Cory Hollywood may be legally blind, but it hasn’t stopped his love for cooking.

Speaking near the kitchen at Helen Henderson Care Centre where he has been preparing food for the past six months, he smiles brightly when talking about his job at the popular long-term care home in Amherstview.

“I love it here,” says the 42-year-old Kingston man with a smile. “It’s great. I want to work here until I have to live here.”

Cory laughs at the end of that statement, but what comes off as humour is really a compliment. Before arriving at the home as a cook, he prepared food for 24 years at East Side Mario’s on Division Street. He left when the restaurant closed.

“I kind of wish it closed 10 years ago so I could have come here sooner,” he says with a chuckle. “I don’t feel like a slave, here. There were a lot of long days and late nights at the restaurant.”

Although legally blind, Cory can see enough to safely carry out his work. He says he is still adjusting to several differences between the two places. At Helen Henderson Care Centre, he cooks for the same number of people every day opposed to the restaurant that can be busier during the hockey season and special events such as the Buskers Rendezvous and Kingston Agricultural Fair.

“The pace is different, here,” he admits. “I’m also working with minced and pureed diets. I like the freedom to express myself and the ability to play around with food. We make everything here. I’m not a scissor chef anymore. I care about the quality of the meals, and I like it when people say good things about them.”

Asked to describe himself, Cory says he is pretty laid back and easygoing. “I definitely talk too much,” he adds with a laugh.

When he’s not at work, he loves spending time with his four children. When he doesn’t have them in his care, he enjoys wandering the city and playing video games. Occasionally, he also dresses as a clown and makes balloon animals at special events, a pastime that was busier before the COVID-19 pandemic started in the spring of 2020.