Emma's Torch Cafe
Cafe · Gowanus Heights ·
Seasonal American cuisine & culinary training for refugees, garden seating
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22019864/IMG_2627.jpg "Emma's Torch Cafe by Megan McGibney")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67761078/DSC_6741.0.jpg "Emma's Torch Cafe by Giada Randaccio Skouras Sweeny")
Seasonal American cuisine & culinary training for refugees, garden seating
"Brooklyn’s refugee-centered culinary school, Emma’s Torch, will host a doughnut pop-up by Chef Jeremy Salamon." - Tanay Warerkar
"Reopened for the first time since the pandemic shutdown in March, the Carroll Gardens restaurant Emma’s Torch doubles as a training program for refugees, and I found co‑founder Kerry Brodie determined to return to its central mission of providing meaningful employment and culinary training. Since launching in 2016, the organization has offered a free, two‑part, 10‑week training program for refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking, and more than 100 students have gone on to careers in the hospitality industry. When indoor dining shut down in March the opportunities for students largely disappeared, so the school shifted to online cooking classes for more than 40 furloughed or unemployed alums and helped graduates apply for unemployment and network for jobs. Because Emma’s Torch is a nonprofit and donors continued to fund it, it remained relatively stable and was able to reopen once NYC allowed indoor dining at 25 percent, prioritizing getting jobs back to refugee staffers and students. The school is currently enrolling new cohorts (three students in November, four starting in December, and about 10 waiting to be enrolled) and is focusing on COVID‑era kitchen skills like new food‑safety and public‑health rules, extra cleanliness, and social distancing; culinary director Alex Harris procured three six‑foot metallic tables to give students more space, individual attention, and better visibility of each student’s prep. With indoor dining kept closed, Emma’s Torch is placing a few tables outside (without outdoor heating because of the historic building) and emphasizing training over service: students are paid $15 per hour and limited guests can sample a menu created by the current cohort that includes potato and cucumber salads, kabbouleh, and a black‑eyed‑pea fritter sandwich. To expand work opportunities amid a bleak hospitality job market, Emma’s Torch has partnered with Brooklyn nonprofit Rethink to produce 600 weekly meals for the Nutrition Kitchen food pantry, is launching an entrepreneur series on pop‑ups, and is preparing gift bags to sell, and Brodie—while noting the new federal refugee cap—remains confident in NYC’s large refugee population and the resilience of the students." - Megan McGibney
"I found that Emma’s Torch in Carroll Gardens, which runs a culinary training program for refugees, is reopening this month after a six-month pandemic break and is hosting a garage sale this Sunday in anticipation." - Tanay Warerkar
"Operating as a nonprofit restaurant in Carroll Gardens that offers workplace training and job placement for refugees, I note that diners can enjoy dishes like black-eyed pea hummus and lamb meatballs glazed with a tomato-pepper relish while consciously using their spending to support refugee employment and skills development." - Dan Q. Dao
"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
