- [Lidia] Five days a week, a paid chef orchestrates a kitchen full of dedicated volunteers.

(mellow music) - I'm retired.

Studies have shown you gotta do something or you drop dead.

So I came here and I thought, "Great, I'll learn how to cook Japanese food."

Naomi's got her own style compared to my mom and everything else.

You kind of follow and you go, "Oh, oh, that's what it tastes like."

- So we made today a Japanese curry with a chicken cutlet.

To me, that was the authentic Japanese food, but sometimes, for them, it's totally new Japanese food.

So it's always fun to find out what's new and what's authentic and what do they like.

- I've been volunteering here for about a year and a half.

When I'm chopping, like, next to Chef Naomi, it's really intimidating, but I'm like, "One day, I'll get there."

I'll get, like, as fast as a chopper as she is.

- I retired from the post office and my friends, they said, "Come and volunteer."

I've been volunteering for 11 years here.

- I started volunteering here probably in the 1980s when I was still working.

They needed someone to make dessert once a week.

I do it because I want to continue the feel of the Japanese community, and I'm learning a little bit of Japanese.

(chef speaking in Japanese) - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- For me, it's the crew.

They're really fun and we have a good time working here together.

- Tell uncle I don't wanna do this anymore!

I can't do this anymore.

Too much onion.

- Right, so this is everybody at the table.

Let me introduce you.

- Being served is wonderful.

It's always a feeling good sense.

You know, somebody cares enough for me.

Thank you.

This is a wonderful project.

But it goes beyond that.

The people that are actually doing cooking and serving get that sort of sentiment back, that gratefulness back.

- I love to see people say, "Good meal."

Everybody compliment me, us, and everyone here is so nice.

(mellow music continues) (oil sizzling) - Nice salad.

- Itadakimasu.

- Yeah.

- Itadakimasu.

- Thank you for our food.

- Itadakimasu, and then you begin to eat, okay.

- Thank you.

And if you need it, do you need a fork?

- No.

If I need help, you're gonna help me.

(group chuckles) (upbeat music) This is good.

- So you would go underneath like this?

- Yeah.

- And hold it up?

- Yeah.

- Oh, and I lose half of it, but that's okay.

- And then put it in your mouth.

- It's really cool that, like, they brought everyone together with food.

I've been volunteering her, like, a year.

- Same for me.

I started last summer.

- And it was nice to meet new people, and it also had a sense of, like, community.

So I was like, "I guess I'll come back."

(upbeat music continues) - This is my ikigai.

Ikigai is a purpose in life.

So it just I feel more useful with my cooking skill and to be able to somebody to have that yummy meal.

To me, it's just like a match made in the heaven.

To be able to work and then make the Japanese food for the senior citizen, it's just a joy.

(upbeat music continues) - So is this a Japanese dessert?

- [Server] It's a strawberry mousse.

(crowd in Japanese): "It was Delicious!")

(crowd applauds)