Yes, Chef! A New York Program Trains Asylum Seekers In Culinary Arts

The cohort of ten migrant students had been gathering at the kitchen inside Francis Lewis High School in Queens since February. After fastening their white aprons, each week they would practice the differences between dicing and julienning, tempering and deglazing, among other culinary skills.

On Monday, after five weeks of five-hour trainings, five days a week, they graduated with a New York City Food Handler’s License certification. The training is provided under Careers through Culinary Arts Programs (C-CAP), which received a grant from New York State’s Department of Labor to provide 50 asylum seekers in five cohorts with the necessary skills and certifications for working in the food service industry.