CLEVELAND — It's safe to say that being a James Beard Award finalist and the subject of an Academy Award-nominated Documentary has opened doors for Chef Brandon Chrostowski and helped further the mission of his EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute. The program provides ex-offenders with the tools they need for a career in the restaurant industry and, for many, a new life. It's enabled him to travel to some comfortable places, but it is in the uncomfortable ones where he feels he can make a difference.
"Food can change the world," said Chrostowski. "That's what I know."
That's why, after seeing the situation unfold in Israel since Oct. 7th, he knew he had to go.
"I'm hoping to support people who maybe feel like their world's coming and closing, to say hey look, you got people outside your world that believe in what you're doing," he said. "Chefs, we work together. It's simple, they need help. What do you need? Here I come."
Support by bringing food to those in need and support in letting them know they are not alone. "It was a contact here in Cleveland that put me in touch with someone in Israel who was connected to a chef doing this work."
This is not Chrostowski's first trip into harm's way, not even his first trip into harm's way this year, having spent part of January in Ukraine, visiting with chefs there and visiting refugee camps. It came less than a year after visiting Poland to cook for Ukrainian refugees in the early days of the war, which gave him experience he'll draw from next week.
"I learned that you can go to these countries in duress or in war and you can navigate them, assist them, stay relatively safe and make an impact. It gave me a lot of confidence to be able to travel like this now. You know, going to Ukraine, I was like, you know how you get a little uneasy maybe something might happen, now I feel confident, hey I'll be able to get there, get on the ground, and I can navigate these systems during warfare a lot better."
The suffering he's aware of lies with the Palestinian people as well, caught in the middle of this escalating crisis. For now, he's going where he can help.
"I feel for everyone, man, I mean, this is no way to live," he said, "and food is like neutral. A stove doesn't have eyes. You know we're all equal in a stove, so to be able to provide that to someone who needs it. That's like super easy to do and get involved in."
He knows there's a risk, but it gets back to leaving your comfort zone, he said and sending a message. "If you can't inspire, you're not going to have very inspired people following, right? I think it's important to see my family inspired, I think its important to see the staff inspired, and it's inspiring to me to say, hey, I can still go out there and get it done, and I know my heart wants to be there, my body can be there, so do it."
