Second chances don’t come lightly, and when they do, redemption is at the forefront. The kitchen can be a perfect place to find that absolution.
EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute provides this very opportunity for individuals who have been affected by the criminal justice system, including incarceration.
“A foundation in the culinary and hospitality industry, along with a support network necessary for long-term success is what we provide,” said Brandon Edwin Chrostowski, founder, president, and CEO of EDWINS.
Mr. Chrostowski founded EDWINS in 2007 with the intention of giving men and women equal opportunity to foster a brighter future for themselves, regardless of their past. He started EDWINS in Cleveland due to its rates of poverty and incarceration.
His passion stems from his own experiences, from being in and out of jail when he was younger, to working with chef George Kalergis in downtown Detroit, Mich., then receiving his associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s degree in business and restaurant management from The Culinary Institute of America.
This path led Mr. Chrostowski to work in some of the world’s finest restaurants, like Le Cirque, Picholine, and Chanterelle — a New York Times and James Beard award-winning restaurant.
In 2011, the Culinary Club began holding classes at Grafton Correctional Institution, with the award-winning EDWINS Restaurant opening in 2013 in Shaker Square in Cleveland.
The restaurant features a fine-dining French menu with staples like lobster bisque, frog legs, escargot, souffle, and more classics. Students enrolled at EDWINS are preparing, executing, and serving these meals and dining experiences, alongside Mr. Chrostowski and his team.
The 2017 Oscar-nominated film Knife Skills, followed the opening of the restaurant, and is available on several streaming services. Go to knifeskillsthemovie.com to learn more.
“The Grafton Correctional Institution program continues to this day,” Mr. Chrostowski explained. “We now have a tablet series with learning modules, inmate led programs, along with EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute classes.”
The tablet program is offered digitally at a dozen facilities across the state, including Toledo Correctional Institution. He shared that the core of this educational program involves extensive culinary and hospitality training.
Inmate-led classes are designed to teach the fundamental culinary arts and hospitality curriculum as well. These courses are led by one or two individuals with classes being conducted at their own pace.
The in-person curriculum expands over a six month period, focusing on topics from business basics, food history, dining room etiquette, gastronomy, culinary math, nutrition, local food, basic kitchen skills, safe food handling, the keys to running a restaurant, and more.
Other courses include back of house essentials from the art of a sandwich to the fundamentals of sauces, according to the curriculum guide.
EDWINS’ curriculum is heavily influenced by French cuisine, considering Mr. Chrostowski’s classically trained background, and his experience working at the Michelin-starred restaurant, Lucas Carton in Paris.
“The spirit of redemption is clear [at EDWINS],” Mr. Chrostowski said. “Everyone that participates in this program has something to be proud of.”
EDWINS doesn’t just educate incarcerated inmates. The EDWINS Campus, established in Cleveland in 2016, provides its largely post-prison students and graduates with free housing, legal services, job coaching, basic medical care, clothing, a library equipped with over 2,000 cookbooks and a computer lab, and more across the 30,000-square-foot campus.
The program graduates around 75 students yearly, Mr. Chrostowski shared. Graduates have gone on to open their own brick-and-mortar spaces, and others have been employed by restaurants across the country.
Harrison Buckley, a 2015 graduate, has taken what he’s learned from EDWINS and applied it to his next adventure. After the program, Mr. Buckley went on to work at the Fairmount in Cleveland Heights and started his own catering business in 2021, called Griffin’s Café and Cakes LLC.
From the start, Mr. Buckley said he believed in what Mr. Chrostowski does, and has come back to work with EDWINS on several projects — from serving 50,000 people in the Cleveland community with them, to painting the walls of EDWINS Butcher Shop.
“This program taught me how to take accountability,” he continued. “The lesson is in the food. If you do something and mess it up the first time, you’re just going to work to get better the next.”
EDWINS graduates have 95 percent employment rate after graduation, with less than 1 percent recidivism, Mr. Chrostowski shared.
The program provides much more than just good food; it gives students the opportunity of a lifetime. Don’t call it a comeback they say, but I think in this case, maybe we should.
