May...?

Indeed, that month is inexplicably missing from my recent blog posts. But I assure you, it wasn't for lack of activity. Just a massive lack of time.

In May... Kitchen Kid took it's first official vacation, and I found a terrific new culinary coach to teach my classes while I was gone. We spent a week in St. Barth's celebrating our good friend's wedding. A Caribbean island with French flare, the food in St. Barth's was incredible. Mahimahi tartare, beef carpaccio, lightly grilled squid with intense aioli. All over looking a sparkling blue sea in 85 degree sunshine.

In May... we had a Sunday Funday BBQ for my birthday and served Gourmet Magazine's Ancho and Cocoa Carne Asada for the nine-hundredth time since it appeared in the March magazine. Copy down this recipe and cook it tonight. You too will make it nine-hundred more times in the next 2 months. Yes, it really is that good.

In May... Kitchen Kid was touted in Pregnancy Magazine for helping Charlie Sheen's daughters, Sam and Lola, make personalized lunches and mash their own guacamole at the baby shower for his new twin boys, hosted at Adrienne Maloof's home.

(photo courtesy Spantman Photography)

In May... I was filled with energy, excitement, and enthusiasm after hearing Alice Waters speak at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica. It was a true pleasure to meet her and be part of an audience filled with encouraging hope. Moreover, I was blown away by 16-year old Sam Levin who spoke with the charisma, professionalism, and ease of a natural-born orator committed to the belief that "better school food is not a privilege, it's a right". He kinda stole the show. The message of the night: edible education is essential to raising healthy, happy children.

In May... we were VERY busy teaching our Classroom Cooks After School Enrichment Programs. Books for Cooks was taught at Camelot Kids Preschool in Silver Lake, and Grant Elementary and Edison Elementary in Santa Monica. We were also piloting our Global Eats enrichment class at Webster Elementary in Malibu and Virginia Avenue Park in Santa Monica. Some of our newest recipes include Thai spring rolls and handmade tortillas. Delish!

In May... I went to Palm Springs for my oldest friend's bachelorette party. Good food, good fun, good friends, and great stories -- but not really for Growing Up Gourmet!

In May... we went camping at Boulder Basin Campground in the San Jacinto Mountains, and gorged on campfire food. Really, isn't car camping all about the food? Still dreaming about St. Barth's, I stuck a Trader Joe's pre-marinated frozen mahimahi fillet in the cooler. By the second day it was perfectly defrosted, and wrapped inside some foil and set on top of raging campfire grill, came out beautifully flaky.

In May... my mom came to visit from Park City to celebrate her birthday! She requested a second-annual birthday trip to Pizzeria Mozza, which I was all too happy honor! Dining on the chicken liver bruschetta, tomato & burrata salad, and pizza with English peas, cream, and guanciale has simply got to be the best way to grow another year older.

What a relief, May is finished! On to June!

What's Growin' On Around Town

I was pretty excited when SlowFood LA announced yesterday that Alice Waters would be speaking about edible education and school gardens here in Santa Monica on May 19. The event, which benefits Canyon Charter School will include a presentation, book signing, and Q&A with Ms. Waters and 15 year-old Sam Levin, who founded a sustainable garden for his public school in Western Massachusetts.

Tickets and complete information available here.

Watch a sneak preview of Alice's new book, The Edible Schoolyard, a Universal Idea:




AND

Get your edible garden groove on the weekend before the celebrated Berkley chef comes to town, with Gardens of Gratitude's 100 Garden Challenge! The goal: plant 100 victory gardens and transform LA's Westside to an edible paradise of fruits, berries, nuts, veggies and flowers!

For more information about Gardens of Gratitude, and to find out how to participate in the event May 16-17, visit the 100 Garden Challenge, here.

I can't think of a more perfect activity do with young foodies, eco-friendly families, and anyone Growing Up Gourmet!!

School Food That's Worlds Away

Oh to be a kid in Paris. To play along the banks of the Sienne and wander in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. To ride the carousel at the Jardin du Luxembourg and play peek-a-boo in the narrow streets of the Marais.

