Commissary Kitchen Paperback – October 11, 2016

I thought this was going to be a straight cookbook, but it was pretty eye opening to me. Prodigy from Mobb Deep and Kathy Iandoli have woven a lot of his stories from his time at Rikers into something that offers recipes, yes, but also shows a little more about how terrible the prison food experience really is. It's a cliche, we all know prison food is bad like airplane food is bad. But this makes you think more deeply about holiday meals missed, the times of day when food is served (stopping at 4pm, what do you do if you're hungry after that?), the fact that you can't get fresh or raw food in prison, and the fact that prison food could have anything from ground glass to pubic hair in it. It goes way beyond "prison food tastes bad," and Prodigy and Ms. Iandoli really highlight that bit of humanity that prisoners are denied. But, it's not that serious. The chapter titles are hilarious, and there is a camaraderie that grew from Prodigy's group of prison cooks. This is pretty awesome, I hope it picks up more steam. I kind of want to see it as a movie.

I bought this because I thought it was interesting to mix prison experiences and recipes. Remember, prison commissary is limited so the recipes are creative and yes, you will see ramen noodles used in more recipes than just soup. But there are many others as well. Prisons are proof that necessity is the mother of invention, even when it comes to comfort food.

RIP Prodigy!!! What a cool little cook book P wrote. I highly suggest buying this. Theirs beautiful pictures of the food and little gems sprinkled through out from the late great prodigy, and although not all the foods like appetizing in this cook book, it's a great way to get a glimpse of what a prisoner with a lot of time on their hands can whip up with the limited amount of resources available to them.

This book gives you a glimpse into how Prodigy (from Mobb Deep) born with sickle cell anemia, was able to eat "healthy" in prison for 3 years.The author states it in the intro, that it's not a cookbook.Broken into 6 sections, you learn about food constraints in prison, tools of the trade, the basics meals, meals Prodigy would eat all the time, meals he would eat some of the time and finally, classic prison dishes.You can recreate the dishes throughout the book, but using higher quality ingredients would mess things up.To me, this book is an example of how resourceful people can be when they truly want to improve both mentally and physically when in prison.If you want to rehabilitate prisoners, you need more nutritional food options served in prisons.After seeing what is given to prisoners, I am highly motivated to remain a lawful citizen.The photos of all of the meals are presented bold with tons of color.The copy I received had a glossy raised graphic on the cover, feels like a coffee table book.This is a nice gift for a hip hop fan, a foodie, or just anyone who wants to learn about how tough eating in jail can be.

Gift for my husband. He’s gotten some use out of it in creative ways. Decent purchase.

I loved this cookbook . The yam pie on the cover is really good... The recipes are easy and they give recipe for low salt ramen seasoning instead of the regular packet. & other sauces too.

The cookbook has recipes for making alcohol, which is against prison policy to have. The prison sent it back due to the alcohol recipe. The book should be taken off the list of books acceptable to send to inmates.

Nephew enjoyed this book. He is in prison and loves to cook when he can.