In the Camden rowhouse kitchen of Harris and his sidekick, chef Raafat Hanna, food is a metaphor for life. For five years the pair have taught culinary arts with a dash of life skills to teenagers from a nearby juvenile detention facility, and more recently to high school students willing to put in a few hours after school.
Next month, the program will move from the dilapidated State Street building to new digs around the corner where the chefs' charges can develop their skills in professional kitchens.
The facility is being constructed as part of a $4.6 million project to turn a pair of old commercial properties in one of Camden's roughest neighborhoods, at Eighth and Erie Streets, into a 23,000-square-foot job-training site.
Harris and Hanna are thrilled to leave the "hole," where over five years they've run 11 sessions and graduated 118 students.
"This hole has been amazing," Harris said. Some of the baddest kids in South Jersey - teenage boys convicted of drug-dealing, aggravated assault and rape - have been transformed into mini-Martha Stewarts.
One day last week, the students made 7UP Chicken, a can of soda stuffed in the bird to deliver a citrus flavor to the juicy meat. They finished off with blueberry cobbler a la mode.
They learn about food they never knew existed, they take trips to the supermarket to learn about purchasing provisions, and they work with a union to land post-release apprenticeships in Atlantic City casino kitchens and Camden County restaurants.
The boys' transformation process begins in the first class, when Harris - a large, loud man in a black chef's uniform and wearing a black cap backward - reminds his students from the detention center that life "is not over."
