Chuck Tender Wellington … A High School Lunch??
Posted on 9 January 2008 under Cooking Classes, Instruction, School Lunches | 1 Comment
Did you ever have one of those moments like Bourdain or Zimmern when they find something wonderful in a totally unexpected place, made by the least likely individual?
Lunch was like that today.
I’d headed down to the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg to have something signed and, since I’d gotten there at about 11 a.m., decided to have a bite to eat. Eating at Penta is always interesting in all the best meanings of the word. Chef Jim Rhegness, Food Network gingerbread competitor, is one of the Culinary Arts instructors at this high-school-level school. I’ve eaten in his classroom’s dining room before and have always enjoyed his students’ dishes. Chef Denise Schaefer teaches the Food Service side of things. She and her students run one student cafeteria and a place called the Snack Bar. I’d met Chef Denise at Taste of the Nation: Toledo last April but had never eaten anything her students have made. Her Snack Bar was where I ended up today.
I’m glad I did.
What I ordered appeared a little confusing on the menu; “Hot Sandwich: Chuck Tender Wellington - The chuck tenderloin has been seasoned with a ground steak rub and coated with finely chopped mushroom medley, wrapped in puff pastry and baked to medium.”
That was weird. I found myself thinking, “Is it a hot sandwich … or is it a Beef Wellington?”
My lunch entree turned out to be very similar to the Individual Filet Wellingtons Chef Tad Cousino made for the Chef’s Table (and for my video camera) at the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan on November 8, 2007. (You can watch the instructional video we made here.)
Not only was I surprised to be able to get any kind of Beef Wellington at a high school-level facility during a normal lunch hour (i.e., not a special event), what was even more surprising was the quality of this entree. It was cooked correctly, the beef medium as advertised. The “finely chopped mushroom medley” (a psuedo-duxelles) was more of a nice touch than I’d expected. The puff pastry was wonderfully flaky, and honestly, I could have cut that beef with a butterknife. There was a bit of A1 sauce for dipping, but I didn’t use it. I also had a dish of Wild & Brown Rice, and a Seasonal Fresh Fruit Parfait, both of which went quite well with the Wellington.
All this for … four bucks??? Amazing.
Heading back downstairs to drop off the trays, I showed Chef Denise the above photo in the camera’s viewscreen. She then pulled over Damien, the shaggy-headed young man who’d made these Wellingtons so he could also see the image. Damien seemed shy, almost embarrassed, almost as though he felt that a high-schooler like himself shouldn’t be told what he’d made was actually quite good indeed.
I think back to those awful Home Ec classes I had to take in Middle School in the early 1970s, with the classroom having multiple installations of cheap almond-colored electric ranges, complete with ratty cabinetry and old Formica counters. We were lucky if our single stack of four pancakes turned out right after 4 weeks of class.
These kids at Penta are training on commercial and professional equipment, preparing real-world dishes for lunch on a daily basis, and doing it well.
Damien’s Chuck Tender Wellingtons would have been more than acceptable in any number of good restaurants.
I hope Damien keeps going with his studies. If he does, he’s going to go places.
Today: Cooking For Mary’s Students
Posted on 21 November 2007 under School Lunches | 2 Comments
Today’s a rather busy day, food-wise. It has very little to do with Thanksgiving, too. This morning I’ve cooked 15 omelets to-order for the 11th graders in Mary’s morning class here at the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg, Ohio. I brought my own pans and such, along with all the necessary ingredients. But then one of the students brought in hash browns and I had to grab another pan from the Culinary Arts department. One of the other students also brought cinnamon rolls to bake in the oven. Everyone had a great time, and are very full and satisfied this morning before a four-day weekend.
This afternoon is similar for that batch of students, but they wanted things a bit different. They requested a “non-Thanksgiving” Thanksgiving meal. I have two 6-pound trays of lasagna and some garlic toast. There’s also pasta salads, stuffed grape leaves, garlic-stuffed olives, and some chips and hommus from Sofo’s retail shop.
And then, tomorrow morning, the cooking starts at 7 a.m. I’m seriously hoping the kids in this classroom can find it in their hearts to do some dishes … 
Dinners from School: Helping Upcoming Chefs Learn
Posted on 11 October 2007 under School Lunches | 1 Comment
I listed this post under School Lunches because I really don’t have another place for it. Mary’s bringing home dinner more often now, and at the same time I’m also eating out more at lunch time. Oddly enough though, all this food is coming out of the same kitchen. And none of it comes from any kind of restaurant you might be familiar with.
