Today’s Special: Jessica’s Gumbo

Jessica Hazan, chef and owner of The Soup Girl on Whitney Avenue, thanks the insistence of a customer for getting her to come up with a recipe for gumbo, which has turned out to be one of the takeout place’s most popular dishes.

“When I first started making soup, I had a regular customer who asked me to make gumbo,” Hazan said. The customer had grown up in New Orleans. ​“I kept blowing him off. He persisted for a year.” At last, she relented and called a friend, Josh Greene, who made a good gumbo. ​“He loves to cook, loves to eat,” Hazan said. Greene showed her the ropes of making gumbo, and Hazan ran with it from there.

It started, she said, with a two-beer roux — a mixture of flour and fat (usually butter) that’s used to thicken soups, sauces, and gravies — with the goal of getting it as dark as they could make it. Today, she said, the roux for the gumbo is ​“probably a six-beer roux. We go by color.”

After that, she said, ​“we layer the flavors.” Garlic, green pepper, and onions get sautéed and added. Then she adds chicken stock. Then the holy triumvirate of chicken, shrimp, and andouille sausage that she gets from a distributor. ​“I’m pretty picky about it,” she said. It all gets simmered together, then finished with okra, Frank’s hot sauce, and a couple other ingredients.

“We make it on Thursday,” Hazan said — not every Thursday, but most of them. ​“I don’t know how that became gumbo day.” The roux gets made the day before and the whole soup cooks for 3 hours before it’s first served. She makes it in batches of 50 quarts. It’s one of about 100 recipes that she cycles through in the course of the year, encompassing vegan and vegetarian options, gluten-free options, and seafood, chicken, and beef. Though the gumbo — along with a classic chicken noodle, tomato soup, shrimp bisque, spicy black bean soup, and a tomato tortellini — have become staples due to customer demand.

Take-out and delivery orders will prove crucial to the ability of local restaurants like The Soup Girl to weather the pandemic during the coming months as Covid-19 cases climb and cold weather sets in. Call ahead at (203) 248‑7687 or visit the place’s website for curbside pickup (at 1242 Whitney Ave.) or delivery. The Soup Girl is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (hot soups served until 2:30 p.m.) Saturday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (hot soups served 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. (no hot soups on Sunday)

Why Soup?

“I’ve always loved to cook,” Hazan said. Both of her grandmothers were ​“fabulous cooks” and when Hazan was young, her mother let her experiment in the kitchen. ​“I always wanted to do catering, but I was scared,” she said. She went into education and early intervention instead, working with kids with developmental disabilities. But meanwhile, she said, ​“I was always making giant pots of soup.”

Her husband got a job at Quinnipiac University and they moved from Queens to Hamden. She and her family couldn’t finish all the soup she could make in one batch, so she started giving it to neighbors. One of them said, ​“you know, I’ll pay you for that soup,” Hazan recalled.

She rented a commercial kitchen and in 2008 started selling soup at New Haven’s and Hamden’s farmer’s markets. She collected emails and started sending out weekly menus. People put in orders online, and she started making deliveries.

“It got to the point where I had to do it full time or stop,” she said. In 2011, she decided to go for it. Risk-averse by nature, she described the decision at the time as ​“terrifying. But my husband was good about gently nudging me to take the risks.”

Part of making enough to do more markets involved Hazan getting her own kitchen. She found the storefront on Whitney Avenue and transformed the space into what she needed. She did some hiring and ramped up production, now selling directly out of her storefront as well. ​“I have great staff,” Hazan said. ​“I give them most of the credit for making me look good.” In 2016 the building she was in went up for sale and she bought it; she now runs The Soup Girl (and, in the summer, a connected ice cream stand called The Scoop Girl), rents the adjacent storefront to a clothing store called Hello Boutique, and rents out an apartment upstairs.

The arrival of the pandemic didn’t require Hazan to change her business practices very much. She still posts what soups are available every day, in the store and online. ​“Luckily I never listened to all the people who said I needed sit-down service,” she said. But customers used to be able to serve themselves their soup; now she and the staff do everything. They’ve set themselves up for curbside pickup and deliveries. ​“I get 10,000 steps a day in the same 30 feet,” she joked, moving back and forth from the kitchen to the street.

Her customers used to come in to grab a cup of soup for lunch. They don’t do that much now; instead, they come in and stock up, buying enough soup in one visit for a few meals. They buy the same favorites they did before the pandemic started — black bean, chicken noodle, tomato tortellini. And especially the gumbo.

Previous coverage of recommended take-orders to help keep local businesses survive the pandemic:

• Today’s Special: Haci’s Napoletana Pie
• Today’s Special: Fred & Patty’s Brie On Baguette
• Today’s Special: Nieda’s Moist Falafel
• Today’s Special: Qulen’s Vegan ​“Wings”
• Today’s Special: Aaron’s Peruvian Rice Bowl
• Today’s Special: Singh Bros.’ Chana Kulcha
• Today’s Special: Grandma’s Chicken Soup
• Today’s Special: Woody’s Steak & Shrimp
• Today’s Special: Shilmat’s Yemisir Sambusa
• Today’s Special: Arjun’s Vegetarian Manchurian
• Today’s Special: Mohammed’s Bhel Poori
• Today’s Special: Francesco’s Tortelli
• Today’s Special: Seikichi’s Sushi
• Today’s Special: Ketkeo’s Khao Poon
• Today’s Special: Mike Fox’s French Toast
• Today’s Special: Zhang’s Squirrel Fish Dish