You don’t normally think of the necessities that go along with formal cooking classes. Showing up with an apron doesn’t quite do it anymore. With that in mind, we were excited to help Kerry Brodie, founder of Emma’s Torch which trains New York-area refugees in the culinary arts, by offering a matching grant for the purchase of the essentials.

As classes begin, Adwa, a young woman from Saudi Arabia is seen here in her new clogs, uniform and professional knife.

This weekend the new Brooklyn cafe run by Emma’s Torch students will open and we are sure that Adwa and her classmates will get a lot of practice using their newly learned knife skills.