Mary works at the Penta Career Center in Perrysburg, Ohio, teaching a Nurse Aide program to high schoolers. If you go down the stairs by her classroom and then a couple hundred feet down the hall, you’ll find the high school culinary classroom of Chef Jim Rhegness, whom you might have seen competing in Food Network gingerbread competitions the past couple years.
During lunch hours Chef Jim’s students operate a small restaurant at the school. Mary and I have enjoyed lunches from there quite often lately, including some moist & tender 1/3-pound buffalo burgers yesterday, topped with lettuce, tomato and pickle, served with fresh French fries, a dense carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and lemonade, all apparently made from scratch … and all for only $5.
Mary has also been scheduling dinners to bring home. She’ll get the schedules for lunches and dinners, I’ll decide when I’m heading down to join her for lunch, and she’ll also schedule dinners to be made for us by Chef Jim’s students. She’ll then just slide by his kitchen on her way out and pick up our order of whatever’s on the menu for the evening. What she ends up with are these aluminum tubs with crimped covers. These have been prepped by the students with everything included except for dessert and drinks. All we need to do is put them in a 375 degree F oven for about 30 minutes and they’re ready to eat.
After cooking I’ll remove the aluminum lid. At that point, you can either eat the meal right out of the metal container or transfer the meal to a plate for eating. This particular meal, which is what we had for dinner yesterday evening, is a chicken breast with a crunchy-n-cheesy coating, over spaghetti with zuchini and tomato sauce, and a very nice vegetable mix on the side. Putting it all on a plate as I did for the first photo, you can’t tell this is any kind of take-out! And just like the buffalo burger lunch from yesterday, these meals are not expensive whatsoever. But they do give the kids an outlet for their work.
Oh, and get this: Mary’s on Weight Watchers, as are other staff and teachers through a Penta-supported program. The dinner you see here is something Chef Jim developed to support this program, and is only 5 points per serving. The buffalo burgers are also part of that program.
We’re always impressed with the work these kids, these budding chefs, put in front of us. They’re great kids … they work hard, they’re fun to talk with, and Chef Jim seems to appreciate each and every one of them. We’re certainly happy to help out by immensely enjoying the students’ wonderful dishes. And Chef Jim gets pretty darn proud when you let him know just how well his students have done.
Junk Food ‘Black Markets’ In Schools
Posted on 21 September 2007 under Food In The News, School Lunches | 2 Comments
Yesterday, the CBC reported on the existence of a black market for junk food in public schools in Winnepeg, Manitoba:
At the start of the school year, pop, chocolate bars, cinnamon buns and french fries were replaced by bottled water, granola bars and potato wedges in vending machines and the cafeteria at Kelvin High School … More than 70 people have joined a Facebook site called “Bring Back Sugar to Kelvin High School.” Several students posted messages that say they are taking matters into their own hands … “We now have 2 black markets in Kelvin high school. I know of two students that sell out of there (sic) locker… I say we just exploit this and make our own money off this,” one student wrote.
Later in the article, an administration member offers his own words:
School trustee John Orlikow said the claims will be examined by the school’s principal, but he emphasized the measures aren’t as extreme as some students suggest … “Some people will be resistant to losing their junk foods. It’s not a ban. People can still bring their own. But we as a school division are not going to provide it,” Orlikow said … “If they really need a chocolate bar, they could bring it from home.” … The (FaceBook) website also contained claims that some of the treats brought from home were confiscated. Orlikow said teachers and staff might be confused about the policy because it’s new - it only took effect at the start of the school year.
The FAQ from the school district’s web site has this to say:
How will this impact on what students bring for lunch? Will the policy be enforced as to what students bring for lunch?
Schools cannot control what students bring for lunch. Hopefully through education of the students and information to parents, the choices that parents make in regard to school lunches will promote healthy eating.
The school system for the Manitoba province actually has a 66-page School Nutrition Handbook. This handbook is referenced within the FAQ, however the handbook is for the 2002-2003 school year. The following statement could be what the teachers use as justification for confiscating snacks brought in from home:
Recognizing the importance of role modeling in promoting healthy eating, teachers, administrators, and school staff should act as role models to promote healthy eating within the classroom and school environment.
