Anthony Bruszewski has always gravitated toward cooking.
As a kid growing up in Colorado Springs, he started spending time in the kitchen with his mom and grandma. Then, because his family raised chickens, he got curious about all the different ways to cook eggs.
In seventh grade, he tackled Gordon Ramsay’s beef Wellington recipe — a difficult undertaking for even the most accomplished of chefs — for a school competition, and loved every minute of the process.
“I didn’t know what any of the terms meant, but I just followed the steps,” says Bruszewski, now 17.
So, when Bruszewski heard about a new bridge internship program offered by the Colorado Restaurant Foundation (CRF), he was immediately intrigued. He applied and landed a gig with Creative Dining Services, a company that provides restaurant-like dining services at corporate offices, colleges and other facilities.
All summer long, he’s been waking up early for his 6 a.m. line cook shifts at the headquarters of a local credit union. As he’s sliced, diced, stir-fried, mixed and stirred, he’s learned countless valuable lessons from veteran chefs who’ve spent their careers in kitchens.
“The chefs are super knowledgeable and they’re really good at teaching, too,” he says. “They’re super supportive.”
Bruszewski is one of 17 interns participating in the CRF’s bridge internship this summer. With this new pilot program, the foundation wanted to give young professionals a glimpse of what life could be like if they choose to pursue careers in hospitality.
For the last four years, the foundation has offered youth restaurant apprenticeships with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The apprenticeships have been successful, but staffers also noticed that some young people weren’t quite ready for such a big commitment.
“Many of them have never had a job before, so jumping into an apprenticeship was a big leap,” says Stacy Griest, CRF’s programs director. “They needed a softer landing.”
Thus, the bridge internship program was born. It’s modeled after a similar program in Louisiana and funded by a grant from the Colorado governor’s office.
The goal is to help interns “dip a toe” in the water and see whether a career in food might be right for them, Griest says. Interns can choose their commitment level, signing up to work 120, 240 or 480 hours over the course of this summer (which equates to roughly four, six or 12 weeks).
The internship is built around the same skills as CRF’s certified line cook apprenticeship. So, if participants decide they like working in kitchens, the internship counts toward and could help accelerate a future apprenticeship.
“If they say, ‘Oh, this gets me so excited and I love this,’ then we have more tools and programs to help them further their education,” Griest adds.
In addition to Creative Dining Services in Colorado Springs, interns are also working at Urban Field Pizza and Market in Longmont, Manna Soup Kitchen in Durango and Osage Café & Mercado in Denver.
At Urban Field, interns are training under co-founder and culinary director Nick Swanson.
Swanson has some serious culinary chops: After graduating with honors from the French Culinary Institute, he worked under prestigious chefs in top restaurants around the world. He’s even cooked for stars ranging from Nicole Kidman to Calvin Klein.
These days, Swanson has become a bit of a celebrity himself: In June, he starred in an episode of Food Network’s “Chopped.”
By participating as a coach, he hopes to help usher the next generation of culinary professionals into a field that’s given him countless opportunities.
“I was 19 when I first started as a busboy — I was a broke ski bum,” says Swanson, whose team is also opening a second Urban Field location in Loveland this summer. “I was always asking the chef, ‘How do you do this? How do you cook that?’ He said, ‘Why don’t you come back here and give it a try?’ And the rest is history for me. If he hadn’t given me an opportunity, I would’ve never gotten into cooking.”
For Chris Starkus, a chef and general manager for Creative Dining Services, the internship is also a way to help promote a more positive ethos in the restaurant industry more broadly. If up-and-coming chefs see what a supportive, thriving kitchen looks like, they’ll be more likely to bring that culture with them as they rise through the ranks and move from eatery to eatery.
“Over the past decade, there has been a lot of honest talk about toxic kitchen culture, sexual harassment and rampant substance abuse in the industry,” he said. “I have always been an advocate for positive kitchens and constructive mentorship, so being in a position to grow our own — to train and guide future culinarians into a more rewarding future — is important.”
Bigger picture: The foundation also hopes to open interns’ eyes to the breadth of hospitality roles that exist, from cooks and servers to managers and owners.
“Unfortunately, our industry has had a little bit of a stigma around it — that it’s not a career pathway,” says Griest. “That’s one thing we’re trying to demystify … . We’re trying to get the message out that there are very rewarding and long-term careers. If we can shine some more light on that, I think it’s really beneficial for the industry as a whole.”
Originally Published: July 31, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.
