Culinary scholarships go to California students

Is there a college student who would not benefit from knowing how to make hunter's chicken or crepes with pastry cream and chocolate sauce? Talk about a break from cafeteria food!

But for the students who made these dishes -- from memory in two hours -- at a recent competition, it was bank accounts, not bellies, that reaped the benefit.

Twenty-eight aspiring chefs from L.A. public schools were awarded more than $600,000 in scholarships to culinary schools by C-CAP founder and President Richard Grausman on Monday at a ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel. C-CAP stands for Careers through Culinary Arts Program.

Given the circumstances, you might guess the students and judges didn't just call the dishes hunter's chicken and crepes. Students prepared poulet chasseur avec pommes de terre chateau and crepes sucrees with crème patissiere and sauce au chocolat. 

The judges included some accomplished chefs: Neal Fraser from Grace and BLD; Douglas Dodd, Hotel Bel-Air; Aaron Robins, Boneyard Bistro; and C-CAP graduates Raymond Alvarez of the Border Grill; and Rigo Salas and Bobby Valdovinos, Four Seasons Hotel.

School lunch challenges for new chef

L.A. Unified, as we've said here before, has its first executive chef. Mark Baida calls the 500,000 or so students the district feeds every day his "customers" and hopes to win them over.

But even for Baida, who was previously USC's chef, the challenges are big. He notes, for instance, that few others face this every day: Feed 3,000 or so "customers" a complete meal in under 30 minutes, for around $1 apiece.

More to come on Baida and his efforts, including a new open-face chicken sandwich that got the thumbs up Thursday from a group of cafeteria training managers and will debut in May in some high schools.

-- Mary MacVean

Dip into this vegetable dish, courtesy of L.A. Unified

If you don't tell, we won't.

Make a dip with peas instead of guacamole, and it's low in calories and delicious. And here's another surprise: The recipe comes from L.A. Unified, thanks to its new executive chef, Mark Baida.

Sweet Pea Guacamole

6 cups frozen sweet peas

2 bunches fresh cilantro (no lower stems)

2 fresh green jalapeños (or to taste)

2 cloves fresh garlic

1 cup fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

4 teaspoons ground cumin

Briefly cook peas in boiling, salted water (1 gallon of water, with 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt)

Wash and roughly chop the cilantro. Roughly chop the jalapeño and peeled garlic.

Put the peas, cilantro, jalapeño and garlic in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining ingredients, and pulse until blended but not a smooth cream. Serve in a bowl, with pita or tortilla chips.

The recipe may be cut in half.

-- Mary MacVean

Photo by Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times