Palo Alto Schools Host Fruit and Veggie Demonstrations

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Carla Matlin

In response to the recent heat wave, Tasting Week 2014 started today with a series of very fresh fruit and vegetable demonstrations across four Palo Alto schools.

Chef Kelsey Casavan from LB Steak made a smoothie with apples, oranges and kale for the children of Barron Park Elementary school. Chef Beverlie Terra from Dolce Hayes Mansi on hosted an interactive workshop at Addison Elementary school where kids made lettuce wraps with grated squash, zucchini and cucumbers dipped in a home-made healthy ranch sauce. The entire MP room smelled like herbs and fresh cucumber juice.

Chef Christy Wolf from Sur La Table created excitement at Escondido Elementary school’s garden club with a quiz on exotic vegetables and fruits, which some children got to taste for the very first time.

Last but not least, our own Lea Bowmer from Tasting Week hosted a workshop on the Five Senses at Juana Briones Elementary, to teach children to use all their senses when appreciating food! Very successful first day. More details on each workshop to come…

The Path Towards Better Lunches in Palo Alto

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Carla Matlin

Georgeanne Brennan at Terman Middle School

Today, on October 25, 2011, several Palo Alto parents met at Terman Middle School to eat the school hot lunch and listen to Georgeanne Brennan, award-winning cookbook writer, reporter and specialist in school lunches.

Georgeanne shared her experience in helping the districts of Oakland and Los Angeles to improve their hot lunch programs. She also gave an account of her trip to France, to explore the French school lunches. Georgeanne picked France because of the low obesity rate among children in this country. Highlights of her trip are included in her report attached to the resource page of this website. Georgeanne explained that the success of the hot lunch program in France is not only due to the variety of the menu. Their success is also linked to other factors, namely that lunch follows recess, children must stay at a table during a minimum of 30 minutes, and the food is served in real plates with real knives and forks.

Salad Bar at Terman Middle School

As parents from the Palo Alto district, we then had a healthy discussion about our vision for school lunches and the challenges we need to overcome. In a single hour of discussion, we came up with a flurry of suggestions. They included involving the kids as panelists in the selection of new school lunch items, replacing “sporks” with real
forks and spoons, trying out recess before lunch, inviting parents and grandparents to sit down at the table with the children to encourage mealtime discussions, requesting transperence on the origin of foods served in our district, banning certain items from the menu altogether, putting microwave ovens in the schools for children bringing their own lunches to school, setting up a “foodboosters” program for parents to contribute financially to the hot lunch program, expanding the seating options for children to eat lunch, involving local gardens in the food program, and many more ideas.

If we can come up with these many ideas in 60 minutes, imagine what we can do with perseverance, patience and determination throughout this school year. Palo Alto Tasting Week gave us a glimpse into the wonderful possibilities of discovery through food and cooking. This celebration has started a meaningful dialogue on the improvement of food in our schools and the impact of food on our community. This is where it all starts.

Wine Event at Lavanda, in Downtown Palo Alto

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Carla Matlin

Lavanda, October 22, Wine Event

On Saturday 22nd, 2011, in downtown Palo Alto, Lavanda Restaurant opened its doors to a special wine tasting event hosted by “Tasting week”. There, a group of wine aficionados tasted and compared French and Californian wines paired with unique bites. The tasting was blind (wine is revealed at the end) and the organizers, Aurelia Setton, volunteer expert in wine, Rapahel Knapp, Wine importer from returntoterroir and Bruce Schmidt, Lavanda restaurant owner had set up this tasting to be tricky! First, they surprised us with a Picpoul (yes, this is a grape type), which was from France Languedoc region but tasted like a California Sauvignon Blanc! Then, we went on to tasting a Gewurztraminer from Anderson Valley, California. It was sweet and elegant, the majority of the group thought it was a French wine….The 2 reds where just as much of a surprise: the first one was a very nice 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon matched with a delicate chicken liver crostini. I don’t like chicken liver, but this tasted sweet and mild. Loved the pairing! The last wine was a Tannat (a French grape) from the South West of France. The truffled mushroom talagio cheese crostini was marvelous with it!

What a discovery for all of us! Even the Mayor of Palo Alto was there, ready to be surprised.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Carrots

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Carla Matlin

chef Craig Von Foerster and Principal Matt Nagle at Juana Briones Elementary school

On Friday Juana Briones Elementary school hosted chef Craig Von Foerster, Executive Chef at the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, voted one the top 5 best restaurants in the San Francisco Bay in the Zagat. Chef Craig came all the way from Big Sur with a full carload of…carrots. The kids were a little intrigued at first, but ended up completely enthralled. He showed them the difference between supermarket bagged mini-carrots and fresh carrots from his garden. He showed them white, yellow, and purple carrots.

chef Craig Von Foerster

He made carrot soup and pickled carrots. And finished with a giant carrot cake. And while he was preparing his carrots, he answered dozens of questions from the children about his favorite and least favorite foods, his origin, what it is like working in a restaurant, and much more. At the end of the presentation, the children all lined up to get Chef Craig’s authograph on their plate!

A few moms snuck in to grab a taste of carrot soup and to talk with Chef Craig. Next year we need to plan a workshop for parents too!

