I highly reccommend this article about Michael Ennis, described as probably the “best soup kitchen chef in New York” in today’s New York Times.
Ennis uses homemade stocks, organic peanut butter, oils without trans fats, and local produce when possible. I particularly love this quote regarding the occasional criticism he receives:
“They’re still customers, whether [...]

Last night, we made a (too-small) batch of latkes that of course were fried into crisp perfection; they were preceded by matzo ball soup, and accompanied by a simple green salad, apple sauce, and roasted asparagus. For dessert, I made sufganiot (or, as the Washington Post called them in their recipe “Chanukah Donuts”), [...]

Usually dinner is just dinner, but sometimes it’s dinner. I will lightly — and willingly — step over this fine line; it often catches me unawares (see: the cauliflower soup I made last month) and it is never unwelcome. Such little delicious pleasures seem to occur when I’m feeling a little weary of [...]

Last night I unpacked and rearranged a few more boxes that survived my cross-country move to California last spring. Buried among the miscellany and other detritus were a few recipes I’d kept from my mother, who had, upon my signing the lease of my first non-university-affiliated apartment, given me some of her standbys. [...]

When I lived in Washington, the holiday season was never marked for me by fir trees or sparkling lights — no, what truly heralded winter’s icy approach were the boxes of clementines scattered in wild abundance throughout nearly every grocery store in town. Not only were they beautiful — delightful little orange fruits astonishingly [...]