Interpreted incorrectly, this kind of statement could certainly be used against the students and their parents in making their own choices.
You may be wondering why I’ve included a pic of the handsome Teen Tech at the beginning of this post. At Camp Tapico in Kalkaska the past three summers he’s worked in the camp store, which is where I took this picture. At the end of the season when they’re closing down the store, he’ll buy some of the store’s products for close to cost and re-sell those few items, making about enough money for the gas for the trip home. Heck, I’ve bought bottled Starbucks Frappuccinos from him myself. An enterprising young man, he currently has his own web design business, and will only be 18 at the end of November.
I could easily see him selling Starbucks Frappuccinos out of his locker at school. Would I be upset if I found out? Nope, not at all. In fact, I’d take him to GFS myself to get his stock.
Winnipeg in Manitoba is doing the right thing in controlling what’s in the vending machines in their schools. But I don’t consider what the kids are doing to be a “black market”. Instead, I consider it a democratic market where the kids and the vending machines are in competition. Some kids want the healthy products, while others want chocolate.
It’s called choice.
And it’s definitely a choice to be made within a child’s family … and nowhere else.
Wouldn’t it be cool if the school issued permits for these sales, ensuring the kids weren’t price-gouging and helping to keep the resulting funds safe? Wouldn’t it be even more interesting to have a class in operating a business where the kids could learn the right way to do these kinds of things, and then practice those lessons through these locker-based sales?
Sure, there’d be stumbling blocks, I won’t argue with that. But in the end, I do feel there are serious benefits and interesting lessons for the kids to learn through such a project.
My thoughts only, of course. Your mileage may vary.
Hey Aaron! Two Fraps, please!
Why the Food is So Good @ Monroe County Community College
Posted on 31 August 2007 under Restaurant Chit-Chat, School Lunches | 3 Comments
This was my lunch today. I picked up this Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich at the cafeteria in the ’A’ building at Monroe County Community College. The steak was nice and hot, covered with grilled onions and green bell pepper, with melted pepper-jack cheese, and served in a grilled steak roll. The French Fries were also excellent … nice and crispy on the outside, with tender potato on the inside. This is college cafeteria food? You may be wondering, why does this look so good? Well, lemme tell ya’ why …
Tricking Kids into Eating Right??
Posted on 2 May 2007 under Rants, School Lunches | 3 Comments
The CBC is reporting this morning that researchers at Penn State are recommending parents make their kids eat vegetables by burying/hiding the vegetables in the kids’ foods.
Likewise, CNN is reporting that some schools are creating “faux junk food” that’s similar in flavor and texture to real junk food, i.e. pizza, donuts and hot dogs. Similar to the CBC article, one line reads:
“I’d rather see parents blending veggies and sneaking them into dishes where they can, rather than going the fake food route,” researcher Dr. Barbara Rolls said.
CNN did go so far as to talk to the real expert on the subject:
Ann Cooper, director of nutrition services at Berkeley Unified School District in California, said she is appalled that a meal of chicken nuggets, tater tots, chocolate milk and fruit cocktail with high fructose corn syrup meets the nutritional requirements under the national school lunch program … “We don’t need to put tricks into food; it’s just another processing mechanism and that is not enough,” Cooper said.
One of the aspects about both of these articles that bothers me is that, later on, when those “real” foods aren’t made in such a “healthy” fashion, those same kids will still eat just as much of it and the real faults of the concepts will become real problems for them. The CNN article includes such info as well:
“The problem is we can’t always have our cake and eat it, too,” said Stephen Daniels, a pediatric cardiologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine … He worries that children who grow up eating faux-fast foods may have trouble making good food choices as adults … “There are ways to prepare healthy foods to make them more palatable, but I’m not sure we need to hide them in a doughnut or a hot dog,” he said.
Meanwhile, I have a 10-year-old son whose favorite vegetable is broccoli …
Is there something wrong with actually teaching nutrition to kids these days, instead of creating dishes that lie to them?
I think not.
On Outsourcing School Lunches
Posted on 27 April 2007 under Food In The News, School Lunches | 7 Comments
How ridiculous is it to outsource school lunches? Plenty ridiculous if you ask me. And even if you don’t.
