FARMINGTON, Maine — This week is the first or second of the school year, meaning students are back to brown bagging it or getting lunch in the cafeteria. When I was in school, we had pizza, chicken, burgers, all of the typical high school beige foods.
I heard about the Let's Go! Culinary Skills for School Meals training program sponsored by MaineHealth, described as a "5-day hands-on intensive culinary training for school nutrition professionals focusing on foundations for food service, including knife skills, cooking techniques, and kitchen efficiencies, to improve the culinary skills of school nutrition professionals." Simply put, it's training school chefs to make healthier and more delicious meals for students.
I met with program manager Ashley Edmondson at Mount Blue High School in Farmington to take part in one day of the course. I was there on day three, or grain day.
As Ashley and I hopped around the room, I got to work with different school chefs to help them with their dishes.
We started off making a citrus couscous chickpea salad with Steph Gaboury from Mount Blue High School. The recipes had specific weights and measurements for each ingredient, so we went down the list and put each into the bowl. Same with the vinaigrette before giving it a quick whisk. Toss it all together and there we go!
I also stepped in to "help" make a sweet chili tofu noodle bowl with school chefs Tamara Lane, Rose Noyes, and Jessica Freeman.
They are one step ahead of the rest of us on this one. Certain menu items were created with the intention of mirroring what students are liking on social media, ordering in restaurants, etc. They take those dishes and find a healthier way to make them at the school. It's genius and, like I said, one step ahead of the rest of us.
They had the carrots, broccoli, peppers, and other veggies ready to go. The tofu got a coating of the sauce and cornstarch before getting baked (not fried). Then, assembly: noodles first, then the veggies, tofu, and sauce. Afterwards, we had a gorgeous dish!
We sat down for lunch off camera and had a great meal. There were countless different dishes, but I'd guess about two dozen, and they were all so different. Beef, chicken, seafood, veggie, you name it. And don't forget, this is only grain day. There are still four other days of the course.
After lunch I sat down with Rose and another school chef, Amy Mesich, to talk about what they're thinking about this course.
As a whole, they love the course. Do they think they will use every single recipe at their school? No, but that's why they learned so many, so they have the ability to choose between the ones they think will work for their students and the ones that won't. They said they loved learning all of the new recipes to bring to their students, and genuinely couldn't wait to show them off.
If you were interested in learning more about the Let's Go! Culinary Skills for School Meals training program, MaineHealth has more info here.
Thank you to all of the school chefs for having me out to Farmington and letting me crash your training for the day! I got to learn so much, and it's great to see that students are getting to eat healthier, but also much more delicious meals than I had when I was in school. It's a win-win!