When visitors step off the elevator on the lower level of Division 11 at Cook County Jail, the first thing they notice are the large, colorful murals that grace the cement block walls. The second thing they notice is the tantalizing smell of food cooking.
Both are a result of Recipe for Change, a program founded by Chef Bruno Abate in 2014 to teach men in the jail culinary skills. The program also offers art and music programs, as well as a culinary program for women in the jail.
In its 14 years, 5,000 men and women have gone through the program with 500 graduating before their release.
It is all the vision of Abate, who is a presence all his own.
A tall man with a pronounced Italian accent, tinted spectacles and fashionable clothes, Abate came from a humble Catholic family in Naples and was raised in Milan. He moved to Chicago in 2002 and opened restaurants downtown. He now focuses his energy at Follia in Lake Forest.
The idea to help those in jail or prison was divine inspiration, Abate said.
“In 1998, I got a call from God,” Abate said.
One night, at 3:30 a.m. he couldn’t sleep, so he watched a documentary on TV about the American prison system. When it was over, he began to write. Three hours later, he had outlined an idea for how he could help reform the prison system.
“After two weeks, I was teaching those kids in prison in St. Charles, Illinois,” he said.
Through a chance meeting with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart’s brother, Abate was able to connect with Dart, who embraced his idea for the program.
Recipe for Change began by building an industrial kitchen in Division 11 where men can take culinary classes and earn food certifications they can take with them upon their release. That quickly expanded to a second kitchen.
The program receives some funding from the jail, but the majority of support comes through Abate’s fundraising efforts.
A highlight of the program is a pizza program that sells 1,600 pizzas to inmates a week. If men in the jail have met the requirements, they can order from a list of 10 types of pizza — everything from plain cheese to spicy chicken — once a week. The detainees and staff pay for the handmade pizzas, which are delivered hot to the different floors.
Recipe for Change also offers art and music programs. Men in the program have created art as gifts for both Cardinal Cupich and Pope Francis.
Abate has turned his attention to a food truck that the detainees will operate and then return to jail after their shift. He has purchased the food truck and is waiting on the licenses needed to operate in the city.
He is also raising money to build a bakery in the jail where detainees will be able to learn pastry skills.
“I would like to give more opportunities for the people to get out of their cells and boost their mental health,” Abate said during a recent visit to the jail.
Dart said he knew right away that Abate’s program was going to make a difference.
“I deal with a lot of really passionate people who are incredible human beings who want to help. The difference here was he came with this amazing business model,” Dart said. “This was this amazingly well thought out business plan that was going to help detainees gain skills that are wildly marketable and that could help instantly. But then it had the hook that it could self-sustain moneywise, which never happens.”
The recidivism rate for the men and women who graduate from the program before leaving the jail has decreased substantially, Dart noted.
The two men have become friends over the years and are working together on the food truck concept.
“He’s just one of the more remarkable people I’ve ever met in my life. He is literally what he said he was. He is a person who wants to help people,” Dart said. “There is literally no other agenda. Clearly, this has not been a boon for his business because he spends so much time at the jail.”
Working so closely inside the jail and with incarcerated people has led Abate to become somewhat of an authority on prison reform.
“Punishment is not the solution. Rehabilitation is the solution,” Abate said.
If the money it costs to house a detainee was put toward rehabilitation, there would be better outcomes, he said.
“You restore the brokenness inside a human being when you give them the dignity, when you give them the hope,” Abate said. “When you’re closed in a cell for 24 hours, you’re losing all of the hope. You lose your dignity, you’re losing everything. The mental illness and depression is so aggressive. When the human beings come out, they are completely destroyed.”
In 2024, Cardinal Cupich arranged for Abate to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.
“I asked the pope, ‘Does God call everyone?’ He said, ‘Yes, but not everybody answers the phone.’”
His faith has only grown since that fateful morning when he couldn’t sleep in 1998.
“I wish everybody understands, when you have a purpose in life, it becomes stronger and stronger. You want to do better and more,” Abate said.