Restaurateur Marc Meyer shines a light on NYC’s immigrant restaurant workers
Marc Meyer had decades of innovation and success under his belt as a New York restaurateur when he started contemplating a new book. The pioneering chef and co-owner of The Bowery Group (The Cookshop, Rosie’s, Shuka, Vic’s and Shukette) initially had a cookbook in mind. But as he sought inspiration, he found it coming not from the exquisite ingredients that mark his cuisine, but from the men and women he had worked alongside in kitchens for years. Who comes into the kitchen to work at 2 in the morning; who works on the farms; who is doing the prep work; who fixes the damaged wall at the restaurant? Theirs were the stories that had to be told, Meyer decided.
The result, Voices from the Kitchen (Beacon Press, 2025), is a compilation of 27 narratives from immigrant workers at Bowery Group restaurants. As Meyer begins his preface, “Restaurants as we know them in the United States would not exist without immigrant labor. We would not be able to build them, staff them, or produce the food we serve without the people who have come to this country from other nations.”
In their own voices, workers from Mexico, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Burkina Faso and other nations tell of the paths they have navigated – the arduous journeys, the financial and social struggles, the tenacious efforts, the separations and the communities.
“We wouldn’t have these beautiful ingredients. We wouldn’t have the staff to produce the food. We wouldn’t have people to build restaurants. We wouldn’t have the guy who cleans the restaurant overnight and goes to a second job in the morning. These are the stories that make it work.” -Marc Meyer
“Cuisine is about history, humanity and who we are,” Meyer says, whose travels have taken him to six states in Mexico – a destination he was moved to visit after sampling fare brought from home for meal breaks by fellow restaurant workers who hailed from there.
With Voices from the Kitchen, Meyer and those who have shared their stories have amplified something vital: an appreciation for the mosaic of endeavor and history and passion that come together to produce, not just New York City restaurants, but an economy, a culture and a nation.
21% of restaurant and food service employees in the US were born outside the country, including 44% of chefs.
Benchmark has printed postcards, menus, business cards, labels and more for all five restaurants in The Bowery Group since 2018. Since beginning his New York City career in 1980, Meyer has worked for a range of esteemed restaurants, many of which Benchmark has also printed for, including NYC legend Larry Forgione at An American Place and ARK Restaurants.
