NYC Together unites cops & kids for pasta workshop in North Brooklyn

Program Provides High School Students, NYPD Patrol Officers with Mutual Hands-on Experiences

May 19, 2017 By Andy Katz Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Chef Albert di Meglio demonstrates how to sauté for students in sauce making. Eagle photos by Andy Katz

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“OK,” chef Albert di Meglio confronted his audience, some in uniform, others not yet having to shave. “How many of you like to eat?”

Hands flew into the air. The setting was Williamsburg’s Barano, a fine-dining Italian restaurant on Broadway, hardly a stone’s throw from the East River Waterfront. Named for the Southern Italian town where di Meglio’s grandmother lived, Barano was host to one of NYC Together’s educational sessions, uniting members of the NYPD’s 77th, 79th and 90th Precincts with students from Northside Charter and W.E.B. DuBois Academic High School to learn the art of making and cooking pasta.

Barano owner Zack Weiner volunteered his location after a chance encounter with NYC Together founder and Director Dana Rachlin at a community interest event. Weiner sought ways to give back to the community that made his restaurant successful, and Rachlin had just the right idea.

After the pasta was made, sauced, served and consumed, the Weiner planned to sit down with some of the students and share his experiences as a Brooklyn entrepreneur.

Before any of that could happen, di Meglio and sous chef Ben Mastrocinque divided the kids and cops into two groups. One, led by di Meglio, began dicing mirepoix — onions, carrots and celery — for the sauce, while Mastrocinque guided the rest to a massive pasta extruder, which they’d use to produce bundles of flat, linguini-shaped pasta.

Watching his crew function harmoniously while seated on a chair across the pass was Assistant NYPD Chief Jeff Maddrey. “It’s amazing to see young kids come into the program,” the chief explained. “These are kids who are borderline suspended. So this is an alternative. They become supportive of the precinct. They look forward to coming into contact with us.”

Each of the participating schools provides NYC Together with a list of eight to 10 students whom they believe would benefit from participating in the program.

“We provide emotional support, job readiness, academic support,” Rachlin explained. “And when I say ‘we,’ I really mean the officers. They get to see how meaningful their role can be. Then chefs like Al di Meglio and entrepreneurs like Zach Weiner have the opportunity to pass on their experience and wisdom.”

NYC Together’s past projects have included a police-community mural for the 90th Precinct station house; a cooperative garden, also in front of the 90th; and trips to Carnegie Hall, BAM and the American Museum of Natural History. Maddrey’s personal favorite is the annual DJ contest where kids and cops vie their spinning skills at a neighborhood block party.

Students and officers also meet weekly to discuss issues of concern in the community, such as gun violence, gentrification and the school-to-prison pipeline.

After the day’s project was consumed, Weiner and Mastrocinque sat down with some of the students.

“Sometimes,” Weiner explained, “you have to work at something you don’t really enjoy doing to get to where you want to be.” Citing his own experience, Weiner recounted working in family business for 15 years, when his real dream had been to own real estate. “All that time I asked myself, ‘What am I doing to educate myself about real estate?’ When I was 21, I devised a plan to achieve [my goal] by the time I would be 40.

“At certain times in your life you will fail,” he cautioned. “Then people will come out of the woodwork and say, ‘I told you so.’ That’s because they don’t have the courage to do what you’re doing right now … Above all, be persistent.”

“We find that people want to be helpful,” Rachlin said. “We find they want to make a change, and we provide the opportunity to do that. I believe the community is an ecosystem, and my favorite thing is providing a platform for everybody to be their best self.”