Creative Cooking Takes Flight at Juana Briones Elementary School

Posted on October 3, 2013 by Carla Matlin

On Wednesday, students at Juana Briones learned just how creative salads can be. Chef Christy Wolf, and her 4th-grade daughter Danica, visited two third-grade classrooms and brought with them a wide assortment of greens, vegetables and fruits. Some foods were so unusual that most of the kids had never heard of them before, such as a watermelon radish or arugula. Other foods were very common — like apples and grapes — but the kids had never thought they could be used in a salad. In the end, a salad of red leaf lettuce, arugula, apples, grapes, watermelon radishes, celery, and red pepper had the kids lining up for seconds.

While Chef Christy introduced kids to new and unusual vegetables and fruits, Chef John Bentley met with 4th grade students at Juana Briones and focused on new and unusual ways to prepare artichokes. Steamed artichokes dipped in butter is so yesterday! Chef John showed the kids how easy it is to cut and prepare fresh artichokes. The kids then got to taste the different flavors and textures that are brought out depending upon how the artichokes are prepared — from an artichoke cream soup, to an artichoke and roasted corn salad, to artichoke chips. Those kids will never look at an artichoke in the same way, again.

Kids Will Eat Kale

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Carla Matlin

Today we had the pleasure to host “Snack Attack” with Chef Laura Stec at Addison Elementary School. Two classrooms attended Chef Stec’s workshop and learned about the importance of good food and healthy eating. Chef Stec opened the workshop with an introduction about herselfand how she became interested in food and cooking. She discussed three different categories of food: Whole foods/not processed, semi-processed foods, and processed/junk foods. After talking about different types of foods, the kids had the opportunity to participate in three hands-on workstations:

Station 1: Kale with Almond Butter and Craisins
After a brief discussion about the ingredients, the students took a kale leaf, spread on almond butter, topped it with a few craisins, and rolled

it up like a fruit rollup to eat. Yes, kids will eat kale! (An alternative version for kids with nut allergies used hummus and carrots instead of almond butter and craisins).

STATION 2: Fresh and Frozen Banana Ice Cream
What do we know about bananas? The students learned that after peeled and frozen bananas are put through a juicer, they can make amazing ice cream!

STATION 3: Candied Carrot Bites
Chef Stec showed the kids how to do a “roll cut” with the carrots. She then put the pieces of carrots in a bowl, added a pinch of salt, some olive oil and sesame seeds. She spread the carrot pieces on a baking sheet, baked them at 330 degrees and — voilà you have Candied Carrot Bites!

Tasting Week 2013 Opens Next Week

Posted on September 27, 2013 by Carla Matlin

The schools are buzzing with excitement. Chefs are busy preparing their workshops for next week. We heard from a few chefs already on their plans:

Chef Michelle Boldrini from Facebook will present different kinds of sweeteners
Hugues Pasquier from Galaxy Desserts will make chocolate mousse
Elizabeth Schindler from Google will make Chia Pudding and Chia Mole
Gnakouri Tohouri from GMATO foods will introduce Attieke (a manioc semolina)
Laura Stec from Kaiser and Nathan Beriau from Ritz Carlton will make healthy snacks.

Stay tuned for some more exciting new food adventures.

Snack Attack at Barron Park School

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Carla Matlin

In May, Chef Laura Stec came for a return trip to Barron Park Elementary to lead a special nutritional assembly to all students at Barron called Snack Attack. Students began the morning attending a lecture on nutrition that focused on the difference between whole foods and altered foods. “A whole food comes out of the ground, grows on a tree or a bush, or comes from an animal. Altered foods are what is inside a bag of chips or in a bottle of soda” students learned.

Later, the students broke into smaller groups to sample the foods. The tasting menu included roasted candy carrots, kale rolled up with almond butter and craisins, and banana ice cream made with only bananas. The students made their way through three tasting stations, most of them willing to try both the carrots and kale roll ups, but their favorite by far was the banana ice cream.

Chef Laura is now a familiar face at Barron Park. She has been one of the leaders of “Tasting Week” where specific grades are chosen to learn about healthy nutritional choices. But this was the first program in which the entire school was able to participate. Given the size of an entire school, four separate dates were chosen so every student was able to have a hands-on experience.

