Brandon E. Chrostowski

About Brandon E. Chrostowski

Founder, President and CEO of EDWINS Leadership & Restaurant Institute, Brandon Edwin Chrostowski, is an award-winning trailblazer in the re-entry and incarceration space known for impacting culinary and hospitality training both in and out of the nation’s prisons while preserving French cooking traditions.His mission-driven effort to train and hire former prison inmates at his flagship French restaurant and nonprofit has created a national model for re-entry and an educational pipeline for the formerly incarcerated to learn the discipline and skill of fine dining.His impactful social program provides more than 100 formerly incarcerated adults with free culinary and hospitality arts training each year. Since founding EDWINS in 2007, Chrostowski has reinforced his mission by creating a campus that includes housing for students, family & alumni, a library, fitness center, family center for child care, kids park and garden as well as providing other wraparound services for his students. Chrostowski’s culinary footprint has also expanded with EDWINS Butcher Shop, and EDWINS Bakery and Diner. EDWINS also offers a virtual culinary arts curriculum to more than inmates at prisons across the country with over graduates as well as on-site programs at Grafton Correctional Institute and Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center. A classically trained chef and sommelier, Chrostowski honed his skills at fine dining establishments in Paris, New York, and Chicago, including Michelin 3 star Lucas Carton, Chanterelle, Picholine, Le Cirque and Charlie Trotter’s. He has also travelled to cook and and raise money for communities internationally including Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Djibouti and Greenland.Recognition of his culinary efforts include 2025 CIA Leadership Award, 2025 James Beard Impact Award, 2023 James Beard Finalist; IFMA’s 2020 Silver Plate, CNN 2016 Heroes, Crain’s “40 under 40” Awards; The Richard C. Cornuelle Award from the Manhattan Institute for Social Entrepreneurship. Chrostowski was also the subject of the 2018 Academy Award nominated documentary Knife Skills – a short film following the opening of EDWINS.Published in national outlets and sought after to speak at recognizable platforms Chrostowski has a Bachelor of Business and Restaurant Management and an associate’s degree in Culinary Arts from The Culinary Institute of America. He is also a Certified Sommelier (Court of Master Sommeliers), Certified Cheese Professional (American Cheese Society) and member of the International Coaching Federation.

Experience

1. Board Member

   Anti-Defamation League

   Apr 2022 — Present · Cleveland, OH, US

Education

• The Culinary Institute of America

  Associate's Degree in Culinary Arts

• State University of New York at Oswego

  Pedagogy Courses, Vocational Education

• The Culinary Institute of America

  Bachelor's Degree in Business Management