Riker's Island is New York City's Largest and most notorious jail I wanted To see what the kitchens are like and Also meet the cooks who prepare all that Food for the jail the kitchen I visited Is in the Anna MC cross Center which is A 47-year-old decommissioned jail that Kitchen feeds about half of the jail Population and also the staff at Rikers These cooks are working alongside daines People who have committed non-violent Offenses and work in the kitchen for an Hourly wage of $145 at first glance the kitchen looks Like any other commercial kitchen but There are several key differences all The ingredients have to be inspected First the knives are all Tethered to the Counter by a metal chain and they're Very dull a lot of the food arrives Canned or frozen if you open up a can Those Lids have to go into trash cans That are locked in cages and there's a Lot of limitations around your ability To use fresh herbs and fresh produce I Think the biggest limitation of all is That you cannot use salt Louise Raina a Cook who has been at Rikers for 29 years Told me that people always complain About the food and they always blame the Cooks but he's not in charge of the Menus or the ingredients he gets that The city is about a year ago the city Got a $100,000 Grant to develop
Plant-based menus and retrain the cooks On how to prepare these meals the new Program will incorporate dishes like Spinach Arch choke pasta and sanoo and Chanam Masala into the menu most of the Cooks I spoke to were really excited About the program mainly because it Involved actual cooking a lot of their Time these days is spent defrosting Packaged foods like burritos and pizza Pockets that they know detainees don't Like but the program does not change Just how demanding this job is you are Spending 8 hour shifts confined behind Locked Gates And the starting salary is $38,000 while these Cooks weren't Worried about the detainees they work With getting violent with them the sort Of Spectre of violence generally at Rikers hangs over them while they're in That place
Have you ever wondered why most of the Vinaigrettes in the grocery store are made with 10, 20, sometimes even almost 30 ingredients? I remember growing up in Provence watching my mother whipping vinaigrettes before every single dinner. She would mix in a giant bowl, delicious extra virgin olive oil, a robust aged vinegar (the flavor would depend on the main dish), sea salt and pepper and voila! I decided to do the same thing for my family and friends more than 20 years ago here in this beautiful country. And Provence Kitchen® was born. Stay tune for more articles and wonderful family recipes..
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