At Hot Bread Kitchen, we believe everyone deserves the opportunity to build a meaningful career. Since 2008, we’ve helped more than 3,280 New Yorkers overcome barriers to economic opportunity and build brighter futures in New York City’s food industry. None of this would be possible without the incredible support of our employer partners, who open doors and invest in our community every day. We’re excited to spotlight Chef Sohui Kim, a member of the HBK Kitchen Cabinet and Executive Chef + Partner at Gage & Tollner, and First Course graduate + Gage & Tollner line cook Aurea.
LEADING WITH PURPOSE IN THE KITCHEN
Chef and restaurateur Sohui Kim has been a long time advocate for building a more equitable food industry. She is a regular guest speaker and mentor to our First Course members and a member of our Kitchen Cabinet, a group of food industry leaders advancing Hot Bread Kitchen’s mission. When Sohui’s restaurant Gage & Tollner needed to strengthen its talent pipeline, becoming an employer partner with our First Course NYC program was a natural next step in our partnership.
“The Hot Bread Kitchen graduates that come in here are always so dedicated and serious about what they do and the career they are pursuing. You can see the dedication from the first day they come into your kitchen. They don’t want to waste their time or yours.”
— Sohui Kim, Executive Chef + Partner at Gage & Tollner
After more than two decades in hospitality, Chef Sohui Kim has seen the culinary industry’s high turnover firsthand. She believes lasting change comes from investing in employees and creating workplaces where people genuinely want to stay. That philosophy has become a cornerstone of Gage & Tollner’s culture.
THE POWER OF INVESTING IN TALENT
One of the Hot Bread Kitchen members Chef Sohui Kim has invested in is Aurea, a 2025 graduate of our First Course NYC program and now a line cook at Gage & Tollner. Aurea’s path to the restaurant began in an unexpected place. After a long period of unemployment, she knew she wanted to build a career in the culinary industry but wasn’t sure how to get started. She accepted a porter position with a third-party contractor and was assigned to Hot Bread Kitchen’s Chelsea Market headquarters. There, she discovered the training program that would change the course of her career. “Getting the porter job at Hot Bread Kitchen seemed like a sign to me,” Aurea said. “I had long wanted to get into the culinary industry, and this was my chance.”
After observing our culinary training programs in action, Aurea made the decision to apply for First Course NYC. This program, run in collaboration with the NYC Department of Small Business Services, provides culinary training and apprenticeship for aspiring restaurant cooks. Participants build technical cooking skills, professional readiness, and hands-on line cook experience through apprenticeships, while employer partners gain access to a reliable pipeline of trained culinary talent. Upon completing her First Course training at Chelsea Market, Aurea went on to apprentice at Gage & Tollner, eventually being offered a permanent position.
“Coming into the culinary industry later in my career was a little intimidating at first, but being here [at Gage & Tollner] made all of that go away.”
— Aurea, First Course NYC Graduate and Gage & Tollner Employee
Just eight months into her role at Gage & Tollner, Aurea has already earned a raise, trained across multiple kitchen stations, and is working toward her next goal: becoming the restaurant’s first female broil chef, one of the most physically demanding roles in a professional kitchen.
Stories like Aurea’s show what’s possible when employers invest in talent and workers have access to opportunity. Together with partners like Chef Sohui Kim and the team at Gage & Tollner, Hot Bread Kitchen is helping build stronger careers, stronger restaurants, and a more equitable hospitality industry—one graduate at a time.
