Emma's Torch Cafe

The New York Nonprofit Giving Refugees Meaningful Work in Restaurants | Eater

"Founded in 2016 by Kerry Brodie, this Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn restaurant and culinary-training nonprofit runs a three-month program that prepares refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking for careers in the restaurant industry. Trainees—selected in cohorts of six—receive individualized instruction including English classes, hands-on kitchen training under culinary director Alexander Harris, and wraparound support from staff like program associate Edric Huang who helps with housing, appointments, and other nonculinary needs. By month two students rotate through every station producing an eclectic a la carte menu (examples include black-eyed pea hummus, salt cod croquettes, and wine-marinated short rib) and by month three they learn café roles—pastry cook, barista, and cashier—at a partner café in the Brooklyn Public Library. Each quarter the cohort stages a multi-course graduation dinner that showcases dishes from the students’ home countries (recent menus featured chicken yassa, momo, and bake and shark), for which diners often purchase $100+ tickets; those events function as a final exam and a bridge to employment. Trainees are paid $15/hour during the program, many graduates have been placed in notable New York restaurants, and the organization — which began as a pop-up and now operates a brick-and-mortar serving dinner six nights a week and weekend brunch — aims to replicate the model in other cities." - Monica Burton