Yesterday’s Ann Arbor News had a great picture of an Ann Arbor Schools food service worker cutting pizzas. But the news itself was sobering. Part of Superintendent Todd Roberts’ budget plan calls for the outsourcing of the school lunch program to Chartwells, including the layoff (ok, firings) of 73 current foodservice workers.
The article states, “Privatizing food service operations would bring $400,000 in new revenue into the district, according to Roberts’ proposal.”
This makes no sense to me whatsoever. The kids will still need to be fed in such a way that fulfills federal guidelines. There has to adequate staff to accomplish both this and the accompanying hygiene requirements from the state. Add on the new overhead of the private company, and …
It’s simple math. I see no savings whatsoever, definitely not $400,000 less per year. I see it costing more.
Take a look at this article from the National Education Association. This excerpt should make you angry:
“A report obtained by The Ann Arbor News on Tuesday through a Freedom of Information Act request indicates…students may have had reason for concern. Earlier this month, a county inspection of food service at Cheney, which is provided by Chartwells, an outside vender, found food kept at improper temperatures and food packages that lacked expiration dates … “The problems were corrected by the time the county made a follow-up visit 10 days later. Following an Oct. 8 visit to Cheney, an inspector with the Washtenaw County Department of Environmental Health wrote: ‘A large quantity of turkey and ham sandwiches were being served without cold holding capabilities. Sandwiches were at 68 to 90 degrees, Fahrenheit. Some sandwiches were under a heat light. Also, cold tuna and potato salad served without cold holding capabilities (was found). These items can cause death by listeria contamination and must be held at less than 41 degrees Fahrenheit to be safe.’… “In addition, the report noted: ‘Lunch meats, potato salads (and) salad meats not supplied with seven-day maximum use-by dates.’ … “In conclusion, the inspector wrote: ‘I am very concerned about food safety…We need to have more accountability of food safety procedures in the elementary schools.’…
Seems to me there needs to be more common sense, and definitely more research on this decision. And I hope to never see anything like this in my own kids’ schools.
‘The Lunch Lady’; Some Followup
Posted on 25 March 2007 under School Lunches | No Comments
Following up on my last post on Chef Ann Cooper, Lunch Lady extraordinaire, while looking for something else, I found these sites:
Chef Ann’s Website: Lunch Lessons; Changing The Way We Feed Our Children
I don’t know about you, but I’ll be paying attention to what Chef Ann has to say.
The ‘Lunch Lady’
Posted on 25 March 2007 under School Lunches | No Comments
One of the things I like about the software we use for these blogs is the ability to save blog entries, or even notes for an entry, and finish them later. The problem is that I sometimes forget about them till, like, almost a week afterward …
Back on March 21st, CBSNews.com reported on a former Chef who has taken on school lunch duties in Berkeley, California. From the article:
In cafeterias there, (Ann Cooper) has tossed out fried, frozen, and sugary foods and replaced them with fresh, seasonal, and mostly organic meals … Driven to reform school lunches as concerns grow over childhood obesity and diabetes, Cooper gets up at 3:30 each morning to begin cooking school lunches by 5 a.m. Somehow, she also eked out time recently to write “Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children,” which offers inspiration, guidance, and recipes to those wishing to duplicate her efforts in their own school districts … When she began working as director of nutrition services for the Berkeley Unified School District (BU.S.D) in the fall of 2005, about 95 percent of the cafeteria food was processed. Today, 95 percent is made from scratch.
In the latter part of this entry on January 23rd I wrote about a lunch lady I used to know in Kentucky who also cooked in this manner. Contrary to popular belief, contrary to what the kids may only think is possible, and contrary to what lunchroom personnel and school boards may tell you, it is possible to have decent lunches for these kids on a daily basis, lunches which are also within the budgets.
All you need is someone in-charge who cares … someone who can make a difference … and, most importantly, wants to do so.
School Cafeteria Inspection Issues
Posted on 17 March 2007 under Food In The News, School Lunches | 2 Comments
Yesterday afternoon, CNN.com posted this article titled, “Many school cafeterias don’t get health checks”. From the article:
Schools are supposed to get two visits from health inspectors every year. But one in 10 schools didn’t get inspected at all last year … “Do you want to go to a restaurant that hasn’t been inspected?” … Common violations in cafeterias involve wrong temperatures — failing to keep hot food hot enough or cold food cold enough — or things like having an open Dumpster outside the cafeteria.”
Your thoughts? Especially if you just happen to be a cafeteria worker.
Sponsors
