Teen chefs from around the U.S. dished out their take on healthy school lunches for a shot at winning the Cooking Up Change 2015 national championship.
Sticking to the same nutrition standards and tight budget requirements that schools work under, students thought creatively to come up with delicious and nutritious school food while keeping costs around a dollar per plate!
Learn about The Pew Charitable Trusts’ work to support healthy school food here:
TRANSCRIPT
2015 Cooking Up Change competition. We’re very excited. We’re honored to be here. It’s a once in a lifetime experience for us.
Cooking Up Change is a national competition where schools around the country compete, trying to make a healthy school lunch.
I’m nervous. Excited. I’m a bit of both. A little more nervous than usual, because one of our main things for our main dish got changed at the last minute.
We have nine schools from around the country who have all won their local championships, now competing in the national finals. And it tends to get pretty competitive.
We know we will win. Fingers crossed. Everybody could win, but we definitely feel like we have a good chance.
The students are actually preparing foods that could be a school meal. And they’re following all the same rules that any kind of school meal program would have to follow. They work on a really tight budget. And then ultimately they prepare these foods that are rich in fruits and vegetables, that don’t have a lot of sodium. They’re low in fat, and they’re really delicious.
We use the natural sugars from the pineapple. Instead of using salt, we use Cajun seasoning. Our main dish is a Mexican street taco. And to make it a healthier way, instead of using a flour tortilla, we use corn. And then we have chicken rather than beef. I’m making the cowboy Cajun chicken lollipop. As you see, we are putting the foil on it as we speak.
They really learn about using their mind to cook with a lot more in this competition than just, here’s the food, here’s the salt, here’s the butter. Let’s just go at it. They really had to think through how they could make these dishes exciting, but also have the flavor and taste that people want.
We surveyed students. They told us what they liked and disliked, and what they thought they could change maybe. So instead of just saying, oh, yeah, we don’t like that either, we said, we don’t like that, but how can we change it? And how can we make it really good?
I’m making a change in the community, because a lot of kids, lunch is a very important meal. They may not get another meal at home. So we have to make it as tasty and as healthy as possible.
In Texas, we like a lot of bold flavors. So we wanted to bring something different. I’m like, hey, how about we make something that I usually make at home. And the students loved it, because we’re dealing with different flavors that they never, ever experienced working with. And so they kind of took all the different things that they like to eat, and put it together.
Now the challenging part begins,where this fine panel of judges has to pick the winners. The judges for the Cooking Up Change competition are local chefs themselves, or restaurateurs. In some cases, they’re local policy makers. In many cases, they’re people within the education system.
Our meal was only $1.17. It was on the budget. The most challenging thing for us was just trying to find a balance between the sodium and sugars. It’s food for us, by us.
What really impressed me was level of professionalism with the kids. They all had really prepared and worked very hard to give a stellar presentation. There was some great cooking vocabulary. I know I learned a thing or two.
It was nice to see that the students took so much pride in their own background, and in the backgrounds that their teammates brought with them, and that they really tried to infuse that into their menu.
Are you all ready for the big announcement of third, second and first place? Right? This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Third place goes to Chicago, Illinois. Orange County, California. Mexican chicken street tacos. Houston, Texas. Cowboy Cajun chicken lollipop, twisted Texas cabbage with collard greens and pineapple tart.
Giving them those life experiences outside of the kitchen, outside of the classroom, is going to be just lasting them forever. So I’m just happy that I was here and able to just kind of help them along their way, and along their journey in life, whether that’s being a chef or a business owner, or in whatever career they choose to go in in the future.