2025-02-04
18 分钟As New York City’s troubled jail complex tries to improve its food, the people who cook there see a higher mission.
Hi, I'm Priya Krishna and I'm a food reporter for the New York Times.
My job takes me to a lot of different kitchens,
but there is one kitchen I've spent two years trying to get inside.
It's a kitchen where the knives are either locked in a cabinet or chained to the counter,
where salt is banned,
and where you have to surrender your belongings at the door before you're even let in.
I had heard so many stories about this kitchen from a friend of a friend who used to work there.
But when I told some of my colleagues that I wanted to go and write about it,
they were basically like, yeah, good luck getting into Rikers.
We at the Times report quite a lot about Rikers island,
the notorious 415 acre jail complex in New York City.
We have written about the violence at Rikers,
we have written about the inhumane conditions at Rikers.
But amid all of that food is a constant
and unending need at this place for the roughly 6,000 inmates and staff.
And so what I've always wanted to know is who are the people who are meeting that need?
What are those jobs like?
What are their lives like?
Getting access to the Rikers kitchen is not easy.
I spent two years pestering the jail's various press secretaries and I didn't know