Two Good: hatted food you can feel great about

A Kings Cross nightclub isn't the most obvious place for a charity to set up. But for Rob Caslick, who runs a soup kitchen for his Two Good organisation, it was an ideal spot to cook.

"It's a nice central location. But it is in the underbelly of Kings Cross, so we've had some interesting people come through the front door," he says. In between prepping soup, he's had to contend with sex workers and pushers in front of strip clubs.

Recently, Caslick was trying to make a good impression on senior managers who'd turned up for a Telstra volunteer day. "All of a sudden, this young lady walks in and asks, 'is this a brothel?!'"

There were also burlesque girls dancing on the bar as he prepared to send lunch off to Wayside Chapel later that day - and yes, the Telstra crowd was still in attendance. With Two Good making soup from the former location for the Bank nightclub, perhaps it's guaranteed that there'll also be very colourful visitors around.

Caslick started Two Good last year, with co-founder Cathal Flaherty. Impressively - while working full-time as building services engineers at Medland Metropolis - they created a soup kitchen with a difference. Two Good uses recipes from acclaimed chefs - think Peter Gilmore, Mitch Orr and Greg Doyle - which are then sold in a charitable way. "[For] each one you buy, we give to a domestic violence shelter or soup kitchen," says Caslick.

So order a jar of Gilmore's Korean spiced chicken noodle soup or Orr's celeriac, cavolo nero and roast hazelnut soup (which is a serious contender for one of the best-ever soups made) and you'll also be sending the same meals to Kilara Women's Refuge, St Canice's Kitchen and The Wayside Chapel. "As you're eating your lunch, the same lunch was given to a refuge that same day," he says.

In just a year, Two Good has managed to send over 12,000 lunches to shelters. But that's not the biggest achievement.

"What we're most proud of is that we employ the women from the domestic refuges that we serve to make these lunches," says Caslick. Two Good makes a point of paying these women above award wages.

Given these achievements, Two Good was shortlisted for last year's Good Food Guide Food For Good award.

"I was invited to go along to the awards ceremony," he says. "But I didn't suspect that I was going to get the award."

He admits it was "surreal" to hear his name read at the ceremony. "It was a bit of a dream," says Caslick. "I walked down the stairs and Matt Moran said, 'Rob, we should do something together!'"

"The Food For Good award was the turning point," he says. "Since [then], we've had pretty much every chef in Sydney say yes to what we're doing and jump on board to help us."

So, to date, Two Good's roster of soups also includes creations by Kylie Kwong, Neil Perry, Christine Manfield, Mat Lindsay and 2016 Chef of the Year, Pasi Petanen.

Two Good currently sends out around 500 soups over two days, but "we'd love to be able to get to 1500 over the whole week".

With Deliveroo on board, great chefs contributing, and the Food For Good award as a publicity magnet, it's a goal they might soon achieve.

Know someone who should be considered for our Food For Good award? Get in contact with the Good Food Guide: goodfoodguide@smh.com.au.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide award night, presented by Citi and Vittoria, is on September 5. The Guide will be on sale in newsagents and bookstores from September 6, with all book purchases receiving free access to the new Good Food app.