Monday, August 2, 2010

Lunch ladies going gourmet as food gets new look

Lunch ladies going gourmet as food gets new look

Lunch ladies going gourmet as food gets new look

Monday, August 2, 2010
A photo taken Monday, July 19, 2010 at the Bruce Randolph School In Denver, shows Chef Daniel Young choosing winner fruit salad tray made by Denver Public School food service personnel during a half day of instruction on how to make healthier options with fresher foods for students. The instruction culminated with a competition and feast of what they had made.
(08-02) 04:50 PDT DENVER (AP) --
They still wear sensible shoes, but the nation's lunch ladies are trading in their hair nets for chef toques as they undergo a gourmet makeover.
With the childhood obesity rates creating demand for healthier foods in schools, more attention is being placed on the culinary skills of those charged with preparing it. What good are fresh local produce and grass-fed beef, for example, if the lunchroom employees know how to make only canned vegetables and frozen fish sticks?
"It's more work to cook from scratch, no doubt," said Dawn Cordova, a longtime school cafeteria worker attending Denver Public Schools' first "scratch


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/08/02/national/a024008D35.DTL&type=education#ixzz0vS6nOKFr