Avossa faces culinary students in cook-off
Schools chief ’s Italian flair isn’t enough to best district’s top chefs.
How does Palm Beach County Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa hold up under an hour of intense pressure? Well, his workspace gets a little messy; the onions go everywhere. Throw in the question of whether carrots belong in an Italian sauce, and the “My mama” throwdowns start flying, as in “My mother would kill me” if the orange root hit the red stuff.
Still, team Avossa, complete with the school district’s director of Choice and Career Options Pete Licata and two student assistants, made a valiant effort — and a moist, tender pan-fried chicken Parmesan.
Yet the plate wasn’t enough to beat the students representing William T. Dwyer High School’s culinary institute.
Face it, when the judge from The Breakers in Palm Beach says he loved your sausage and chard combo so much “I could use a whole gallon of that,” well, you’ve made it.
And so went the first cooking challenge issued by the superintendent to the more than 3,000 students enrolled in the district’s 12 high school and seven middle What Americans are doing wrong, according to the schools superintendent, at school culinary academies.
The challenge went out on Facebook, and while many schools wanted a piece of the action, it was Dwyer’s name that was subsequently pulled from the hat. Its culinary program is about a decade old and more than 350 students strong.
“We’ve got some of the best culinary programs I’ve ever seen, and these kids are serious,” Avossa boasted even before he tied on the apron and fell to their prowess — including a surprising play on spaghetti squash that involved a hint of lemon zest.
Avossa never studied cooking, but he grew up working in his family’s restaurants, where the recipes came from his parents’ Italian heritage. His wing man Friday, Licata, is another home cook and fellow Italian — though their roots from different regions became the source of the battle of that orange root.
Lic at a says hi s family from northern Italy likes to sweeten