The parents at Barron chose to fund Snack Attack by using funds raised at the school auction’s “Bid for a Cause.” There were lots of ideas on how to use the funds, but in the end parents felt that having an opportunity for a hands-on healthy snacking assembly was a great choice. And the kids loved it! Barron Park is looking forward to repeating a program with Laura Stec this year—it’s already in the budget.

Tasting Week Closing with a Grand Finale

Posted on November 13, 2012 by armelle

Omnivore tour

We closed our celebration of taste and flavor at the Observation Post of the Presidio on a bright sunny day, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Thanks to Omnivore World Tour, we were able to open up the discovery of taste to families. Children from 3 to 14 years old participated in six workshops organized around the five senses and the discovery of street food.

Germain Biotteau from Macarons Chantal Guillon hosted the SEE workshop, also entitled Eat with Your Eyes. He organized a fun and tasty game with macarons to show the importance of sight and appearance in cooking. The kids had to guess what flavor of the macarons by looking at them and then tasting them.

Nathan Beriau from Ritz Carlton San Francisco hosted the HEAR workshop, also entitled Listen to Food. Kids got to hear what a fresh carrot and celery branch sounds like when it is snapped, and how to look for freshness with their ears when they shop for ingredients.

Cynthia Falatic from Ritz Carlton San Francisco hosted the SMELL workshop, also

Rosted marshmallows

entitled How Smell Triggers Memory. She let the kids smell different desserts and asked them what memories they associated with them. Many kids could smell the campfire when smelling roasted marshmallows.

Jonathan Silverman from Feel the Earth hosted the TOUCH workshop. The kids made soil with coconut fiber and rocks, and were proud to create their own necklace of life with a cotton and seed.

Mateo Boucher from Real Food company hosted the TASTE workshop and focused on pomegranates. The kids learned how to peel open, prepare and taste pomegranates.

Marianne Despres introduced us to Street Food. Marianne transformed an authentic French 1970 Citroen H-Van into a Food-Truck and now cooks fresh and Argentine style empanadas served directly from the oven!

To finish off the day, all the kids received a special Lunch Box prepared by the Students from the Cordon Bleu.

Thanks to all

Thanks to all the Chefs for a highly successful Tasting Week 2012! See you next year!

Tasting Week is Almost Over!

Posted on October 23, 2012 by armelle

Dennis Leary

Our last day of the official Tasting Week was Friday, October 19. In San Francisco, Jenny Huston and Lorraine Witte conducted workshops focused on a single ingredient: apples for Jenny and soy/bean curd for Lorraine. Jenny led a discussion on apple history, varieties, uses and attributes. She brought 20 apples (five varieties) and they were all eaten…Lorraine talked about the multiple uses of soy, in its raw sprouts form to marinated tofu.

For those with a sweet tooth, she made dessert won tons and the children sprinkled sugar over them. Also on the Asian theme, Elianna Friedmann from CUESA made vegetable spring rolls with a carrot, ginger, honey sauce with the students.

The A to Z salad bar came to Terman Middle School, on its way to Gunn High School on Monday. Kids and staff alike were very impressed with the A to Zdisplay.

Thinking Out of the Box

Posted on October 19, 2012 by armelle

Today the chefs went out of their way to engage the kids to think about food in a creative way. Chef Steve Catalano from Left Bank Menlo Park made vanilla ice cream. It’s a simple recipe but it demands lots of energy.

Steve Catalano

The Barron Park elementary kids got a good workout as they rolled the ice cream maker ball back and forth on the mats. The kids never imagined that cooking could be so physical. Meanwhile chef Jeremy Bringardner from LYFE Kitchen and his charming assistant tried to stump the fourth graders from Ohlone elementary by asking them to identify all sorts of vegetables and hers. The kids knew so much that the chef was very impressed. David Bastide from Left Bank on Santana Row visited the French American school in Sunnyvale and introduced many fruits and vegetables in all different textures and applications, for instance fresh pears, vanilla poached pears, tarragon compressed pears; beets in different forms and stages. One of the big highlights of the day was the hugely popular exhibition cooking at Nixon Elementary during hot lunch, which rallied 275 students compared to the usual 80 on a regular day. One child even tried to hire the chef to cater for his upcoming birthday party!

