Navigate Initiative
October 15, 2026
October 2026
The cheesecake that took four weeks
His first New York cheesecake took four weeks, start to finish. Most of that was shopping.
In the Navigate unit the men budget and shop for themselves. This Tū Ora has $75 a week for food, and every block of cream cheese comes out of the same budget as dinner. So he plans: one ingredient a week until everything is there.
He had never baked one before. "You can't taste it as you go. You don't know if you've got it right until someone tries it."
Someone did. A visitor who doesn't like baked cheesecake tried a slice anyway, then came back to tell him how good it was.
He learned to bake years ago, when his kids were little. His daughter was two or three, and she knew that every Sunday her dad would bake. When he came to prison he kept cooking, and in the unit he has fine-tuned what he knew.
"At first it's a science. A teaspoon is exactly a teaspoon, not a heaped one, and if you don't follow the instructions you won't get it right. Then it becomes a passion. And then it's an art form, because once you know the basics you start changing things, like painting a picture. Once I clicked onto that, I was away."
The shopping list has rules. He can't buy biscuits, so he bakes them. He can't buy ice cream, so he makes his own. He can't buy jam, so he buys frozen berries and makes his own. His grandfather was a berry farmer. Men from other houses now bring him their berries and ask him to turn them into jam, and some of the younger ones have started asking him to teach them to cook.
He started baking for the volunteers after watching them come into the unit week after week, carrying food to share, and everyone would dive in. He wanted to give something back.
"People say thank you. Everyone knows the word. But for me to make something and hand it to them, that's how I say thank you for coming in, for everything you do for us."
He doesn't eat much of what he bakes. The pleasure is in watching other people enjoy it. When he heard Kirsten Billcliff, Pathway's COO, was visiting, he made two cheesecakes. One for everyone to share, and one just for her, which nobody else was allowed to touch. She ate half, guarded the rest and declared it better than anything she could buy.
Next on the list is a key lime pie. He has three recipes, and one has meringue on top. The ingredients will take a while to gather.
Names have been changed.
