As the federal government cracks down on immigration, some Clevelanders are celebrating the nation’s newcomers with a dinner series organized by immigrant chefs with new kitchen skills.
Building Hope in the City, often called the Hope Center, is a Cleveland nonprofit dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees settle in Northeast Ohio, providing assistance in job placement, housing and educational services.
One of its newest programs is called One World Kitchen. Sharon Hughes, the Hope Center’s director of refugee and immigrant ministries, described it as a six-month chef entrepreneurship program to help student chefs land restaurant jobs or open their own restaurant.
“The course is really designed to provide business acumen, knife skills, financial literacy and in-kitchen experience,” Hughes said.
After graduating from One World Kitchen, Hanan Es Sabar became the lead instructor of the program, which includes pop-up dinners that turn the Hope Center into a restaurant for day. An upcoming dinner is sold out to more than 70 RSVPs.
“I love the American people, the way they try the food, how they taste it, how they feel the flavor,” Es Sabar said. “We try to do the best for this country. We love it.”
In preparation for the dinner, Es Sabar’s staff of student chefs spent all day Tuesday plopping dough onto sheet pan after sheet pan, in and out of ovens for hundreds of pieces of Moroccan bread — khobez in Arabic.
Khalida Noori from Afghanistan is one of the student chefs.
“The people say it's good, delicious,” Noori said.
Buthyina Dece from Sudan said they learned local techniques and enjoyed discovering food from around the world.
“I learned new food about America,” Dece said. “We are about from nine country.”
A previous cohort of the program had students from nine different countries, meaning there’s a cultural exchange, said Namwezi Katembo, who is from Congo.
“We have a different culture, different food,” Katembo said. “It is a good advantage for us to learn about many countries' food, different food.”
A previous One World Kitchen dinner menu included borani banjan, an Afghan eggplant with yogurt sauce; musakhan rolls, Palestinian chicken rolls with onions and sumac; and zigni, an Eritrean spiced stew.
Hughes said the worldly menu is intentional.
“I really want people to look around the room and think to themselves, this is the best of humanity — to see the beauty and the goodness of culture, and to realize that we're better with immigrants and refugees,” Hughes said.
Es Sabar recognizes that not everyone feels that way about immigration. But even those who would display racism against her are invited to a dinner made by her crew.
“They would change their mind, of course," she said. "Yeah, because food is very important, you know. When you share food and you share your culture, I feel like it makes people love, especially when you make this food with love. They will change their idea and their mind.”
One World Kitchen was created in partnership with EDWINS, a local culinary and hospitality training program for formerly incarcerated people.
The next pop-up dinner is scheduled for Friday, with another scheduled for Oct. 24.