And to eat cauliflower gratin, braised lamb with rosemary, and stinky soft cheese. For lunch. At preschool. As reported Monday on NPR, this is precisely the kind of menu served at the 270 public day-care centers throughout the city. Along with homemade applesauce, local and organic produce, and even tomato garnishes in the shape of a rose.

Sign me up. These kiddos even get an afternoon nap. It would be erroneous to pretend our country's culinary heritage is even remotely in line with the French. And yet I can't help wish our national conversation was about feeding school children asparagus instead of the newly developed peanut butter recall widget:

FDA Product Recall List

Was it by coincidence that just days after NPR's story about school-foodie paradise, the New York Times today featured an op-ed by Alice Waters? She implores Washington to do away with the National School Lunch Program, the inefficient and unhealthy emphasis on government commodities, and the school food that hardly constitutes food at all. Calling our current lunch program a "junk food distribution system", Ms. Waters suggests a complete overhaul that would cost about $5/child for wholesome, nutritious, and freshly-cooked school food. (A bit more than the $2-$3 per child cost as noted by NPR in this story, and one that appeared in July, where the French chef serves 800 high-schoolers ingredients from within just 30 miles of the school in Salon de Provence.)

A tasty proposal that sounds tres bien to me.
Meanwhile, gourmet food isn't the only thing the French are serving up. Cookbook author Deborah Madison spent some time in France's lunchrooms, observing not only what was on the menu, but how it was dished up: in a relaxed, convivial atmosphere, with a 2 hour lunch and exercise period, on real plates with real silverware, and in a comfortable, nurturing, colorful "cafeteria". Her report is available here, at culinate.com.

Since I work in schools teaching cooking to children, and see the enthusiasm and curiosity parents, kids, and educators have displayed for our exploratory culinary curriculum, I think there is a possibility that our school cafeterias may begin to look more like France's. But without the kind of sweeping change Ms. Water's demands, with cooperation, funding, and support from bureaucratic entities like the Departments of Agriculture and Education, as well as a commitment by local school districts, I worry it won't happen any time soon. And in California, where public schools are again taking a multi-billion dollar budget cut, I worry even the most well intentioned schools will struggle to serve up something good.

Mr. Kass, head to the kitchen. It's time to get to work.

"Inevitable" Change for School Lunch

After much ado about converting the White House lawn to an organic garden; a sustainable foodie outcry for a new breed of White House chef, led by Alice Waters; and a call among devoted fans for Michael Pollan to lead our nation as Secretary of Agriculture, it is safe to say that one week into the President's new term, little talk of our food supply has graced the lips of Washington's movers and shakers.

Or has it?

Though Mr. Obama may be spending much of his time working out bailouts, sending George Mitchell to the Middle East, and questioning Sidwell-Friends' response to the snow, he did have some time to give the green light to bringing Sam Kass, the 28 year-old chef who cooked for the Obamas in Chicago and founded Inevitable Table, into the White House kitchen.

A spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama indicated that Kass is passionate about local, sustainable, healthy food. A good sign for anyone dining at the White House -- and for our nation as a whole. It's a little too early to predict what effect Kass' cooking and philosophy may have on American school children. But there is promise. As reported on several New York Times blogs today, including The Caucus and Tara Parker-Pope's Well , Mr. Kass is committed to re-thinking what the National School Lunch Program serves up. (Few veggies, a lot of fat, and a hefty dose of HFCS.) The full text of a recent talk Kass lead about school lunch reform is available here.

Mr. Kass, you and I have got a lot in common -- with the same first names, the same age, a similar passion for eating and cooking, and an equal devotion to changing the way we feed America's children. The new presidency is all about hope. And boy have I got high hopes for you.

Video Insight: Edible Schoolyard

If you've ever wondered how Alice Waters' Schoolyard really works, watch these kids transform seeds into dinner.



Read the full story that appeared in edutopia, or visit the Edible Schoolyard's website, here.