every three weeks, plus the story of the kitchen and the people passing through it.
We take two or three volunteers at a time. Our head chef Davide arrived here as a volunteer himself, and so did our founder.
Five shifts a week, twenty-five hours maximum. The restaurant serves dinner Thursday to Monday. Evening shifts start at 17:00, an hour before the first guests. We deliberately do not put an end time on them: some nights finish early and some run later. Two full days off every week, guaranteed, normally Tuesday and Wednesday. Every third week a new menu starts, which adds a preparation shift on the Wednesday evening; that week your two days move and a shift comes off elsewhere, so it is always five shifts and always two days off.
THE CREATIVE WORK
• Photographing and filming each new menu, four courses, every three weeks
• Shooting and editing for Instagram, including Reels
• Writing the menu launch posts and captions
• Capturing the kitchen, the team and the volunteers as they come and go
• Helping us tell the story of a non-profit cooking school that has trained 350+ people since 2016
THE KITCHEN AND FLOOR WORK
You will also do preparation shifts, learn the menu from the inside, and serve guests during service. Every volunteer here does. You cannot photograph a dish you have never made, and the best content we have ever had came from people who were elbow-deep in the prep. Expect a real split between creative work and service shifts.
Bring your own camera or phone, we do not supply equipment. When you apply, show us something you have made. A link is worth more than a paragraph.
WHAT WE ASK OF YOU
• Turn up on time and ready to work. A small kitchen notices immediately when someone doesn't.
• Post consistently. We would rather have three good posts a week that actually happen than a strategy that doesn't.
• Tell us early if something is wrong. We would far rather hear it in week one than read it in a review afterwards.
• Clean up after yourself, in the kitchen and in your room.
• Look after the other volunteers. You live together as well as work together.
WHAT YOU CAN RELY ON FROM US
• The shifts and the days off we promised. Five shifts, 25 hours maximum, two full days off every week.
• Your own private room in the building above the restaurant, all year round. Two of the rooms are on the top floor and get warm during the handful of genuinely hot weeks Belgium gets each summer, so fans are provided.
• Breakfast and lunch you prepare yourself, freely, from our kitchen and food stock. Dinner from the restaurant menu whenever suits you, and you do not have to wait for service to finish. You are not obliged to eat the menu every night either.
• €30 per week expense reimbursement, usually paid at the end of your stay, or earlier if you ask.
• A signed volunteer agreement under Belgian law with Good Food Institute VZW, with full insurance cover for the whole of your stay.
• Laundry on Wednesdays. One drink a week from the bar.
• Creative freedom. We will tell you what matters to us and then let you make it. Everything you shoot here is yours to use in your own portfolio.
WHEN YOU ARE ACCEPTED
You get a login to the Simone's Kitchen Hub straight away, well before you travel. It holds your shift pattern, the house guidelines, what food is available to you and our full recipe library, so you know exactly what you are walking into. One click in the Hub adds you to our WhatsApp group, which is where we sort out arrivals and shifts day to day. Complete your agreed stay and your Hub access is permanent.
WHAT TO BRING
Chef jackets are provided for service, so there is no uniform to buy. Two things you do need for the kitchen: closed shoes, and if you have long hair, something to tie it back with. Bring your own camera or phone, as we do not supply equipment.
PRACTICAL
EU passport holders or valid visa holders only. Minimum two weeks, maximum twelve, though for content work longer is genuinely better. English is our working language.
