Inside The Kitchen Network 

Cooking Up A Storm At Campus Mosaic 

By Mollie Barnes
For the GPHN

Johnson & Wales University closed its Denver campus four years ago. Left behind were Gothic-style buildings and a grass quad that generations of students have enjoyed. Also remaining was the commercial-grade kitchen equipment that had been used to teach some of Denver’s most successful chefs.

Enter Kitchen Network, which opened its second Denver location three years ago in what is now called the Mosaic Community Campus. (Other new campus residents include St. Elizabeth’s School and Denver School of the Arts. In addition, three former dorms have been renovated as affordable apartments operated by Archway Communities.)

Kitchen Network operates in the central-campus building that used to house Johnson & Wales’ culinary school. The 43,560 square-foot facility offers four primary services, including programs for formerly incarcerated and neurodivergent people to learn culinary-focused job skills. Other programs include partnering with other nonprofits for business ownership classes, offering commissary kitchens for chefs to safely prepare food that is served elsewhere and providing rental spaces available for catering events.

“The reason that we’re here is that [we believe] in empowering people through business ownership,” said Erick Garcia, the Officer of Operations of BuCu West, Kitchen Network’s parent company. “Our mission is to solve poverty by empowering people through small business ownership.”

Jorge de la Torre, the former longtime dean of Johnson & Wales’ culinary school, stayed on as the director of culinary arts for the Kitchen Network until earlier this year.

“[The campus] was opened up to a whole new group of people who would have never had the chance to come through these doors,” de la Torre said. 

Kitchen Network has a cafe, DIRT Coffee Bar, and a separate restaurant, Helping Hen Cafe. Both are on campus and open to the public. The Helping Hen Cafe, which is part of a program called Work Options, initially was designed to provide training to formerly incarcerated women. It has expanded its program to others, according to de la Torre. DIRT Coffee Bar is designed to train neurodivergent people to become baristas and coffee shop managers. 

Garcia estimates about 20 people cycle through the Work Options program every 60-90 days. DIRT Coffee Bar has provided training to several groups over its time being in business. 

“There’s nothing better than seeing people that are succeeding with their dream,” de la Torre said. “They’re moving forward, they’re feeling comfortable.” 

Kitchen Network partners with both profit and nonprofit businesses in the Denver area, which de la Torre said bolsters the Helping Hen Cafe and DIRT Coffee Bar apprenticeship programs, as well as teaches skills for small business ownership. Local restaurants that use the commissary kitchens — such as ChoLon and D Bar — also have the opportunity to hire recent Kitchen Network graduates.

“We have extensive partnerships with EC3 — the East Colfax Community [Collective] — so they also help small businesses and entrepreneurs,” Garcia said. 

“We want to help support anybody who is interested in [business ownership] — food is just one of the mechanisms — and there’s so much more that we offer.”

The training includes everything from considering food costs to efficiently setting up kitchens, to licensing and menu planning and profit-building for entrepreneurs. 

“If you’re making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it’s not the two slices of bread, one tablespoon of peanut butter, one tablespoon of jelly,” de la Torre said. “It’s the paper wrap that you wrap it in, the napkin, the bag that you gave. You’re paying for that, so you have to charge them for that.”

Kitchen Network also offers the use of 10 commissary kitchens to members at a lower cost than most other Denver options, according to de la Torre. Earlier this summer Garcia reported the kitchens were at near-100 percent occupancy.

In the future, Garcia said, Kitchen Network hopes to be able to provide more on-site retail opportunities. Other possibilities include providing spaces for conferences and meeting spaces.

In the meantime, de la Torre urges people to visit DIRT Coffee Bar and The Helping Hen Cafe (both are accessible via the south parking lot on campus, off Quebec and 17th Avenue). A variety of other businesses are operating out of the commissary kitchens. 

“To be able to turn around [the space] and give other people who are in need the opportunity to start their business here, it’s wonderful,” he said. “It was a great second rising of this building.”