It used to be school cafeterias served up pre-prepared, processed foods, much of it stored in 10-pound cans lining the storage room.
Not at the new Montezuma-Cortez High School.
Students at M-CHS are being served meals made from scratch, including marinara with fresh tomatoes, baked chicken with orange marmalade sauce, turkey with homemade gravy, home-made rolls, pico de gallo, red pepper humus and bean salads made from local beans.
“To improve nutrition and quality, we’ve been making everything from scratch. Our fresh vegetables are harvested from school gardens,” said Sandi Vanhoutean, Re-1 food services director.
Re-1 partnered with Live Well Colorado to receive training from certified chefs on how to cook from scratch on a large scale.
All 25 Re-1 cooks participated in several four-hour classes on food safety, prep work, recipes, baking, sautéing and cooking different meats.
“We’ve hit 160 school districts so far, and have 80 more to go,” said visiting executive chef Sally Ayotte. “The school food-service employees take the information we share straight to the future of our country.”
Her local cooking students take notes as she explains how to thicken a sauce without a rue by using evaporation, reduction and a slurry technique.
A gleaming new kitchen with high-tech ovens, mixers and convenient dishwashing equipment is providing plenty of inspiration, Vanhoutean said.
“The kitchen is on the same level as universities,” she said. “We’re learning how to use it all.”
A tour revealed computerized convection ovens with Wi-Fi connections, heavy-duty steamers, two different mixers, gas-ranges, tilting skillets, a meat slicer, food processors, salad bar, steam tables, large prepping areas, walk-in freezers and coolers, and rooms for storage.
There are separate dishwashers, one for pots and pans and one for serving dishes.
After the training, cooks tuck into a meal they created of roasted red-pepper hummus, turkey with brown rice, garbanzo pico de gallo, and sweet potato and black bean salad, made from locally grown produce.
A key component of the made-from-scratch movement is school administration support.
“The made-from-scratch approach is part of Re-1 school policy, so when I leave, it won’t go back to frozen, processed chicken patties and canned sauce,” Vanhoutean said. “We will be serving up some great meals.”
Live Well Colorado was established six years ago as an organization focused on reducing obesity in Colorado.
Child obesity rates in the state are alarming, with nearly a quarter of children overweight or obese, and 89 percent consuming less than the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables each day. By the end of 2014, Live Well had provided healthy meals to 600,000 students and invested $2.2 million in 17 participating communities including Cortez.
