Stocks, Sauces & Soul

Walk through our kitchen and you will hear the usual cacophony of animated noises heard in any commercial kitchen; pots banging, whisks whirling and even the occasional barking of orders. Now listen with your heart and you will hear the glorious sound of spirits being healed, lives being transformed and hope being nourished.

Welcome to DC Central Kitchen’s Culinary Job Training Program (CJT). Every quarter, 25 adults begin the CJT training program with dreams of a career in food service and a new start in life.  At the end of the training, fewer than the original 25 will have finished and be present to dance in a glorious procession at graduation. The program covers all facets of work in a professional kitchen and includes hands-on training taught by an ACF (American Culinary Federation) Culinary Coordinator. Local chefs also volunteer once a week to teach specific skills.  Additionally, the students enjoy visiting local food service establishments on a weekly basis. Each morning the students meet for self-empowerment classes as they courageously work at becoming “strong at the broken places” and begin to mend their lives.

In addition to the culinary skills the students all complete the ServSafe Food Protection Manager’s Certification Course, the industry recognized course from the National Restaurant Association’s Educational Foundation. Throughout the training students have a wide array of services and support to help them deal with the mammoth issues that life has brought them. Through the efforts of the Trainee Services and Recruitment Coordinator the students are guided in developing a plan for life-sustainability so they can realize success throughout and after the training program..  Each morning the students are required to attend Self Empowerment classes, a valuable and necessary step towards recovery. These sessions are often met with reluctance and  some resentment, but in the end, few question their value. A Workforce Development Coordinator teaches the importance of job-readiness. Students are well prepared to interview and most are employed by graduation.  All have ongoing resources from DC Central Kitchen well after they leave the program.  The CJT team has an administrative assistant who navigates, with ease, the enormous amount of paperwork required for the program.  The team is lead by a Director who is also a professional chef, with 11 years experience at DC Central Kitchen and a unique and effective understanding of  the population served.  The  icing on the training cake is all of the almost 80 employees of DC Central Kitchen who are cheerleaders for the students. Training is supplemented  by all the kitchen staff in the DC Central Kitchen who help the students as they learn their skills.   This is the village it takes to empower our students.

The students who come to the CJT training at DC Central Kitchen are from circumstances that have been caused by addiction, incarceration, domestic abuse and  all  have been broken by life in some way but have the heart to try yet again to pick themselves up and succeed

The DC Central Kitchen celebrated its 20 year anniversary this January 20th, Inauguration Day. The kitchen founded by Robert Egger was started on January 20th 1989, also Inauguration Day. Class 73 will graduate on January 27th, 2009.  Join our students in the inauguration of their journey to self-sufficiency and skills for life through the culinary arts.