Top Chefs tackle school lunch

Attention on childhood nutrition has been mounting recently: A growing number of school gardens have been planted, alternative lunch programs have been kick-started, the first lady has planted a White House garden and the Obama administration has proposed the Child Nutrition Act. Last night, "Top Chef" jumped on board to take a stand, too.

Sam Kass, who works the White House kitchen along with Cristeta Comeford, served as the guest judge. He's certainly familiar with the subject matter, since first lady Michelle Obama is a champion for the cause.

But before tackling the big issue, the chefs hit the quickfire, where they were challenged to make sandwiches, Siamese style. The contestants were conjoined by aprons that allowed each of them to use only one hand. The task seemed more suited to a team-building seminar than to cooking, but watching the chefs fumble around was entertaining.

Clearly not aware that bleached Wonder bread is not only devoid of nutrition but also disgusting, Jacqueline and Steve opted to make a boring chicken and avocado sandwich on white, while Alex screeched in fear of Tim slicing his hand off when cutting some bread for their croque madame. Some of the more tantalizing offerings included Kenny and Arnold's curry-rubbed chicken with honey, sambal, cucumber, mint, dill and cilantro and Angelo and Tracy's winning Thai-style flounder sandwich with siracha mayo and pickled red onions. Team Angelo won (again!), leaving Kenny in second, a place he's all too familiar with.

For the elimination challenge, the chefs headed off to an elementary school and were given the budget of $130 for 50 students-- a treat compared with the estimated $1 per child that is allotted for ingredients in school lunches today. They were grouped in teams of four, and each person was responsible for a dish on the tray. During prep time, Kelly made it very clear that she had no intention of working as a team, which stirred up some classic catty drama with Arnold and the rest of the gang.

There were some really dopey choices for the kids' menu -- i.e. Amanda using a bulk of her team's budget to buy sherry for her chicken instead of vegetables, Angelo's team using only one dinky slice of celery for their veggie offering, and Ed making a sweet potato puree that was entirely too spicy.

Jacqueline, who was seen earlier in the episode cooking her brekky with an entire block of butter, decided that since her banana pudding was too starchy, adding 2 pounds of sugar would be the solution. Weren't we trying to ameliorate childhood obesity? That's like instant diabetes!

The judges decided that mistake was irreparable and sent Jacqueline and her sacks of sugar packin'. Kelly and her carnitas broke Angelo's undefeated status, crushing his dream of perfection and thoroughly ticking off the rest of her team. 

-- Krista Simmons

Related:

Calorie limits in school lunches are recommended

Congress may bolster school lunch nutrition

Food politics in L.A.: Hungry for Change

Follow me on Twitter @kristasimmons

Photo credit: NBC UMV

Comments

[School lunches]

It seems as though the media is making the school lunches a bigger thing than what it is. How hard is it to put out food that is healthy? If the kids don't eat it, it is their fault, and they will go hungry. I think it is great what these chefs are doing, but the districts don't really need that type of help. They should be able to do this one their own.

[Linda Allen]

Will those entrees will certainly solve the obesity issue--most kids will not eat that stuff. They are not exposed to a variety of foods in the preschool years due to economic issues and turn their noses up at anything unfamiliar--kids at my school will not eat turkey at thanksgiving because it is not familiar

[Jon Reeves]

Actually, they didn't get $4/student; they got $130 for 50 students, which is $2.60 (because the $2.68 has to pay for labor and overhead -- so they were still getting a deal, just not as much of a deal as this article suggests).

[DebbieN]

They should have stopped fussing and attempting to cook fancy garbage. It's definitely time to get back to the brown bag basics: peanuts-only peanut butter and low-sugar fruit spread or a couple of slices of real cheese--not processed--with lettuce and tomato on whole wheat, a good handful of raw vegetables (carrots, celery, red cabbage, broccoli), an apple or orange. This is what almost everyone at my public school ate most days back in the '70s. It was boring, it was normal, it was much more nutritious even on Wonder Bread than what you find in the cafeterias today with all the pizza and french fry concessions. It wouldn't cost you any $2.68 per child, and it takes a whole 5 minutes to assemble, if that.

I agree with the previous comment about the chocolate milk--lunch should include a 1-cup carton of low-fat milk, plain and unsweetened. You can't even find those cartons for milk anymore at the grocery store. The dairies stopped making them when the public school cafeterias stopped buying them. But I'd settle for paper cups and some gallon jugs of cold milk at the end of the cafeteria line.

[Amber]

Anybody else find it intersting that the contestants had to provide a healthy meal to the children, but the school served the kids chocolate milk?