A
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A
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E
with
GAIL
SIMMONS98 MARCH 2019
TEN YEARS AGO, my friend Jessamyn Rodriguez
envisioned a nonprofit that would change the face
of the culinary industry by training immigrant
women for good jobs in food. She set up a wholesale
bakery and teaching kitchen in East Harlem, and
she called it Hot Bread Kitchen. Three years in, she
invited me to join the board of directors, and I’ve
proudly been watching its ranks of bakers, cooks,
and managers expand and evolve ever since. As
of today, Hot Bread Kitchen (or HBK) has helped
hundreds of women and small food businesses
get off the ground while significantly raising the
bar on NYC’s carb game with its globally themed
bread, from tortillas and lavash to stollen, babka,
challah, Parker House rolls, and naan—all inspired
by the recipes of the women who train there. Butit’s their m’smen—an intensely buttery Moroccan
flatbread—that I’m addicted to. I scoop it up from
HBK’s Greenmarket stall in Brooklyn on Sunday
mornings and at their bakery whenever I can. It’s a
challenge not to rip it apart and eat it on the spot,
but if I bring it home, m’smen becomes the basis for
a slew of delicious meals. It’s the ideal vehicle for
almost any dip and a gorgeous base on which to pile
a salad or braised vegetables and meat. Crisped up
in a pan with a little (more) butter or oil, my most
recent m’smen revelation is for breakfast, served
with harissa-spiced yogurt, merguez sausage, and
eggs. With every bite, I give a quiet nod of thanks to
the fearless women of HBK who have taught me so
much about reinvention, resilience, and the barrier-
breaking power of well-baked bread.Good, Righteous Bread
See p. 96 for the
recipes for Gail’s
Spicy Merguez
Scramble
with Lemon-
Harissa Yogurt
and Moroccan
M’smen.SHOP IT
Order m’smen
from Hot Bread
Kitchen at
hotbread
kitchen.org.FOODSTYLING:^TORIECOX;^PROPSTYLIN
G:
AUDREYDAVI
Sphotography by VICTOR PROTASIO