Creating healthy $1.43 meals? Priceless
The makeshift kitchen in the basement of Boston Day and Evening Academy is filled with the smell of spices and students hard at work sauteing zucchini, slicing chicken wraps and scooping up brown rice.
The young chefs are sharpening their culinary skills for tomorrow’s second-annual “Cooking up Change” competition, where the winning team will head to Washington, D.C., next month to compete in the national competition — and a chance to cook for members of Congress.
Whipping up these delicious dishes comes with a caveat. Students must create a healthy meal on a budget of $1.43 and follow the same USDA guidelines as school cafeterias.
“The goal for us is to generate excitement and interest in the meals that we provide to our kids,” said Laura Benavidez, executive director of food and nutrition services for Boston’s public schools.
Learning to cook, she added, can become hobby or a career. “Boston’s a big foodie town,” Benavidez said.
Students from the academy, Madison Park Technical Vocational High School and Fenway High School will compete in tomorrow’s cooking competition at Madison Park.
Last year, students from Madison Park won locally, and their winning dish, a grilled chicken bowl with vegetables, will be served up at Hub schools later this month.
Yesterday, students wore white chef coats and arranged their creations on white plates. Seniors Jasline Gonzalez and Raven Guerra prepared a chicken wrap with a crunch, sauteed zucchini and apple slices with sun butter and oats. No salt or sugar was used. “That’s one thing I like about cooking,” Raven said. “You can get different flavors without using so much unhealthy stuff.”
Perla Peguero and Shatoria Smith served up chicken tikka masala, sauteed spiced corn and a peach yogurt bowl. “It’s an Indian dish,” said Shatoria, who loves cooking for her nine siblings. “We’d like to bring another culture to our cafeterias for lunch.”
The lessons taught by the school’s culinary instructor, Gaitskell Cleghorn Jr., known as Chef Gates, go beyond teaching students how to steam vegetables and braise meat. He uses food as a vehicle to teach them about nutritional values and cultural awareness.
Cleghorn teaches them to speak clearly when they present the dishes they’ve cooked. He explains that it takes over a week to digest ramen noodles. He tells them not to be scared of failing. “It’s OK to fail; it’s OK to mess up,” Cleghorn said. “It’s not OK to stop and give up.”