At Haven's Kitchen, Finding Home and Hearth Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times Customers Juliane and Edwin Gerber enjoy a meal with their 16-month-old daughter Emilia at Haven's Kitchen in Chelsea. Out on West 17th Street, a lanky model lounged on a white bench, angling her face toward the sun as a photographer snapped away. Inside, Stephanie Janis sat in her regular seat at the marble-topped communal table, sopping up her egg salad with a piece of crusty bread. "This place is like being home, only better," said Ms. Janis, a toy designer who lives nearby, as she glanced at the scene outside the window. Haven's Kitchen, a cafe, specialty shop and cooking school tucked into a 25-foot-wide carriage house in Chelsea, has made an art of being at once homey and impossibly chic. The lofty three-story space, which opened last January, is owned by Alison Cayne Schneider, the daughter of James E. Cayne, the former chief executive of Bear Stearns. Much like her shop, the petite Ms. Schneider exudes both rarefied privilege and the blunt authenticity of a native New Yorker. "I was always searching for a home and hearth," said Ms. Schneider, an only child who married at age 24 and had the first of her five children at 26. Now 41, she attends an Orthodox synagogue and keeps a kosher home. "I always loved tradition and rituals, and so much of that is tied to food," she said. In 2010, dissatisfied with life as a stay-at-home mother, Ms. Schneider began studying for a master's degree in food studies at N.Y.U. and soon decided to start her own business. Three weeks after she did, her 16-year marriage collapsed, and since then, she said, the shop has been a refuge for her as much as it is for her customers. "I don't know what I would have done without this place," said Ms. Schneider, who wore an oversize sweater and black leggings, with scant makeup, her hair pulled into a messy topknot. For the first time, I am really finding myself, becoming a whole person, and this place is a part of that journey. The ground floor, with polished concrete floors, white walls and matte-black exposed fixtures, offers $4 lattes, a lunch menu and impulse purchases like miniature apothecary bottles and cookbooks with names like "Pie it Forward" and "Seamus Mullen's Hero Food." Past the cafe, and visible through the glass doors, is the cooking school: a test kitchen with three work tables and a large wooden dining table. On a recent weekday morning, a class of 12, including a full-time mother, a graphic artist and an actor, was learning to hard boil eggs and slice leeks. Ashton Keefe, the head instructor, pinched ingredients into her palm instead of using a measuring cup and never referred to a recipe. "I wanted a place where people could come and learn to cook without having to feel intimidated or dictated to," Ms. Schneider said later. We aren't teaching chefs, we are teaching home cooks. At the end of a two-hour session, which costs $75, the students gather around the dining table to eat what they have cooked. A spiraling wrought-iron banister leads to the event spaces on the upper floors. Hosting events like bridal showers and birthday parties brings in the most revenue, and while Haven's Kitchen lost money last year, Ms. Schneider said it was on track to break even in 2013. Ms. Schneider has been finding her footing as well. Her divorce is now final, and she recently moved with her children to West 11th Street from a limestone mansion on the Upper East Side. "I acknowledge I'm in a very privileged position," she said, "so I hope to use my means to create awareness about eating locally, sustainably and healthily." At the least, she has shared a vision of the good life. Erica Gutman, 30, a teacher across the street at Winston Preparatory School, eats lunch at Haven's Kitchen several times a week: "Being here," she said, "is like being in your dream kitchen."