Bridgeport woman goes from social work to comfort food

Two decades ago, with a bachelor”™s degree from North Carolina”™s Bennett College, Bridgeport resident Teresa Dozier entered the arena of social work, where she stayed for 20 years, always in the private sector.

If bringing the comforts of humanity to difficult situations is the mission of the social worker, Dozier has now expanded her work to the general public via that most comforting of foods, macaroni and cheese.

“After 20 years in social work I decided to devote myself to something else, and here I am,” she said.

Last September, she reinvented herself as the principal of Mac”™It, a mac-and-cheese-themed restaurant at 8 Main St. in Norwalk.

“I”™ve always liked to cook,” she said by way of explanation. “Mom always made really good mac and cheese on Sundays and we loved it.

“I discovered a few other restaurants in New York City were doing this with mac and cheese. I played around with my own recipes and here I am.”

The presentation is a mixture of pastas and cheeses (plus extras like chorizo on demand). On a recent evening, a family of three praised the food, unsolicited, as they dined on site, and a to-go customer said he was in for the first time, following his wife”™s lead; she had been in for a to-go order the previous week.