Tag Archives: chef

Tasting Week 2013 Opens Next Week

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welcome_chefs posterThe 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

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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 Snack Attackfoods 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 ingredientschoices. 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.

Two Weeks Until Tasting Week 2012

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Our team of volunteers is working hard to get ready for the second annual edition of Tasting Week. This year we are so lucky to host thirty chefs in fifteen schools across the Bay Area, from San Francisco to Sunnyvale. Among some of the great names participating in Tasting Week, we have Nathan Beriau from Ritz Carlton in San Francisco, Charlie Ayers from Calafia in Palo Alto, Marco Fossati from Four Seasons in East Palo Alto, John Bentley from Bentley’s in Woodside, Liv Wu from Google, and many more. All the chefs are busy preparing their workshops for the kids.

This year we are also very proud to join forces with two great organizations to kick-off and close Tasting Week. We will launch on October 12 with La Soiree in collaboration with the French American Chamber of Commerce. This will be our biggest fundraiser this year. La Soiree has lined up some amazing cooking demonstrations and competitions, as well as some really good wines.

We will celebrate the end of Tasting Week a few weeks later on November 11 at the Observation Post in the Presidio with an event for families, developed in collaboration with Omnivore World Tour, celebrating young and innovative cuisine. We have been working closely with Chefs Nathan Beriau, Cynthia Falatic, and the Cord on Bleu California Culinary Academy to come up with a very special program for children. There will be workshops for your five senses, tasty lunch kits, food trucks and music. Sign up to celebrate with us and join the fun.

Last but not least, we are hoping to raise funds to broaden the program to more schools in the future, develop more educational programs for kids about food, and invite a few schools on field trip to the restaurants participating in Tasting Week. If you support this idea, please contribute to our cause.

We look forward to hearing your feedback, on this site or on our Facebook page.

Tasting Week “en Francais”

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Chef Gerald Hirigoyen at Gunn HS

Today Chef Gerald Hirigoyen from the basque restaurant Piperade visited the advanced French class of Ms Anne Jensen. He gave his entire workshop in French! The students were a bit reserved at first, but when he started cooking the piperade (a basque dish composed of onions, red peppers and olive oil) they asked him many questions. It was hard to resist him, since he prepared sample plates with marinated roasted peppers, smoked ham, marinated anchovies and peppers. Every student finished their anchovies, which just goes to show you that our kids are much more adventurous than we think. For dessert he had prepared a Gateau basque and figs. Delicieux!

Chef Gerald Hirigoyen at GunnHS

At lunch break, PAUSD Food Services presented the A to Z salad bar to Hot Lunch students and offered the salad bar to all 150 staff at Gunn. The Salad bar will take a break until next week before reappearing on Tuesday at Terman Middle School.

Just two more days before the Wine Tasting at Lavanda. It is time to get your ticket before the event is sold out! You can reserve by sending an email to rebecca@tastingweek.com

October 20, Tasting Week is in full swing in Palo Alto

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For the third day of the week, we received the visit of four fabulous chefs at Terman Middle School, Barron Park Elementary and the International School of the Peninsula.

Chef Art Smith and Principal Katherine Baker at Terman HS

Terman received the visit of chef, restaurateur, and television personality Art Smith, winner of Top Chef Masters and former personal chef for Oprah Winfrey for 10 years. The children were very impressed by his personal background, how he grew up in a small town and taught himself how to cook. His lesson on taste was also a lesson about life: be strong, be brave, and share your passion with those around you. His business partner Sari organized a blind tasting for the kids, who were able to recognize almost all the foods she presented. Art challenged the kids to discover their “broccoli”, or their contribution to the world – a reference to his non-profit organization Common Threads that teaches underprivileged children how to cook. The children could not believe their luck to have met such a famous chef and one of them posted on Facebook tonight “best guest speaker ever in home economics today”.

Chef Olivia Wu at Barron Park

The children in Barron Park were equally lucky to meet with Liv Wu, executive chef at Google. First, she explained to them that cooking could be compared to drawing. Adding a color is the same as adding an ingredient. She pursued the similarity by making them think about a color for each different taste that an ingredient can have: green for salty, orange for sweet, purple for sour, red for spicy. Nose blocked, they tried to feel the different taste of a strawberry, a peanut, and some mint. Then, in front of the children’s eyes opened wide, she prepared a mixed salad with a “vinaigrette”, French word like “chef” ! Chef Liv Wu chose the ingredients as an artist. She added the last pinch of salt, and it was time to eat. How amazing it was to see the children leaking their plates and ask for more salad!

Chef Suzanne Vandyck at Barron Park

Chef Suzanne VanDyck made crostini out of fresh garden tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and grilled baguette. Children traveled in Europe with the tomatoes, learned the olive oil secrets, and the art of cutting in small pieces. Then, they put their hands on in chopping basil in the tomatoes preparation. Made from organic tomatoes, with organic olive oil from 1st cold pressure, garlics and fresh basil, the crostinis looked gorgeous and were very appreciated by the kids.

At the ISTP, chef taught the kids the proper way to cut an onion, and how to make a salad with flavor by using many sorts of herbs- parsley, chives, basil and tarragon. They made a salad dressing and dipped bread into it to taste the flavors. Every child went home with a sample of their salad dressing. A recommendation from Chef Moutal as you prepare your pumpkin soup for Halloween: add some nutmeg and some sugar!