Behind the nonprofit helping a diverse new generation of culinary professionals heat up New York

NEW YORK (AP) — A side of beef bigger than a classroom desktop sat before high school students huddled around a kitchen on New York's Lower East Side. “Anyone wanna jump in?” asked the butcher teaching the Tuesday afternoon class. One student dared, grabbing a sawblade about as long as his arm and sweating to successfully separate the short rib from the rib eye.

These demos are regularly hosted by the Food Education Fund. The local nonprofit seeks to make culinary careers more accessible through hands-on experiences and mentorship for low-income students of color at ten high schools. More than half of participants are Hispanic, over one third are Black and the vast majority live below the poverty line.

The hope is that stronger support for young cooks in one of the world's top food destinations will bring much-needed diversity to the industry's highest rungs. Chefs of color lead just a fraction of the North American restaurants awarded a coveted Michelin star and research shows non-white fine dining employees are less likely to be promoted, according to the tire company behind the guidebook that has become a gastronomical bible of sorts.

As restaurants rebound from pandemic stressors that sent many burnt-out staff looking for new careers and upended customer behavior around in-person dining, the nonprofit wants to instill a new generation with the love of feeding others. Hospitality magnate Sean Feeney said he's found that New York's youth still want to rebuild that culture.

“They never had tasted an ingredient that made their mouth move,” said Feeney, a board member whose company owns Lilia and Misi, two highly praised Italian restaurants in Brooklyn. “They never had witnessed an experience of dining that changed their lives. And many of the students hadn’t been supported in a way that it made sense for them to want to make days better for others.”

The Food Education Fund's workforce development programs reached more than 800 public high school students during the 2023-2024 school calendar. Leadership plans to increase the number of seniors and schools participating in its internship course in this upcoming school year.

Lessons by “visiting chefs” ranging from chocolatiers to farmers exposed participants to the wide range of culinary arts careers. Participants can get up to 150 hours of experience at internships — including School Grounds, a Barclays Center food stand where students run marketing and are developing a signature hot sauce. The nonprofit also doled out over $82,000 in scholarships to graduates over the past two years, according to publicly available tax filings.

Observers note that Food Education Fund has really formalized its operations in recent years. Tax forms show that annual contributions more than quadrupled from 2018 to 2022.

And in New York City, where bankers, entertainers and chefs alike have cut their teeth in their respective dog-eat-dog fields, the organization’s mission has recently attracted attention from the deep-pocketed financial services giants and stars in its backyard.

Big backers include investment firm Goldman Sachs and Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager who owns the New York Mets. The board includes hip-hop icon Questlove and comedian Desus Nice has hosted a fundraiser.

The broad interest reflects the diversity of New York and the community building power of food, according to board member Jehan Ilahi, the global head of investor relations at Goldman Sachs.

“Food binds us all. Culturally, as people, you sit with somebody, you have a good meal and it exposes your mind to different cultures and experiences,” he said. “That’s what I think is really special about the city. A lot of the kids that live here, study here, want to be part of that ecosystem.”

Anthony Trabasas wanted to work in the world’s best restaurants when his family moved from the Philippines five years ago. Through Food Education Fund internships, he was able to cook under a James Beard award-winning pasta chef. The opportunities instilled a sense of professionalism that he credits for his early success in high-caliber kitchens.

Trabasas, 21, is now a “floating” chef in a lower Manhattan kitchen he described as “not like any other:” the Michelin-starred, farm-to-table restaurant One White Street. He spends his shifts running up and down the stairs of the four-story townhouse, filling in gaps, whether it’s searing fish or flipping a dozen burgers.

He dreams of opening his own place one day, but he’s still figuring out what kind. What he does know is that he wants to create a more positive culinary industry with sustainable work environments.

And the Food Education Fund, he said, is “probably one of the most important drivers” of that objective.

“If you have happy people within the organization, you just make better food," Trabasas said.

It's a far cry from the cutthroat culture that Ayesha Nurdjaja came up through. Mentoring did not exist, she said, and reality shows glamorized the grueling hours.

For that reason, she said, she keeps in touch with all three Food Education Fund students who have interned at her Middle Eastern restaurant on the West Side. She said she doesn't do it “as a charity thing.” She instead hopes to act “like a small chef on their shoulder,” helping them understand the business and get a leg up in a difficult industry.

“Although we’re giving to the students, it’s really them giving to us because you get to see the hunger in their eyes," she said. “They’re actually starting from fresh. And I think it gives us a restart to say, ‘Let me be as honest as I can.’”

The same part of town where Nurdjaja's Shukette serves up labneh and baba ganoush has recently filled up with expensive real estate. The neighborhoods now house major tech companies and investment firms including Google and BlackRock.

Coming out of the pandemic, the West Side Community Fund formed to guide these global giants' philanthropy toward their underserved neighbors. Drawn to the Food Education Fund's job training for young students of color, the consortium's grants have supported the nonprofit's internships and a food-focused magazine.

“There’s a lot of buildings and businesses popping up around here," said Jalen Lisbon, a member of WSCF's grant administration team. "But we do want to make sure the longtime residents who don’t have all of those resources are not swept under the rug.”

It’s all part of a continuum, according to Kathy Wylde — the president of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit membership organization founded by David Rockefeller that mobilizes top business leaders to support development projects.

Wylde said the city has a culture of corporate philanthropy dating back to the late 19th century Gilded Age — a period marked by rapid industrialization, wealth inequality and political corruption when monopolies generated billions for families like the Rockefellers.

“There’s no place that has the level of corporate engagement that New York City has,” Wylde said. “It’s in their interest, and their business interest, to keep the city strong.”

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