Portraits of DCCK’s 130th Culinary Job Training Class

Originally published in Civil Eats.

DC Central Kitchen (DCCK), founded in 1989 by Robert Egger, began as a small community kitchen aimed at addressing immediate hunger in Washington, D.C. However, its mission extends beyond feeding the hungry; it also seeks to create long-lasting change through community-driven solutions and job creation. Students are encouraged not only to seek employment but also to become entrepreneurs and pursue their culinary ambitions as chefs in their own right.

Beyond mastering technical expertise, many have found resilience and personal growth through self-empowerment classes led by instructor Jeffrey Rustin. “There’s a lot of pain, a lot of trauma,” Rustin said. “If you see what some of these students went through to get here, it’s just amazing. And sometimes, they’re trying to be the first one in their family to graduate from anything.”

I spoke with the graduates of DC Central Kitchen’s 130th Culinary Job Training class about their dreams and aspirations as they were about to to step into the culinary world. As they prepare for the final phase of the program—externships in professional kitchens—the students reflect on their journey.

The following text is by Lisa Held.


Pamela Johnson

Johnson’s externship at the Ritz Carlton is starting on Monday and her excitement is palpable. “I am ready!” she says, laughing. She loves baking and already sells the treats she makes, like cupcakes and chocolate-covered strawberries, to friends and family. She wants to build on that and rent her own space to open a bakery.

Project Empowerment, a workforce development program for residents with employment barriers including lack of education, history of substance abuse, homelessness, and incarceration, pointed her toward the culinary job training program.

Johnson said she has appreciated learning to portion dishes and breaking down chicken and fish, but she wished there was more baking included. Still, the program “really helped me stay more focused and stop worrying about everything else,” she said. “It helped me leave my drama at home when I came through the door.”


Vincent Stewart

Stewart started the culinary job training program in class 127 and then again in 128. “I first had my kid, I was struggling,” he said. “I was trying to come up here, but I couldn’t do it. I had to get myself together.”

Now, he’s eager to talk about how his knife skills have improved and is about to start an externship at a hotel restaurant, which will be the last push before graduation. He’s thinking a food truck might be in his future. “[The program] gave me some confidence,” he said.


Roshae McCraw

At 21, McCraw has already been through a lot, including a year in prison that was the result of a situation involving domestic violence, she said.

She’s also brimming with ideas. “I wanted to be a singer, a painter, a knitter,” she said. “And then I started cooking again.” McCraw said she loved seeing her family enjoy meals she made—like stuffed shells with ground turkey—and when another community organization suggested she apply to the culinary job training program, she decided to do it.

She has been working on communication and expressing herself, which made her realize that her initial plan to open a restaurant wasn’t the right fit. Instead, she wants to fuse art and food in a museum environment. “You’re walking around looking at the exhibits and you can actually taste it,” she said. “That’s my dream career.” “[The program] gave me some confidence,” he said.


Kenneth McPherson

“I’m a better person,” McPherson says, simply, describing how his time in the job-training program has helped him with things like developing courage and a positive attitude.

Now, he can focus on what he loves: making dishes like fried chicken, baked chicken, mac and cheese, and cabbage, and McPherson is confident he’ll have his own soul food restaurant someday.

Given how much he’s gained through DC Central Kitchen, he also wants to give back to his community. “I want to help others who are less fortunate,” he said.] gave me some confidence,” he said.


David Gibson

Gibson was incarcerated for more than 28 years. In prison, he was the head cook, preparing meals for 1,800 people at a time. But in the training program, he learned a new kind of kitchen etiquette, he said. “I learned to say, ‘Yes, chef!’” he said, smiling.

But Gibson was also open about how difficult it had been for him to stick with the training due to his struggles with alcoholism. “It’s just so hard not to drink,” he said. His housing situation was contributing to the challenge, so Rustin helped him find new housing, He also gave Gibson new responsibilities to encourage him to stay sober.

The approach worked so well, Gibson doesn’t want to leave. He sees his future path as working for DC Central Kitchen. “The whole experience is just so beautiful,” he said.


Quenzel Goff

Grilled chicken, mushrooms, and asparagus. “At home, that’s all. I cook that all day every day,” Goff said enthusiastically, describing his favorite meal.

But like Gibson, over the past several weeks, he’s been working through trauma as much as he’s been chopping and sautéing. Four years ago, his daughter passed away. “I got into trouble a couple of times in the past because I had trouble with my anger,” he said. “It kind of still haunts me to this day, because I wasn’t there for her.”

In Goff’s mind, Rustin’s self-empowerment classes helped him even more than previous attempts at therapy did. “Once I came here and started opening up about my past, it just became more comfortable, and I started trusting,” he said. Now, Goff wants to draw on his passion for cooking for his family and previous experience acting to forge a path for himself. “My long-term goal is to find somewhere I can incorporate acting and food together,” he said.


Dominic Rebudan

Just three years ago, in 2019, Rebudan arrived from the Philippines. As the only immigrant in the class, one of his challenges has been communicating in English. While he speaks it fluently, he finds it difficult to express himself fully, he said.

In self-empowerment class, he worked through a more emotional issue: forgiving his mother, who left him behind in their home country when he was a child. Rebudan said he has made significant progress, and his first priority after graduation is helping his mother fix up a house they still have in the Philippines.

Ultimately, though, he wants to use his growing knowledge of American food to open a restaurant that fuses American and Filipino cuisine. “This is my first step to my future,” he said.


Lavon Woods

Raising six children of her own has been challenging, but Woods is also thinking about cooking for kids. While she ultimately wants to cook refined versions of Southern comfort food dishes, during the training program, she decided she was interested in trying out school food, first.

“I thought, ‘Maybe I do want to be a chef, but I want to be more than that . . . by working with children and healthy eating,’” she said. She’s already working on getting the paperwork done that will allow her to apply for positions in the D.C. school system.


Zachary Thompson

Thompson, who also came to the program through Project Empowerment, liked learning how to break down chicken and fish, but another technique really stuck with him: making cauliflower rice.

The test for ServSafe certification, which quizzes kitchen staff on food safety requirements and practices, was challenging, he said, but worthwhile.

Both will come in handy as he works on getting his idea for a vegan food truck off the ground. “Right now, I’m at the stage where I’m getting all the information, and then I’ll work on the finance part,” he said. “It’s basically having a business model and a business plan. I feel more comfortable now, so I can take the next step.”


Billy Chandler

A caseworker at a shelter Chandler was staying at told him about the program. He had been interested in cooking after working at Henry’s Soul Food café, a D.C. institution that also recently added a job-training course.

Chandler is so quiet you have to get very close to hear him, and getting along with everyone in the program was tough for him. Teamwork, he said, was a challenge.

But with the new knife skills he has picked up, he said he’s ready to get to work as a prep cook or a line cook. Someday, he hopes to own a jerk chicken truck.


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