To learn more about EDWINS and to find ways to apply, visit edwinsrestaurant.org
As a classically-trained chef, Mr. Chrostowski practically speaks fluent French through the dishes he creates and teaches.
The recipes this week try to do just that. Carrot soup is filled with knobs of butter and seasonal root vegetable(s). The second dish consists of a rich, decadent pot of red wine braised short ribs with aromatics that will have your house smelling like autumn for days.
Pumpkin cheesecake concludes the lineup, with a creamy emulsion of fall spices — nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, all spice, and clove — swirled together with pumpkin, cream cheese, and more.
These dishes are a reflection of just a few French classics that students may prepare during their time at EDWINS — this showcases not only their immense talent, but how you can take your life from one direction to another.
Recipes:
Carrot Soup
A creamy blend of root vegetables, stock, and a whole lot of butter.
Yield: 4-6 servings
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
3 pounds carrots, peeled and chopped (any Root vegetable may be used)
1 pound butter
1 Large Onion
Chicken Stock to cover
Salt and Pepper
Top with Aleppo pepper and sour cream (optional).
Directions:
In a Sauce pot, Melt the butter and add the carrots and onions.
Sweat for 10 minutes.
Add enough stock just to cover.
Bring to a boil, then simmer until the carrots are tender.
Puree in a blender or with a hand blender.
Season to taste with salt and pepper
Source: Brandon Chrostowski, adapted by Maddie Coppel
Red Wine Braised Short Ribs
A pot of autumn, that consists of tender beef, aromatics, and a rich red wine sauce.
Yield: 6 servings
Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
6 pounds bone-in short ribs
4 tablespoons of tomato paste
1 Bottle red wine
1 Small onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic
4 Cups beef stock
Oil to sauté
4 sprigs fresh thyme
Directions:
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.
Season Short Ribs with salt and pepper.
Sear Short Ribs in pan until golden brown. Adding oil if needed.
Remove and set aside.
Add the carrots, Saute for 2 minutes or until they start getting some color.
Add the onions, celery, and garlic. Saute until they are a dark golden brown.
Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes.
Add wine and deglaze the pan.
Reduce wine by 25 percent.
Add the short ribs back in.
Add the beef stock, enough to cover 75 percent of the beef, and the fresh thyme.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Cover and put into the oven for 2-2½ hours or until fork tender.
Take out the beef and keep warm.
Strain the sauce.
Put the sauce back on the stove and reduce by 25 percent. The sauce should be thick and sticky. You can thicken the sauce now if needed. Use a beurre manie (equal parts butter and flour mashed into a paste). Add to the boiling sauce.
Plate the Beef, pour the sauce over.
Serve with roasted or mashed potatoes, or a nice wild rice blend
Source: Brandon Chrostowski
Pumpkin Cheesecake
A creamy emulsion of fall spices — nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, all spice, and clove — swirled together with pumpkin, cream cheese, and more.
Yield: 8-12 servings
Time: 60 minutes, plus overnight for chilling.
Ingredients:
Crust:
9 whole graham crackers (about 4 ounces), broken
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
Filling
4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground ginger
15-ounce pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Directions:
For the Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine graham crackers, sugar, and cinnamon in processor.
Blend until graham crackers are very finely ground.
Drizzle butter over. Using on/off turns, blend until crumbs begin to stick together.
Press crumbs onto bottom (not sides) of 10 inch springform pan.
Bake until crust is slightly golden, about 10 minutes.
Transfer to rack and cool while preparing filling. Maintain oven temperature.
For the Filling:
Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until smooth and fluffy.
Beat in eggs 1 at a time.
Add pumpkin and remaining 7 ingredients. Beat just until blended.
Pour filling into prepared crust.
Place springform pan into a large roasting pan.
Add enough water to come halfway up sides of pan.
Bake cheesecake until slightly puffed and softly set and top is golden, about 1 1/2 hours.
Transfer springform pan to rack and cool.
Cover and refrigerate cake overnight.
Using knife, cut around sides of pan to loosen cake. Release pan sides.
Cut cheesecake into wedges and serve.
Source: Brandon Chrostowski
Contact Maddie Coppel at: mcoppel@theblade.com.
First Published September 30, 2023, 3:00 p.m.
