Michele StuevenChef Suzanne Tracht welcomed the award-winning teams of School Food Professionals who go above and beyond in transforming school food across the state to lunch at her Jar Restaurant this week, who together with her team, cooked the winning recipes at the four-course luncheon.
With industry leaders, culinary innovators, and school food changemakers in attendance, the afternoon’s tasting menu represented six county school food programs that all exercise the farm to school concept of healthy meals for kids throughout California.
The Powered by School Food Professionals Awards recognized Azusa Unified School District, Marysville Joint Unified School District, Nevada City School of the Arts, San Diego Unified School District, San Luis Coastal Unified School District and Upland Unified School District.
Chefs Dana Flamino, left, and Cesar Conchas Castaneda, winning baked chicken wings from Azusa Unified School District (Michele Stueven)
Supported by the Chef Ann Foundation, the Awards celebrate outstanding school meal programs in six categories: Best Original Recipe, Best Scratch-Cooked Adaptation, Best Farm to School Recipe, Best Take on a Culinary Trend, Best Culturally Relevant Recipe and a community-driven recognition, the Community Choice Recipe.
The winning scratch meal recipes were presented in Tracht’s signature elegant style, and included chicken wings, whole wheat penne pasta, a kiwi chicken chili verde, a Thai basil lentil burger, slow braised birria and a vegan lemon blueberry bar for dessert.
“We are very mindful of the products we source for our students,” Juan Zamorano from the San Diego School District told the crowd. “We’ve made a lot of investments in technology and about $100,000 in utensils like measuring cups and spoons. The birria you see here we cook overnight in our 60 combi ovens. We want to make sure that all of our cooks can execute the recipes. They can’t do the job well if they don’t have the proper equipment.”
As with the other school districts, the food professionals work alongside dieticians, nutritionists and quality control specialists on each recipe and its ingredients that are mostly sourced from local farmers.
The luncheon took place on the same day that proposed federal budget cuts to the Department of Education were announced, which could significantly impact school meal programs, and children at risk of losing access to free and healthy meals.
“We need to get our community officials on board to keep this incredibly important program going,” Tracht told LA Weekly. “I think the trick is to send them some of this birria, that will convince them. The aroma of it cooking alone will do it.”
The Powered by School Food Professionals Awards takes place on Birria (Jenn Harrington/AP Content Services for Chef Ann Foundation)
Chicken wings and whole wheat pasta salad (Jenn Harrington/AP Content Services for Chef Ann Foundation)
Kiwi chili verde and lentil burger (Jenn Harrington/AP Content Services for Chef Ann Foundation)
School Food Professionals winners (Jenn Harrington/AP Content Services for Chef Ann Foundation)