She watched for spices and scrutinized amounts. On Saturdays, she studied her mother’s movements as she heated the cream and mixed in cheese. By the time she was eight, Harris-Pittman had started to absorb that culinary alchemy by simply watching her mother in the kitchen. Once a week, residents of the building’s 67 units would flock to her apartment for a hot meal and a greeting from Mary Harris. She took the cuisine with her: macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas, collard greens and fried chicken that became legendary. Harris moved to New Haven from Selma, Ala. Years later, Harris-Pittman’s brother and sister-in-law opened a Whalley Avenue soul food restaurant Mama Mary's in her honor. At the center of it all was her mom, Mary Harris. Perched at the front of the Dwight Gardens Co-Op, the Harris home was always filled with the sound of laughter and smell of warm food. The chef grew up as one of six kids in the city’s Dwight neighborhood, where Edgewood Avenue meets the far edge of downtown. Even though I'm busy, even though I’m teaching cooking classes, people with this pandemic need something.”įor Harris-Pittman, the blend has been decades in the making.
“I just felt that the timing was right,” she said in a phone call Friday. This year, the restaurant turned 31 in the midst of a pandemic. Harris-Pittman and her husband Miguel Pittman run Sandra’s Next Generation on Congress Avenue in the city’s Hill neighborhood. That’s the recipe for Harris-Pittman’s Mac N’ Cheese seasoning, the first spice mix to come out of her kitchen and into homes as she cooks into the holiday season. The smell of side dishes, family dinners, Saturday cooking experiments and over three decades of New Haven history. A sprinkle of sea salt and pinch of garlic.
By now, she knows the ingredients by heart.Ī dash of paprika, sweet and a little hot to the tastebuds as soon as it hits. Hill restauranteur Sandra Harris-Pittman is selling a new spice mix this holiday season. Chris Noel Photo, courtesy Sandra Harris-Pittman.
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