Cafe Momentum’s Plating with a Purpose brings guest chefs into downtown nonprofit’s kitchen

Cafe Momentum, a nonprofit restaurant that provides workforce development opportunities for incarcerated juveniles, has launched a new event series that brings in guest chefs serving specialty dinners.

The first event was led by Cory Hughes, the chef of North Side restaurant Fig and Ash and former chef at Google. Hughes also has been heavily involved with Cafe Momentum, hosting a pop-up at Fig and Ash when the Dallas-based organization first came to town. After the restaurant found its home near Market Square, it eventually went on a hiatus, which led to Hughes being brought in as a consultant, helping the restaurant to reopen with a new lunch menu and new chef, Robert Carter.

When Momentum, which originates from Dallas, first came to town, Hughes hosted it as a pop-up at Fig and Ash. After the restaurant found its home near Market Square, it eventually went on a hiatus, with the nonprofit bringing Hughes in once again, this time to serve as a consultant.

“I love working with the youth down there, I just spent five months helping them, consulting and getting them reopened again,” Hughes said. “You just love seeing these 16 and 17 year olds when they’re starting to understand how to do this fine dining food. It’s a very rewarding site because my biggest fear for our industry is that we don’t have any young cooks right now.”

Hughes’ night included porcini cream gnocchi, sourdough crusted halibut and black crusted cheesecake. He said that the young workers “picked it up immediately” and that he was impressed.

“I did zero of my own plating that night. I would explain verbally ‘this is what I’m looking for’ and then I just let the youths do all the plating and some of the cooking that night because it’s the whole point of the program,” Hughes said. “It’s not about Cory, it’s about them and that was very rewarding.”

Hughes has also enlisted Michael Godlewski, chef of vegetarian restaurant EYV Hospitality, to take the reigns of the restaurant on June 11.

“Cory reached out to me from Fig and Ash and said ‘hey they’re looking for chefs to do dinner and I instantly said ‘yeah, right away, anything to give back and try to help,” Godlewski said. “I think kitchens have always been a place of second chances for people that didn’t know their place or future in the role. It kind of gives you a spot to just jump into it without any skill level. I started in a kitchen washing dishes and just caught the bug and worked my way. For a lot of people that are incarcerated and are trying to rehabilitate their lives it’s hard to get work and kitchens are always a great access to that.”

Although his dinner service will be meatless, Godlewski encouraged non-vegetarian or vegan people to come out as well, noting that he himself is a meat eater. He also said that he’s excited to expose the young cooks to vegetarian specific cooking.

“It shows possibilities, that you don’t have to limit yourself to just meat and starch,” Godlewski said. “That’s great, it’s good for a reason, but you can get creative with (vegetarian meals). That’s the beautiful thing about cooking, you don’t have to play in a sandbox, at the end of the day as long as it tastes good that’s all that matters.”

Full article: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2025/04/17/cafe-momentums-plating-with-a-purpose.html