Best known for her work through Kitchen Craft, an organization she founded in 2009 that offers free nutrition and cooking workshops to women and youth in high-risk communities around Karachi, Kausar Ahmed uses food as a catalyst for change.
Meet Kausar Ahmed as she talks about her cookbook, The Karachi Kitchen, and learn how through her work with Kitchen Craft, she’s used food as a tool to combat violent extremism and empower and educate women and youth in high-risk communities in Karachi, Pakistan.
Join Kausar along with Kerry Brodie, founder and executive director of Emma’s Torch, Lisa Gross, founder and CEO of League of Kitchens, and Chef Geoffrey Tulloch from Food and Finance High School, for a conversation about how food can be a means to inspire social change in communities from New York City to Karachi.
A reception featuring food from The Karachi Kitchen will take place immediately following the panel.
KAUSAR AHMED
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Kausar Ahmed is a food stylist, chef, and cooking instructor with over 20 years of experience in culinary arts. The Karachi Kitchen is her debut cookbook and features the author’s favorite recipes from the crossroads of South Asia. In 2009 she founded Kitchen Craft, an organization that offers free nutrition and cooking workshops to women and youth in high-risk communities around Karachi, with the goal of promoting healthy eating and hygiene habits amongst impoverished families. Hands-on workshops teach students about cooking, nutrition, kitchen safety, personal hygiene, gardening, and more. Workshops for children are focused on improving language, reading, motor, memory, and interpersonal skills.
KERRY BRODIE
Kerry Brodie is the founder and executive director of Emma’s Torch. Emma’s Torch is a non profit restaurant in Brooklyn that provides culinary training and job placement services to refugees, asylees, and survivors of human trafficking. Emma’s Torch was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Greatest Places in the World in 2018, and has been featured in The New Yorker, The Rachael Ray Show, The New York Times, Vogue Magazine, and others.
LISA GROSS
As the daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, Lisa was raised on one grandmother's denjang-guk and the other's matzoh ball soup. The League of Kitchens is borne out of her passion for New York City, her love of cooking, and her connection to the immigrant experience. Lisa's projects as an artist, educator, and social entrepreneur create opportunities for learning, connection, and multi-sensory engagement. She received her MFA in participatory public art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University and has a B.A. from Yale University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
GEOFFREY TULLOCH
Born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, Geoffrey Tulloch was most inspired by his mother who prepared dishes that were nothing short of perfection.
Drawing from his international experiences in Jamaica, Venezuela, Brazil, Italy and now New York City, culinary arts has been Tulloch’s life passion for over twenty years.
With a strong passion for giving back, Tulloch began teaching in 2006 at the Culinary Training Institute. Tulloch now inspires the next generation of aspiring chefs at NYC’s only Culinary Arts High School where he has taught since 2009. Chef Geoff, as he is affectionately called by students and colleagues, prepares students for some of the top culinary universities in the US and careers in the food industry. In both 2011 and 2016, he won the “Outstanding Career and Technical Teacher Award” and in 2014 he won the prestigious “New York Daily News Hometown Hero Award.”