As NYC is the center of the world, Miss Universe is learning to be a New Yorker

On a recent Tuesday morning, a group of longtime volunteers in a SoHo kitchen learned that the reigning Miss Universe, R’Bonney Gabriel, was working at their table.

Minutes after discovering her unusual job title, they got down to business: They wanted to know what restaurants she liked.

Gabriel hasn’t had much time to explore the city’s food scene. She was crowned in January, becoming the first Filipino-American Miss Universe, and, at 28, the oldest.

It’s part of the job description, and a tradition dating back to the ‘90s, that the winner of the Miss Universe Competition spends a year living in New York City. Gabriel won the title in New Orleans on a Saturday, and on Sunday, she flew to New York to start work.

And here she was, discussing restaurants at God’s Love We Deliver while preparing chickpea curry platters for New Yorkers too sick to cook or shop for themselves.