Newsrooom

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Denver – Denver Public Schools is kicking off a three-week culinary program by bringing in professional chefs to help sharpen DPS food service employees’ baking and cooking skills by teaching them to “scratch cook,” using only basic ingredients such as flour, sugar, oil yeast and salt. The program is aimed to improve DPS’s school meal programs by eliminating more processed food items and cooking with produce from school gardens, when available.

DPS food service professionals will learn from some of Denver’s chefs, including:

Chef Daniel Young - (aka Chef D) personal chef, TV/radio personality
July 14, 20 and 26 at 9 a.m. at Bruce Randolph
July 15, 21 and 27 at 9 a.m. at Bruce Randolph
Chef Adam Fisher - formerly with Project Angel Heart
July 15, 21 and 27 at 9 a.m. at Henry Middle School
July 16, 22 and 28 at 9 a.m. at Henry Middle School
Safa Hamze - Head Baker Whole Foods Rocky Mountain Bakehouse
July 16, 22 and 29 at 9 a.m. at Sandoval
Matt Salis - Owner Great Harvest Bread Co-Denver
July 19, 23 and 29 at 9 a.m. at Rishel Middle School
Chef Rita Hamburg – recent graduate of Nutrition Therapy Institute
Rishel Middle School each day

WHAT: Back To the Future With Scratch Cooking

WHEN: July 14 - 29 daily from 7:30 AM– 2:00 PM at schools listed below (see attached calendar for details)

WHERE: Bruce Randolph 6-12 School
3955 Steele Street

Academia Ana Marie Sandoval
3655 Wyandot

Rishel Middle School
451 South Tejon

Henry World Middle School
3005 South Golden Way

VISUALS: Culinary training demos given by Denver Chefs
Food tastings offered on July 22 and July 29 followed by graduation ceremony on July 30

The culinary training project is co-hosted by DPS and H4.

What is “scratch cooking”? It is different things for different people but for our purposes we will say scratch cooking is combining basic ingredients to prepare a menu item. Basic ingredients would include flour, sugar, oil, yeast and salt if you are baking bread. For a fruit and veggie bar, it would mean using fresh fruits and vegetables and homemade dressings. For sandwiches, it would mean putting them together ourselves rather than using a packaged product. Using bread or buns we baked ourselves. For main dishes, it means cooking raw meats and poultry, and our own seasonings, sauces and gravies.

About Denver’s H4 Foods:
While implementing H4, DPS will use local foods & purchase minimally processed foods whenever possible. All meals will be prepared at each school including at least one vegetarian selection daily. Produce will come from school gardens when available, and all menus will be planned to meet US Healthier Schools Gold Standards including using hormone free milk and dairy products. We are looking at food labels for ingredients that our customers don’t want and finding replacements for them. We are introducing fruit & veggie bars in about 75 schools this year so students can help themselves to an ample array of fresh fruits and vegetables. We are also returning to plastic compartmentalized trays in those schools that have working dish washers in an effort to be more “green,” in other schools we will be introducing a biodegradable/compostable tray. This is a transition year for DPS, so we will not be able to do all these things all the time in all our schools. Each year, we will continue to eliminate more processed items and have more DPS schools doing scratch cooking

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