October 17 – 21: A Whole Tasting Week at Petits Confettis

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Carla Matlin

Tasting week at Petits Confettis

Even the youngest child can learn a lot about taste & food! At Petits Confettis, our preschoolers (3 to 6 years old) were challenged during the whole of Tasting Week.

They started with salt, tasted it and used it during an experimental `painting with salt` workshop. The second day, a sweet workshop brought them into a blind tasting. Such an amazing taste! Almost all the kids recognized the organic jams made by `Nuchi` (located in Los Altos), producing a lot of other organic jams for a non-profit association. The kids were comparing strawberry, apricot, prune and honey to discuss color and share their favorite one!

For the bitter workshop, they got the ability to differentiate chocolate texture and prepared `chocolate roses`. And last but not least, for the acid workshop, they identified lemon during a taste test and used it to make their own `secret` letter.

At the end of our tasting week, every child went home with a sample of their `taste workshop` and their own `chef`s hat`… homemade. Such a great week… such a great time… we all had fun and all the chidren came home very proud of their achievement.

Merci! and we definitively sign up for next year!:-)

The Petits Confettis

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

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Carla Matlin

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!

October 17, Chef Emmanuel Robert, Sofitel, at ISTP

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Carla Matlin

Tasting Week had a strong start today with the visit of Emmanuel Robert, Executive Chef at the Sofitel, to the International School of the Peninsula.

Chef Robert gave two workshops for the classrooms of Ms Katia Belghadid (2^nd grade) and Ms Hayat Saba (1^st grade). Among the many samples he shared with the kids you could find olives, endives, pickles, grilled meat, asparagus, grapefruit, strawberries, marshmallows, apricots, dried bananas, ham, mint, chives, sugar and pepper. What a display!

He showed the kids the different ways to cook meat (seared vs well done) and taught them where chocolate comes from (cocoa beans, white chocolate and cocoa butter).The highlight of each workshop was when Chef Robert melted chocolate chips over a small burner and then let each child dip a fruit into the chocolate mix. This was so popular they went for seconds…and thirds. Chef Robert says he was quite impressed by the fact that all the children were able to name the vegetables he presented to them. When asked what he would put in a lunchbox, he said cold potato or pasta salads are quite popular and they lend themselves to introducing new foods to kids in small quantities.

Overall the kids were thrilled with their tasting experience today, as you can see from the photos. Thanks to Nazee Domiray-Sage from the Sofitel for providing the kids with the lovely chef hats!

It Takes a Village

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Carla Matlin

The famous saying “it takes a village” is taking on a new meaning as I prepare for the launch of our first Palo Alto Tasting Week. It is obvious that raising children requires a tight collaboration between parents and educators. I didn’t realize that we also depend on the people who feed us and our children. My hope is that Tasting Week will help initiate a dialogue between chefs, children, educators and parents about how our relationship to food participates in raising strong, curious and independent children.

A-Z Salad Bar

Palo Alto Mayor Espinosa also reminded me that the community at large cares about the relationship between food and education. “We need to teach kids that food can be healthy and taste good. We need to inspire in kids a love for what is both delicious and nutritious. Thank you Palo Alto Tasting Week. This volunteer-driven initiative is bringing world renowned chefs into Palo Alto classrooms and into the community, helping us find the nexus between fine dining and healthy lifestyles. Kudos Palo Alto Tasting Week!“

Greg Betts, Director of Community Services at the City of Palo Alto, agrees. “Palo Alto Community Services supports the Palo Alto Tasting Week in that the program inspires students to cultivate their creative interest in the culinary arts, and also in their development of understanding and comfort with foods and customs of different ethnic backgrounds. These are both import developmental assets for youth!”

Thank you Sid and Greg! And thanks to all the wonderful volunteers who are helping pull together this initiative.

My meeting with Palo Alto Food Services

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Carla Matlin

Last week I met with Alva Spence, who runs the Food Services department for the Palo Alto school district. I asked her if she would participate in the celebration of Tasting Week and she gave me an enthusiastic yes! For every school participating in Tasting Week, Food Services will provide an A to Z salad bar as part of the hot lunch program. The salad bar includes a different food for every letter of the alphabet. What a great way to encourage children to try something new. The Executive Chef of Food Services will also come to the schools to give a live cooking demonstration in front of the kids during the lunch hour.

My discussion with Alva was very enlightening. Did you know that in many neighboring districts outside of Palo Alto, including Mountain View, every school has an actual kitchen where Food Services can prepare and heat food? Palo Alto does not have a single kitchen where food can be prepared on site. Did you know that Food Services launched an initiative with Revolution Food last year to provide one special menu every month but enrollment for hot lunch did not go up? Budget considerations aside, I think our parents need more education about what can be done with regards to lunch menus in the schools. Food Services is happy to partner with parents to find better solutions.

At one point during our conversation, Alva pointed to the brand new tennis courts across the street and said. “The Palo Alto parents paid for all these sport facilities. Where is my parent?” Giving good food to our kids is as important as building facilities to exercise in, don’t you think?

Remember, Palo Alto Tasting Week runs from October 17 to October 27 in several schools in our district. Check out the Chefs and the Schedule to find out more about this great event.

Bay Area Tasting Week

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