Galley Essentials with Amanda
Friday Harbor High School Chefs with Kitchen Supervisor Liz Varvaro
Recently I pick
up an arty flyer at the Market Chef Café in Friday Harbor. It was an invitation to a Community Dinner at the High School with Chef 1.0 students exhibiting their skills by presenting a trio of soups made from scratch; featuring local meats and vegetables, along with a performance by the Jazz Band, plus Art and Community Project Presentations. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, but it sparked my interest as to what was happening at the school, so I arranged a meeting with Liz Varvaro, the Kitchen Supervisor, and Chef Andy Radzialowski.
What is the goal for the high school kitchen?
Over the past years, the school lunch program was losing revenue to the extent that it was cancelled. The Friday Harbor “Foodies Group” and PTA got together to bring in help; Chef Andy and myself. Last year was a pilot year on the Experience Food Project – a large scale implementation of a new school lunch program nationwide. We’ve now moved on and have created a “Food for Thought Project” under the local district’s umbrella. We’ve defiantly ramped things up in establishing resources, labor pools, and a connection with the culinary arts class and community. Our goal was to be revenue positive in 3-5 years; we achieved that in the first year and have since raised our lunch price to $3.50, thus allowing us to become completely sustainable with our food, overheads, equipment and student chef program costs.
We aim to create a technical location
where students learn trade skills outside of the academic work force and standard
48° NORTH, MAY 2010 PAGE 38
Educational
Food for Thought
by Amanda Swan Neal
cooking classes, enabling them to better transition to the work force. The high school Chef 1.0 students learn work ethics by experiencing a fast paced, high volume kitchen. They become familiar with the challenges and expectations of a work environment; Are you ready to work? What’s your attitude, your cleanliness, attention to detail? Chef 2.0 is the next step up. Students come to the kitchen before school and attend a two to three hour lab once a week after school. Their responsibilities include leading the new 1.0’s and learning kitchen skills. At the semesters end they’ve created a portfolio containing recipes, skills, resumes, personal statements and images of the food they can complete. This gives them the beginning to go on to culinary school or community college.
What is behind the Food for Thought Program?
What’s nice for the students is that
,with our kitchen and what we produce, all starts with the primary use of local food. We use real food. Everything is processed from a raw state; there
are no commodities wha t s o eve r, no b i n d e r s , h i g h fructose corn syrup or processed meats. Here on the island we’re pioneers in working with the farmers. All the farms are small and they’re not mono-
crops producers. We maintain continual contact as to what produce will be available when and in what quantity. Chef Andy even takes the hand cart to the dock to collect the produce from Waldron Island. By interacting with the food producers and community, the students become more energized and connected on what food should be. They experience the full circle from grower to table with even the pre-consumer waste going back to farms for use as compost or pig food, not ending up in the landfill.
West African Cabbage and Pineapple Salad
1 lb cabbage - shredded 1 cup celery - sliced diagonally ¼ cup sliced scallion ½ cup green pepper - thinly sliced ½ cup diced tomatoes 1 cup fresh pineapple - cut into ¾-inch chunks
½ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper ¼ teaspoon thyme ¼ teaspoon tarragon ½ tablespoon parsley
Dressing
1 cup yogurt
2 tablespoons light sour cream 2 tablespoons milk Place salad ingredients in a large
salad bowl. In a small bowl beat together dressing ingredients, gently toss with salad. Serves 8.
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