This Chef Helps At-Risk Women Feel at Home for the Holidays

There was a small mountain of diced onions on the table, flanked by a pot of quartered potatoes and the scraped-out, fleshy insides of a honeynut squash from the farmers' market. But this was not a Lower East Side restaurant kitchen preparing for dinner service, it was Hopper Home Transitional Shelter, a 38-bed homeless shelter for women run by the妇女监狱协会。

On Wednesday night, Abigail Hitchcock, chef and co-owner ofAbigail’s Kitchen在曼哈顿的西村，接管了Hopper Home的社区室和厨房，教居民如何做饭感恩dinner。Together, the half-dozen women preparedstuffing，，，，土豆泥，，，，roasted cauliflower，，，，红莓酱，，，，and南瓜派。Of course, there was gravy.

“Because what does everyone want?” Hitchcock—who everyone calls "Chef Abby"—asked the small crowd.

“Gravy!” the women called out in unison.

Hitchcock’s day began with a visit to the Union Square Greenmarket for potatoes, onions, celery. garlic, mint, sage, other herbs, and three different types of cauliflower. “I always go to the farmer's market and explain to the women this is stuff that you can get. It doesn't have to be expensive,” Hitchcock told亚搏电竞食品和美酒亚搏电竞。

That night, Hitchcock brought her own containers of turkey stock—as well as two pie crusts she’d baked—to save on time. A benefactor donated a turkey for the night’s dinner, which let the chef spend more on her market bounty and other items on the night’s shopping list, like eggs, bags of cranberries, cream, and butter.

WPA向希区柯克（Hitchcock）提供100美元用于这些课程的食材，厨师有自由re绳开发菜单。她尽可能将成分清单保持简单，季节性和本地。她解释说，这个想法是要教霍珀之家的居民如何制作健康的菜肴，他们离开庇护所后可以自行便宜，轻松地制作。

Hitchcock’s path to the Hopper Home kitchen was serendipitous. The chef ran Camaje Bistro in the West Village for 21 years, before rebranding the space this spring as Abigail’s Kitchen. In addition to being a popular French bistro, the space became known for its Dinners in the Dark series, a performance art-slash-culinary experience where diners eat a meal while blindfolded. Hitchcock began hosting them 15 years ago as a riff on the Dans Le Noir dinner series that originated in Europe. Her dinners has become hugely popular, and this summer had a write-up in虚荣博览会。（阿比盖尔的厨房不做晚餐服务，而是专注于黑暗和烹饪课上的晚餐。）

In the summer of 2018, an intern at Hopper Home attended a Dinner in the Dark. Impressed by the creativity of the meal, she asked Hitchcock if she would be open to teaching a cooking class as part of its WPA Arts program. Hitchcock readily agreed.

她的会议在Hopper Home是一个较轻的时刻，在司法系统的各个阶段为妇女提供过渡性住房。一些人之所以找到WPA，是因为他们正在寻找监禁的替代方案。其他人则是在监狱或监狱里度过时光之后。居住在霍珀之家的妇女参加了一项计划，以寻求永久住房和就业，以及与孩子的精神卫生服务，清醒和团聚。

WPA艺术hosts a different arts event every Wednesday night; Hitchcock has taught her cooking class every few months. Cheryl Paley, the project director ofWPA艺术居民说,“涌向艾比”她的夜晚teaches. It’s an important way to bring the Hopper Home community together for a class and a meal as they prepare to transition out of the shelter.

佩利说：“烹饪使人们有机会表达自己非常独特和亲密的作品，这就是我们的目标。”“烹饪也创造了社区，所有这些都是我们的使命。”

烹饪班始于2018年8月，有很多即兴创作。希区柯克说：“当我刚开始在那儿时，[庇护所]实际上没有运行的厨房。”但是破碎的炉子并不是威慑。“在最初的几个月中，我们正在用非常慢的热盘做所有事情。”

去年春天，纽约青少年联盟用新的炉子翻新了庇护所的工业大小的厨房。有一个大型冰箱和一个大型冰柜，还有一堆烹饪用具。希区柯克通常会带来自己的一些设备，例如当晚的火鸡烤盘。她曾经将自己的搅拌机拖到庇护所，以进行南瓜汤的课程。到目前为止，她已经教授烤肉和烤肉和鱼的课程。蔬菜的特征是突出。

希区柯克说：“我们几乎总是制作沙拉，因为它是如此美妙，新鲜的食物，我喜欢教人们如何制作醋。”亚搏电竞她继续说，一些居民“对烹饪非常热情”。“但是'从头开始，'清洁烹饪'似乎并不是每个人的雷达。无休止的是，我听到食物感觉如此新鲜的评论。”亚搏电竞

星期三，希区柯克（Hitchcock）从一堂基本刀技巧的课程开始，并通过成分进行了交谈。肉汁的洋葱比馅料要切碎，要切碎，土豆的皮可能会留在额外的营养中。她把鼠尾草叶子散发出来，让女人闻到。

圣诞节音乐是通过某人的电话播放的，而厨房附近的社区房间里有六个居民切碎的蔬菜。大多数居民都在四十多岁，有些居民曾经有过烹饪的经验。

赛琳娜（Selena）是希区柯克（Hitchcock）那天晚上最渴望的学生之一，过去曾为她的家人做过感恩节晚餐。她说：“我做了火鸡，我做了馅。”她对希区柯克（Hitchcock）的鸟类少盐调味料持怀疑态度，很好奇它与她从长大的西班牙烹饪中习惯的更精致的调味料相比。

希区柯克解释说：“如果我变得遥不可及，那可能会把草药放在皮肤下。”它是。

Once the prep work was finished, Hitchcock arranged the turkey and sheet pans of chopped cauliflower fit Tetris-style in the oven. She used a Microplane tool to zest an orange into the cranberry sauce on the stove, and showed the women how to mash the boiled potatoes with a whisk, which she explained she prefers to a masher.

水渍险员工喊道:“伙计们,肉汁的时间到了!” and everyone gathered around the stove to watch Hitchocok make a paste out of the butter and flour. Phones all appeared to take pictures of the gravy; even the bird-carving moment didn't inspire so many shots.

Dinner was served buffet style on paper plates, while people chatted about their desert island meal (sandwiches, tacos, mac ‘n' cheese). More residents of Hopper Home appeared downstairs to join the feast. Every single dish, everyone agreed, was delicious.

At the end of the evening, Selena sat eating a slice of pumpkin pie, and smiled at the women around her. On Thanksgiving Day, she might see her daughter, who is living with relatives, but she didn’t really know what her plans were yet. Tonight’s meal was important to her.

“It felt like a family atmosphere,” she said. “I'm happy ... I totally forgot about my mom passing away, and me being homeless right now and not able to make my own Thanksgiving dinner. This was a really good experience. This made me feel like home.”