For one night, tastier lunch on the menu for students

Cooking contest a lesson in creativity, challenges for school system

I didn’t expect to wind up feeling so disheartened.

The event, now in its third year, is organized by the Healthy Schools Campaign, a Chicago nonprofit whose mission is pretty self-explanatory and whose role in our communities is unquestionably vital.

Billed as a healthy cooking contest, Cooking Up Change is a huge deal for the high school students competing in it.

These are 16- and 17-year-old inner-city kids who want to be chefs (or hotel managers, as two young women I talked to told me). They are studying culinary arts at their respective schools and plan to attend culinary school next.

These kids see fried, fatty foods — and not enough good-tasting vegetables — on a far too regular basis.

They want, with all their heart, to make a difference.

“I have siblings in high school, and I want them to have a better lunch than I have,” said Rafael Ruiz, 17, a senior at Richards Career Academy at 50th and Laflin, which won last year’s contest with a recipe for stuffed peppers.

The students’ task was to create a healthy lunch from the same list of ingredients used by Chartwells-Thompson, CPS’ foodservice provider.

They must use at least one item from a list of frozen local produce (since last year, Chartwells has been able to procure vegetables and fruits grown mostly in Michigan, says Bob Bloomer, regional vice president for Chartwells).

In addition, the lunch must meet U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition standards. Each recipe can take only six or fewer steps to make. And the lunch must not exceed $1.

These aren’t just the guidelines for the contest. These are the same guidelines — or restrictions, if you want to put it another way — that Chartwells faces in crafting the CPS lunch.

Less than a buck to make a healthy meal, you wonder? With ingredients such as “turkey crumbles” and a non-sodium seasoning dubbed Spice So Right? That’s what I was thinking, too.

I was on a panel that included chefs, farmers and others in the food world, as well as representatives from the USDA and the offices of Sen. Richard Durbin and Mayor Daley.

I had the pleasure of sitting next to 17-year-old Kemon Williams, the sole student judge.

Kemon is a junior at Crane Technical Prep on West Jackson, which until last year had a kitchen. But the kitchen was stripped of its equipment because the culinary program is being phased out, Kemon tells me. So on Fridays, when his class meets, they take a bus to a nearby school that has a working kitchen.

(We have an awkward moment later when Kemon shakes hands with the mayor’s rep, who then explains to him and to me that CPS is “consolidating” its culinary programs. Her bureaucrat-speak is lost on Kemon; he just wants to cook.)

We were to judge the meals on their originality, cohesiveness and, of course, flavor. The students assembled their dishes on trays so we could see exactly how the meal is served in the schools.

Each of the 15 teams took a few minutes to explain their dishes; we asked them questions as we tasted.

Mexican and Asian were popular themes. There were turkey fajitas, chicken quesadillas and an Asian chicken pocket. There were two versions of chili, and spaghetti with Cajun meatballs.

For every hit on a plate, there were two misses.

I was surprised at how much I liked a calzone stuffed with vegetables, red beans and those aforementioned turkey crumbles — but the pasta and vegetable salad served with it was tasteless. Mashed sweet potatoes accompanying one team’s barbecue glazed burgers were a pleasant, citrusy surprise, but the corn succotash was, again, lifeless.

The kids were all nerves and excitement. And every time one of them described to us their usual lunch —  nachos, pizza, fried this or that, they said with a wrinkle of the nose — my heart sank.

Their dishes, I realized, could taste only as good as the ingredients themselves. They did what they could with what they had.

Sure, salads are served in the schools — but even Bloomer acknowledged they’re left mostly uneaten. Why should I expect the students to know how to make frozen corn and peas — locally grown or not — sing?

In the end, the team from Tilden Career Community High School came out on top with their chicken jambalaya and jalapeno cornbread. The kids snuck a good amount of vegetables into the jambalaya, and the cornbread drew universal raves.

Kemon assured me that kids will eat this dish.

Tilden’s meal will be served once a quarter next year in all CPS high schools. And the Tilden students get to go to the White House and see their lunch served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The energy and enthusiasm of all of the students was infectious. During the awards ceremony, they hugged and huddled, gridiron-style.

Afterward, the Tilden team members gathered in another room, away from the crowd. A few called their parents on their cell phones.

“It’s amazing,” said Cari Smith, 16, a junior. “It lets you know all the hard work was worth it.”

The talk turned back to how this one meal compares with their usual.

“We get the same thing every day,” Jakaia Franklin, 16, laughed. Turning to Elyssa Ford, 16, the girls recited in unison, “Nachos, chicken patties, pizza!”

That will change. But the students will be long gone from Tilden, hopefully cooking up changes elsewhere, before that happens.