The 24 Hours To Hell & Back Chef Who Was Homeless
Back in 2018, Brownstone Bistro was featured on Season 1 of "24 Hours To Hell & Back," a short-lived Gordon Ramsay series on Fox where culinary experts spend 24 hours trying to assist struggling chefs and restaurateurs. After five years, Chef Clive Jackson's Caribbean eatery was failing, so he enlisted the help of the show's host to help set the restaurant on the right path. Jackson told Ramsay at the time of filming that if they were unable to turn things around, the restaurant would only be in business for six more months. Sadly, despite Ramsay's help, Brownstone Bistro closed four months after the show aired.
While Jackson proved himself to be a strong man, surviving a divorce, the shooting death of his young son, and the loss of his restaurant, things took a turn for the worse for the chef. He soon found himself unemployed and after staying with friends for some time, ended up homeless on Los Angeles' Skid Row. "I'm homeless at this point. I'm trying to survive, trying to get back to some kind of business, which would be food," Jackson then told Soft White Underbelly in an interview.
After living in a tent for some time, Jackson had a stroke of luck when he met Lizzy Calhoun, a member of the organization Food Not Bombs DTLA, who was passing out food on Skid Row one February day. Calhoun drove Jackson to Target to get new clothes and food and helped him find housing for the night at an area motel.
Clive Jackson has hope for the future – including giving back
Lizzy Calhoun of Food Not Bombs DTLA set up a GoFundMe in hopes of finding funding for permanent housing for Clive Jackson, which as of this writing has raised over $53,000. Calhoun provided an update in March of 2023, stating enough had been raised to provide Jackson housing in the motel for a year, and while the focus was still on permanent housing, it had also shifted toward hopes of purchasing Jackson a food truck so he could cook again. "My thing moving forward is to get back on track and help those who are helpless," Jackson told Soft White Underbelly.
"Being homeless is one of the hardest things I've ever encountered," Jackson told Soft White Underbelly in a follow-up video after staying in the motel for some time. "I gotta be thankful since things is looking better." Jackson's hope is to use his potential food truck to help give back and help those who are still homeless on Skid Row.
One YouTuber, Mini Girl, took to the comments of the Soft White Underbelly follow-up to share their support for Jackson, writing, "I hope Clive is able to get his food truck and move forward."