Grassroots Culinary Communities Offer Food-Based Mutual Aid: Cuarantine Dining Coop and Oven Mitt Movement cook for the greater good – Food

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From left to right: Lisa Machac, Gab Owermohle and Maddie Corliss from Oven Mitt Movement (Photos by John Anderson)

Throughout the Pan-Demi-Glace, people have used their innermost comforts to get them through difficult times. For a large number of people, solace came in the form of cooking skills – baking bread, cooking meals, and sharing these delicious works with close compatriots. Two examples from Austin – caterer Doryan Rice’s Cuarantine Dining Coop and the Oven Mitt Movement – opened up opportunities to involve and support the community in food-based mutual aid. Both Rice and the Oven Mitt team of Lisa Machac, Gabrielle Owermohle and Maddie Corliss were spurred on by a pandemic pandemic in their lives to take compassionate culinary measures.

Pull up your gloves

The Oven Mitt movement leak began with a desire to join the spread of mutual aid groups in the summer of 2020 – or, as Machac puts it, “a desire to help and bake our neighbors”. While they initially baked on a smaller scale for groups like Free Lunch, Machac says Oven Mitt really got into the boil when she teamed up with Owermohle and Corliss to start their signature “bake-alongs”. These offer accessible baking recipes with video instructions that are usually given by Machac or Owermohle via Instagram Live. (Corliss has hosted some but denies they “don’t translate well on the web”.) Tickets are sold through Eventbrite, and bakers then deliver the goodies to Oven Mitt, who distributes those creations to a select organization. They also have smaller, more informal “side dishes” that come from suggestions in the oven glove members’ group chat and tend to be spontaneous.

Owermohle says she was able to bring her baking skills to the mutual aid movement to support the community without burning out. “I want people to see that,” she explains. “You don’t have to be so committed. It’s great if you want to bake. Do what you can, find your skill, your passion and put it into mutual help.” All three Oven Mitt team members are former industrial workers, and when the pandemic left them without a restaurant, Corliss said it was a confusing time. “How can we still be hospitality people?” she remembers having thought. “We all are in our hearts.” Leveraging their ingrained skills as front and back of house people has made Oven Mitt a more impactful move for the team.

“You don’t have to be super involved. It’s great when you want to bake. Do what you can, find your skills, your passion and combine it with mutual help. “– Gabrielle Owermohle, Oven Glove Movement

While many of Oven Mitt’s creations went to companies such as Red Beans and Ricely Yours or Casa Marianella, they also added baking sets to their oeuvre. Machac describes how to prepare and distribute backsets to several groups of young girls who live in the Settlement Home for Children, a nonprofit that serves abused children so that they can participate in a baking. “I love the interactive way we were able to work with Settlement Home,” she says. “Even if we have to behave on Instagram Live” because the teens tune in. (“Maybe not drink the Bloody Mary while you bake,” intervenes Owermohle.)

As the number of baked goods has increased, both among the dishes and among the participants, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. From senior bakers downloading Instagram just to take a bake-along, to comments from recipients about how receiving an oven-gloved treat makes their step easier, “just to know that everyone who is either doing or on the receiving end, “is it really fun that you can do this, it was a really cool bonding experience,” says Owermohle.

“I’m surprised how many [bake-along participants] are like: ‘I’ve never baked bread before, [but] Let’s go, ”adds Corliss. “How, wow! That is really ambitious. “

Kilted caterer

Cuarantine Dining Coop’s Doryan Rice

Doryan Rice came up with the idea of ​​the Cuarantine Dining Coop – which he is excitedly shortening to CDC – after a long-standing brunch gig was canceled on this fateful weekend in March 2020. Rice used an abundance of corned beef and cabbage to offer St. Patrick’s Day delivery to anyone interested – no less in a kilt. From this initial delivery of food emerged the current CDC model of the rich helping the have-nots by donating meals to the needy. While those lucky enough to still be employed order meals from Rice to take a break from the kitchen (or for fear of food sprouts), they can choose to pay extra and donate food delivery to people, that they know who are not so happy. In addition to his food donation nomination program, Rice also donates extra groceries (and there is always extra) to ATX Free Fridge or people in the Better Together Facebook group. He adds that when people have been donated his meals, often when they get back on their feet, they quickly nominate others to receive the delicious CDC as a gift. “[Which] I rather enjoy it because then I meet people I wouldn’t have found otherwise. “

Rice’s love of cooking stems from his father’s hunting and fishing trips that culminated in weekend barbecue and sausage parties. “I was pretty much surrounded by that kind of community cooking spirit.” Prior to his catering business, Rice worked at themed dinner parties and never lost the passion he had for bringing people together over dinner. From these dinner party days, he brings with him a broad knowledge of which meals work best when cooking for a large number of people and what stays fresh longer. Pork tenderloin is common, as are Mediterranean dishes and meals within what he calls “Texas trifecta” with Latin, Southern, and Creole influences.

Food train travel Me

While the pandemic kicked both Rice’s CDC and the Oven Glove Movement on their altruistic journeys, neither plan to stop once the last vaccine has been administered. Rice plans to continue cheerleading the mutual aid and community groups he works with and maintain the delivery business model. “My wife wants me to open a store, but I’m not sure I’m ready to take this step,” he admits.

Oven mitt, on the other hand, is ready for some big steps. Owermohle, Corliss and Machac all hope to increase the number of baker registrations – and perhaps to win over special restaurateurs for the baking. Another goal is to add chapters in other cities that follow the same recipes but donate the baked goods to their own local organizations. “[Oven Mitt is] a really simple grassroots operation, “explains Machac about other cities following their example.” It’s not super complicated. And we want it to stay that way so that it’s as accessible as possible to everyone. “

The next bake-along for the oven mitt movement is July 11th with tickets on Eventbrite; more information on ofenmittmovement.com and social media.

The Cuarantine Dining Coop order form can be found at fb.com/diningwithdoryan.

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