Three weeks into his culinary education, Ivan can say he’s worked alongside a James Beard Award-winning chef.
He’s part of a class of trainees at Emma’s Torch, a nonprofit cafe that began in New York and recently opened a location in Silver Spring. It has taken on refugees and survivors of human trafficking from more than 75 countries to prepare them for a career in the restaurant industry.
“My experience is very positive. I’ve learned a lot of skills,” said Ivan, an immigrant from Peru. He was one of a dozen trainees in a mentorship session last Wednesday with Vishwesh Bhatt, executive chef of the upscale Indian street food restaurant Chai Pani DC.
(Emma’s Torch said it identifies trainees by their first names only because some have sought asylum and need to remain anonymous for their safety.)
Founded in 2016, the cafe was named after Emma Lazarus, the poet who wrote the verses quoted on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.”
During the 11-week course students get paid almost $8,000 to go through culinary training and work on their résumés and their English. They learn kitchen and front-of-house skills, preparing and serving the cafe’s menu, which includes house-made chai, heaping bacon, egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches, and decadent brown butter pancakes.
It’s part of a growing number of nonprofit cafes in the last decade founded to train refugees and immigrants, including Refuge Coffee Co. in Georgia and 1951 Coffee Co. in California.
Emma’s Torch’s newest initiative brings in accomplished D.C.-area chefs to mentor students.
“This is what makes this country great,” Bhatt said of the program.
The third permanent Emma’s Torch location, and the first outside of New York, the Silver Spring cafe was chosen for the area’s “strong refugee population, strong restaurant community and strong philanthropic support network,” according to founder and executive director Kerry Brodie, a Potomac native.
Its opening, this June, was funded by a $2.2 million capital campaign that included a founding donation from Bethesda resident José Andrés’ Longer Tables Fund.
The new location celebrated its first graduating cohort about a month ago. Two of those students landed prep cook jobs at D.C. cocktail lounge 12 Stories Bar and Rockville Italian-Persian fusion restaurant Italiamo Kitchen.
Chef Vishwesh Bhatt of Chai Pani in Washington D.C. is one of the local chefs that partners with Emmas Torch to mentor the students. (Ryan Wiramidjaja for The Banner)
More than 700 students — roughly half women and half men, ages 18-64 — have participated in the New York programs over the last nine years. About 82% of them went on to find jobs in the food industry, according to the nonprofit’s 2025 annual report.
Cooking with the pros
Bhatt spent an afternoon last week teaching a small cohort of new students as part of the new chef-in-residence program, designed to teach students how to cook a wider variety of dishes and, Emma’s Torch hopes, build their professional network and boost their chances of landing a job.
“The whole idea of what we’re doing is that it’s not just Emma’s Torch — it’s this whole community,” said Brodie. After studying government at Johns Hopkins University and attending the Institute of Culinary Education, she came up with the concept for the nonprofit while serving as global press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
Several prominent D.C.-area chefs, including Chef Lonie Murdock of upscale Caribbean restaurant Isla in D.C., Andy Brown of Andy’s Pizza, and Bhatt, make up this year’s residency lineup. After an afternoon-long workshop in which chefs teach students how to make a signature dish, it goes on the menu.
In September, customers will be able to order a West Indies crab salad with a Maryland twist (Old Bay-spiced crackers on the side), courtesy of Bhatt.
The West Indies crab salad with old bay seasoned crackers dish is designed to give the students at Emmas Torch experience working with local ingredients and flavors. (Ryan Wiramidjaja for The Banner)
“Today’s class was very helpful, because we learned some skills that we can apply in a real job,” Ivan said.
Bhatt moved to the U.S. from India when he was 18, working his way up from a cook at a Mississippi vegetarian cafe. He won a James Beard Award in 2019 and 2023.
Giving our students “a chance to cook with these chefs who they might read about in the newspaper and get time face-to-face, sends a message … that you should feel confident when you walk into that interview for your job longer-term,” Brodie said.
Most of the apprentices did not have any cooking experience prior to arriving in the U.S. Bhatt taught Ivan and his cohort how to best chop shallots, roll homemade crackers thin enough to get crunchy in the oven, and the significance of crab and Old Bay to Marylanders.
After graduation, Ivan said, he hopes to parlay his new skills into a job at a vegan or vegetarian restaurant.
Bhatt said he hopes his students later put their own unique spins on recipes.
“Food is about stories,” he told them. “Everyone here has great stories, which is why you’re here. When you make your food, tell your story. People will eat it and they’re going to feel that in the food.”
Emma’s Torch, 1200 East West Highway Silver Spring, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Dining and Cooking