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Pizzeria owner cooks for workers at ground zero

Steve Mizell and his wife had to drive all the way from the East Coast to the West Coast after an anniversary celebration in New York City that was to end Sept. 11.

But the Oceanside pizzeria owner is about to make a second trip back across the country to cook food for workers cleaning up the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Mizell, who owns Killer Pizza from Mars in Oceanside, said he and his wife spent the day of the terrorist attacks at the Marriott Hotel in Manhattan worried that a third plane could crash into a nearby building. The next day, they went to the disaster scene and tried to extend their assistance. But no one took their offer, so they rented a car and returned home.

"It was scary," Mizell said. "It was scary while we were there, and it was sad. And it's still sad ---- it's a sad sight. That whole area down there is just devastated."

Mizell still wanted to help, though, so he returned to New York a couple of weeks ago for several days. After wandering around for four hours, he found Ground Zero Food Services. He used his skills as a former chef to make meals for 12 to 14 hours a day at the round-the-clock operation, with brief trips to his hotel for showers and sleep.

"It's a makeshift tent little place down by the piers," said Mizell, who made meals in pots over propane. "All the food that we have is donated. We're making soups and chili and chicken and pasta, just anything we have. It's whatever we can cook in a big pot. We have to be imaginative with what we can do."

The food service has been feeding firefighters, police officers and other workers ever since the terrorist attacks. Mizell said he feels like he is contributing by providing the nourishment that gives them energy to lift heavy steel.

"They thank us all the time, but it's so sad to look in their faces because most of them have a blank stare," Mizell said. "Their eyes are hollow. I think they're still in shock."

Mizell's family had doubts about his trips, which he plans to continue monthly until the recovery efforts are done ---- with a break for the holidays. His wife wondered why he would leave her and a daughter at home, but she came to understand his need to take action and find closure.

"I think it's great," said Aimee McDole, Mizell's other daughter, who works at the pizzeria. "I'm actually really proud of him. I think the whole situation has changed him as a person."

The volunteers at Ground Zero Food Services remember Mizell partly for his generosity. They recalled this week that, even after he lost his camera equipment, Mizell bought hundreds of dollars worth of pots and pans for the operation.

"Steve was a good guy," said Tony Hall, director of Ground Zero Food Services, who is on unpaid leave from a job as director of food services for a Boys & Girls Club in Rhode Island. "I have hundreds of volunteers here from all over the country, but I remember him."

The volunteers found the camera equipment a few days ago, and it awaits his return.

"Steve was like an angel," said Frank Marquez, the foreman at Ground Zero Food Services, who is on leave from his job loading trucks in Los Angeles. "He came out of nowhere. And he's an excellent cook."