Creative Cooking Takes Flight at Juana Briones Elementary School

IMG_0257On 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 waIMG_0259termelon 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.

IMG_0247While 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 textureIMG_0250s 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.

Open Up Your Minds to Healthy Food

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.

Sneak Preview of Tasting Week 2012

Juana Briones Elementary

Yesterday local Palo Alto chef and cookbook author Laura Stec came to Juana Briones Elementary to give a cooking class to 4th graders. First Laura worked with the students on classifying seasonal fruits and vegetables and talked about how microorganisms in the soil help food grow. Then she did a demonstration of caramelized peas.

When the children expressed surprise at how sweet the peas tasted, Laura reminded them that caramelization happens at 330 degrees while water boils at 100 degrees – so if a vegetable does not taste good to us when it is boiled perhaps we should try sautéing it instead to bring out the sweetness in it!

May, 17th, 2012, Chefs move to school

Then Laura made a multi-fruit smoothie. There was not a drop left after the class. The kids were overwhelming positive and they asked Laura if she could come back every day!

This is just a sneak preview of the great events coming up during Tasting Week 2012 from October 12 to October 2012. Save the dates!