“What do you want me to call you, in the chronicle?” »
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
She was already in the kitchen, she thought.
“Hmm… Marie-Mylene she replied, suppressing a chuckle.
Marie-Mylène, therefore. She is 17 years old. Teen from the DPJ. Foster family, youth center and, now, here, in this semi-basement, in this town in Montérégie, on a recent Saturday.
“What are you going to do this morning?”
— Banana bread, macaroni and cheese with bacon. »
I met Marie-Mylène in June, when the Tablée des chefs was doing a chore of kits for beginners in the kitchen, in a warehouse in Boucherville. Marie-Mylène told me that she had learned to cook thanks to the workshops of the Tablée des chefs, which have been training young people in the kitchen since 2012.1.
She had told me: “Before, I was afraid to boil water. »
Worse, in June, she was cooking for the girls in her group home. I contacted the DPJ, asked if it was possible to visit Marie-Mylène making food. It was possible. Except that returned in October, Marie-Mylène now lived alone in the small apartment under the group home.
She is 17 years old, 18 in the spring. This little two and a half supervised is his last stopover before the leap of the angel into adult life: his formal relationship with the DPJ will end when he turns 18, even if a follow-up is possible, if necessary.
I said “an angel jump”, yes, but it will be an angel jump with a parachute, all the same: Marie-Mylène is going to live in a supervised apartment, in a building managed by a community organization.
On the counter: vegetable oil, parchment paper, a yellow mixing bowl, a pint of milk, a red mixing bowl, flour, magic powder, the Tablée des Chefs recipe book open to the page banana bread, baking soda, sugar.
The oven is already at 375°F.
“Why banana bread, Marie-Mylène?
— Because it’s my favorite dessert. »
In the red bowl, Marie-Mylène mixes the eggs, oil and milk. Then she opens a cupboard, pulls out a bag: “It’s not in the recipe, but I’ll add some anyway…”
In the bag: chocolate chips.
PHOTO ALEXIS AUBIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Banana bread and chocolate chips from Marie-Mylène
I ask her when the DPJ started taking care of her. At 12, she answers.
“Do you still have contact with your family?
– Little. Very little. »
I do not insist.
A year ago, before taking her first workshop at the Tablée des chefs, with other teenagers from the DPJ, Marie-Mylène was afraid of hot water. She knows it may sound ridiculous, but it’s what it is: a year ago, in the kitchen, she was afraid to boil water…
PHOTO ALEXIS AUBIN, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Mac and cheese and bacon being prepared
And there, tadam, she makes macaroni and cheese and bacon, and banana bread.
I thought, while taking notes, that learning to make food and manage a pantry is a kind of freedom. We are less dependent on prepared food and that of restaurants, necessarily more expensive than that which we concoct ourselves, at home…
I noted in my notebook the words on Marie-Mylène’s apron: “Cook your future”.
And I said to myself that, when it comes to the future, we don’t all start with the same kitchen kit in life.
Marie-Mylène tells me that since she lives “downstairs”, in the apartment, it’s a little less motivating to make food, which she prefers to cook for others. Before, she always cooked for others. It makes her proud when she shares what she cooks and others like it.
Marie-Mylène puts the banana bread in the oven. It’s time to start the mac and cheese with bacon.
“Why mac and cheese?” »
She answers me with a hint of surprise and irony:
” Because it’s good ? »
A skillet appears, then a saucepan. Marie-Mylène now has a wooden spoon in each hand, simultaneously stirs the noodles in the pan and the bacon in the pan.
She often buys groceries at the Super C, where there is a machine that calculates for you what you put in the grocery basket, so as not to exceed your budget. That of Marie-Mylène: $60. I ask her if that’s enough, $60, she swears it is: “It keeps me from buying too much junk. »
In the apartment, it smells good, the bacon wriggling and the banana bread cooking.
Geneviève, the worker, helps Marie-Mylène with the work plan and the dishes. Later, another speaker, Anne-Marie, will arrive in the kitchen.
” What’s your favorite food ?
“Lasagna soup.
– To the lasagna ?
– It’s my grandmother who named it the same: it’s soup with cut pieces of lasagna. »
While cooking, Marie-Mylène tells me about the rest of her life. From the supervised apartment, when she turned 18. Of this work which awaits him, in a restaurant. From school, which she wants to go back to, to go to hairdressing school, because it takes her secondary III, to do the hairdressing course…
Besides, Marie-Mylène already does the girls’ hair here. Even the dye, in the case of one of the girls in the group home.
She opens the oven door and says to me, without looking at me, leaning forward:
“You see, that, a year ago, I wasn’t doing that!
— Add macaroni to broil ?
– No, put my hands in the oven! »
And she places the macaroni pyrex on the grid.
This is where it comes back to me: a year ago, before her first cooking workshop, Marie-Mylène was afraid of hot water. A year ago, she reportedly fled from a hot oven.
And there, a year later, like a pro, Marie-Mylène makes her macaroni and cheese and bacon.
Ten minutes later, precisely, there is in my bowl a portion of this famous macaroni and cheese and bacon.
I take a bite.
“Worse?
— Delicious, Marie-Mylène. »