Kerry Brodie: Chef To Refugees
Kerry Brodie
At Kerry Brodie’s restaurant, Emma’s Torch, diners can choose between coffee-crusted beef brisket and autumn squash cavatelli, red and gold beets with maple vinaigrette or brussels sprouts with chili vinegar. This is not just any autumnal menu; the restaurant is named for Emma Lazarus, the author of the poem on the base of the Statue of Liberty, and these dishes are the handiwork of 70 refugees, asylees and survivors of human trafficking who take classes in cooking, English as a second language and interview prep through the restaurant’s affiliated nonprofit. Brodie, a 29-year-old graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education who learned to cook from her grandmother, started the organization in 2016. It has enrolled students from 35 countries.
Brodie was nominated by a reader, who said: “Her work exemplifies the Jewish principle set for by Maimonides that the highest level of giving is to help another person become self-sufficient.”
Kerry Brodie
Breakfast Sometimes just coffee, or if I am lucky my husband makes the best omelettes!
What’s the last thing you listened to on your phone? NPR’s “How I Built This.”
Earliest Jewish memory: Lighting Shabbat candles with my mother.
Heroes: Emma Lazarus, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and my grandmothers.
2019 memory: This year I had the chance to bring my newborn daughter to meet our students at Emma’s Torch. It was a highlight introducing her the incredible people I get to see everyday.
What is your favorite thing about being Jewish? The idea that we can and must constantly strive to make the world a better place. I feel so fortunate to be part of a community who sees that as its mission.
Weekend ritual: Having Shabbat dinner with my family. For me, lighting shabbat candles, and hearing kiddush helps me to feel centered after a long week.
Read more:
Photos and more information about Kerry’s restaurant
Follow Kerry Brodie @EmmasTorch and @EmmasTorchFood
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
-
Culture At a seder by and for trans Jews, guests define liberation for themselves
-
Culture ICE wants to treat deportations like a business – history warns us against that
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.