芝加哥犯人在监狱学做披萨

 

Chef Bruno Abate¹ owns one of the best pizzerias in Chicago.

His restaurant makes thin pizzas, heated in an oven with a wood-burning fire. They come with toppings like mushrooms, onions, olives, tomatoes and Italian meats.

Each pizza sells for between $12 and $18 at Abate’s restaurant, Tocco.

But did you know you can get a similar pizza for half the price at the Cook County Jail in Chicago?

Abate leads a cooking school at the jail. He shows prisoners how to make pizza, pasta, and Italian ice cream, called gelato.

The cooking school is called “Recipe for Change.”

There, behind the jail’s barbed wires and security barriers, a number of students, including Shaquille Slater, are making pizzas. “I like everything I do,” he says.

Slater makes pizza dough², and then adds toppings to the dough. He makes sure the pizza and its toppings look just right before they come out of the oven.

Jonathan Scott says working with food makes him forget about being in jail.

“[It brings up] memories of when you was free and when you was having a good time,” he says.

Workers at the cooking school make about 200 pizzas every week. The pizzas are sold to other prisoners in the jail for about $7 each.

Scott says the eyes of the prisoners “light up like it’s Christmas” when their pizzas arrive. “They love it,” he says. “They keep ordering every week.”

Abate says he is teaching cooking skills to the prisoners, and how to use good, fresh ingredients. Many of the students did not know how to use basil or zucchini before taking the class.

When they finish the class, the students have skills they can use to find jobs when they are released from prison.

A website called Munchies published a long story about Abate and the program. It told the story of one former inmate³, who now works in Tocco’s kitchen.

Abate says his program teaches more than how to make food.

Shaquille Slater says Abate helps his students learn that they need to have a plan for their future so they do not return to prison once they are released.

“Through food, I try to teach, you know, how to change in life,” Abate says.

Words in This Story

recipe – adj. a set of directions for making food

barbed – adj. having sharp points or edges

dough – n. a mixture of flour, water, and other ingredients that is used to make bread or other baked goods

ingredient – n. something that is used when making a food product

1 abate   

vi.(风势，疼痛等)减弱，减轻，减退

参考例句：

• We must abate the noise pollution in our city.我们必须消除我们城里的噪音污染。
• The doctor gave him some medicine to abate the powerful pain.医生给了他一些药，以减弱那剧烈的疼痛。

2 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

3 inmate   

n.被收容者；(房屋等的)居住人；住院人

参考例句：

• I am an inmate of that hospital.我住在那家医院。
• The prisoner is his inmate.那个囚犯和他同住一起。