Gilroy resident Betty Baty hates to cook. But she does it anyway
when she sees that a few of her neighbors need an extra hand
There’s a food fairy living in the South Valley, but only a select few have seen her.
Gilroy resident Betty Baty cooks meals for four other families in her neighborhood and one family in San Juan Bautista, leaving the dinners neatly packaged in disposable plastic ware near the front door. For some, she prepares one meal a week. For others, one dinner every other week. Sometimes, when the mood strikes, she leaves more than one meal a week or cooks for someone in the neighborhood she doesn’t usually cook for.
And though Baty watches her neighbors’ pets when they’re away, and though she is a mother and grandmother, don’t for a minute think she’s anything like Ethel Mertz, Betty Rubble or any other cookie-cutter cutsie neighbor. Baty is the opposite of nearly every grandmotherly stereotype. She curses like a sailor, she makes bombs for a living at MK Ballistics Systems in San Benito County and she hates cooking.
“I hate to cook. I hate it with a passion, ever since my mom made me cook when I was small,” Baty said. “But I put on some music, and it isn’t so bad. I listen to rap, country – whatever’s on.”
It seems Baty, herself, isn’t sure how she picks the people she’s going to cook for. But once she’s decided to cook for them, there’s no stopping her.
“I knew Betty casually through another friend before we moved into the neighborhood,” said Melanie Mikeska, a deputy sheriff who moved to the neighborhood Baty lives in more than a year ago. “But within the first week, she was bringing food by, saying, ‘Hey, neighbor, I know moving is hard and just wanted to make sure you guys had something to eat.’ She’s been coming every week since.”
When Baty heard of an elderly woman in San Juan Bautista getting sick and her husband struggling to take care of her, she started including the pair in her weekly meals. Baty sends one of her three daughters or her husband, Steve, by the couple’s home with the home-cooked dinner.
“They needed help – they had doctor’s appointments to get to, and they had enough on their hands without worrying about dinner,” Baty said gruffly, shrugging her shoulders as if it was an obvious solution for her to help the couple in the way she knew best. “I’m first-generation American. My parents were Portuguese, and that’s where it comes from. If you have something, you share it with everyone else.”
The extent of Baty’s generosity is overwhelming at times, said Kim Kurtis, Mikeska’s partner.
“You know, when we have guests, she makes extra and when we’re out of town, the food is there the day we get back,” said Kurtis, an administrative manager for an ecological consultant firm. “When (my kids) are here, she makes extra. And she’s cooking for her own family, plus all the other people she cooks for. It astounds me to think what she must spend on groceries.”
Since the super Wal-Mart opened in Gilroy, Baty said she’s been saving about $150 a week in groceries. On average, she spends between $250 and $350 a week.
“Today, it was $356,” she said. “When I cook, I use whatever I’ve got defrosted.”
Sometimes, Baty cooks five tri-tips at once. Other times, she makes enough enchiladas to serve 20. Today, she’s got several trays of baked chicken spread across her counter tops and a bean and pasta soup already divided among plastic containers.
Baty said she cooks for Kurtis and Mikeska because she knows they’re busy.
“They don’t have time to cook sometimes, and I know they like my food, so I figure what the hell? Why not cook for them?” Baty explained in a gruff voice.
Another couple Baty cooks for is Michele and Frank Bozzo, who have lived in Baty’s neighborhood since 1988. The food deliveries started shortly after they moved in as well.
“It’s like Easter every week,” Michele said. “You never know what’s going to show up on your doorstep, but you know it’s going to be good.”
Though Baty often prepares several dishes for her deliveries – including the main course, side dishes and dessert – she doesn’t often leave dessert on the Bozzo’s doorstep because she knows Michele is always watching her weight. But whenever Michele is craving something sweet, she knows she can go by Baty’s house and come home with something that hits the spot.
“The energy that woman has is unbelievable,” Frank said. “If she sees Michele working in the yard in the morning, she’ll bring over breakfast. I’ll come out the door and see Michele eating something, and I know Betty’s been by.”
When Baty is sick, she has her husband or one of her daughters cook and make the deliveries. Both Mikeska’s and Kurtis’ families know Baty as “the food fairy.” Mikeska said she often feels like there’s no way to thank Baty for everything she does.
“She loves doing it, but you would never know. We try and tell her she doesn’t have to cook for us, but she won’t hear of it,” Kurtis said, smiling. “She’s kind of a salty old broad, but we just love her.”