Open Up Your Minds to Healthy Food

Posted on October 18, 2012 by armelle

Tasting Week hosted ten workshops in parallel today at Juana Briones Elementary, Nixon Elementary, Walter Hays Elementary and Escondido Elementary in Palo Alto, as well as Brentwood Academy in East Palo Alto. This is our record for one day. The common thread of today was “keep an open mind” when trying new food. As chef John Bentley from Bentley’s put it when he passed around an artichoke salad “You won’t hurt my feelings if you don’t like it, but I want you to keep an open mind and give it a try”.

Chef Marco Fossati

We received a similar message from Chef Marco Fossati from the Four Seasons as he showed a real parmesan wheel weighing 90 pounds “when you buy parmesan cheese, go for the real stuff. It is worth the extra effort today because it will make you stronger in the long run”. Pastry Chef Cynthia Falatic from the Ritz Carlton introduced healthy trail mix to a group of kindergartners, chefs Michel Suas and Miyuko from the San Francisco Baking Institute showed children how to grind wheat and make real bread, while chef Aaron Johnson organized a full tasting spread including lost of different fruits, vegetables and even anchovies.

Michel Suas Bread

The children kept a very open mind and tried lots of new things. Highlight of the day – tasting real parmesan dipped in honey and seeing the beautiful dress made out of bread from Miyuko for Jean-Paul Gaultier’s exhibit at the De Young Museum.

The Five Tastes

Posted on October 17, 2012 by armelle

Today Tasting Week hosted three chefs and an A to Z salad bar in three Bay Area schools: French American International School in San Francisco, Ohlone Elementary and Terman Middle School in Palo Alto.

Chef Alicia Petrakis from restaurant Astaria in San Mateo introduced two groups of students from Terman Middle School to the five tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. The kids sampled a wide variety of ingredients from, starting with bitter and sour, and ending with salty and sweet. Among the most exotic ingredients, they tried anchovies, capers (salty), raw and caramelized onions, and molasses. Chef Alicia orchestrated the ingredients like a real symphony conductor, engaging the kids in a constant dialogue so they would really notice the experience of each taste in their mouth.

In parallel at Ohlone Elementary, pastry chef Michelle Boldrini from Facebook conducted her workshop on the topic of sweeteners – from white sugar to cane sugar, maple syrup, honey, agave and molasses. She also showed the kids what not to use –artificial sweeteners, and explained that Agave syrup, long considered a healthy alternative, is now understood to be as unhealthy as high fructose corn syrup. After an educational introduction to the various sweeteners, she let the kids taste her own scones, ginger snaps, pineapple glaze and chocolate custard (this last one was entirely vegan but she did not tell the kids until they had eaten it and loved it).

We heard that the workshop in San Francisco with chef Dennis Leary from Canteen was a big success but are waiting to hear the juicy details.

Back to the Fundamentals

Posted on October 17, 2012 by armelle

10-17-12

Today’s workshops were incredibly diverse, but had one thing in common. Every chef shared their favorite fundamental ingredient for good cooking. Chef Nathan Beriau focused his workshop on salt and pepper, introducing the kids form Palo Verde Elementary school in Palo Alto to various forms of salt and pepper from around the world. At the same time in another classroom at Palo Verde, chefs Kimberly Tran and Jordan Keao were teaching children how to make butter, another fundamental of good cooking.

Chef Peter Rudolph from Madera restaurant agrees that butter is a fundamental, but he adds that good olive oil is key to great cooking, and he makes his point by gulping down a whole glass of olive oil in front of an audience in awe at Ohlone Elementary school. Chef Rudolph used both butter and olive oil to make his delicious pumpkin soup with croutons sauteed with garlic and sage. In San Francisco, artisan chocolate maker Shawn Williams from Feve Chocolates showed children how to use all forms of chocolate, yet another fundamental ingredient in great cooking.

Juana Briones Elementary is getting ready for the visits of chef Marco Fossati tomorrow by hosting an exhibition cooking at lunchtime, courtesy of Sodexo, the provider to PAUSD Food Services. One hundred and sixty kids got to enjoy a special meal of chicken teriyaki, tofu brown rice and sauteed vegetables.