Hathaway Brown third-graders learned that salads can be more than lettuce and tomatoes.
The third-grade classes participated in the Sodexo Future Chefs Competition, in which students were to create a healthy salad, either from their own imagination or by adding their own twists to existing recipes. School staff then narrowed the entries to the top five girls, Celia Bullock, Coral Frontini, Brooklyn Napolitano, Maya Thornton, and Alexandra Wolf.
On Feb. 28, those five “future chefs” prepared their salads for a panel of judges, including author, and “Iron Chef” judge Michael Ruhlman, More Than Gourmet CEO and Founder Brad Sacks, and Valerie Hughes, Hathaway Brown associate head for finance and administration.
“It is the first year we have done this,” said Ruth Wylie, director of food service at HB. “The salads had to be healthy and kid-friendly, and plate presentation was part of it, too.”
The creative cuisine earned extra points for using at least one of a list of ingredients, including dried beans, mango, pineapple, roasted potatoes, taco meat, tortillas or turkey. Maya took some items from the list to create her rainbow salad recipe, which includes strawberries, blueberries, mango, carrots, avocado, red onion, and lettuce.
“I just thought of random ingredients and put them together,” she said. “It has every color of the rainbow.”
Alexandra added boiled eggs, celery hearts, tomatoes and watercress to romaine lettuce, along with a homemade dressing using oil and lemon juice. Coral made “insalata,” using romaine, kale, arugula, grilled potatoes, candied onions, goat cheese and pine nuts, in a balsamic dressing. Brooklyn’s “C.C.A. Salad” combined marinated chicken, corn, avocado, baby spinach and parmesan cheese.
The winner was Celia’s Black Bean and Mango salad, also made with field greens, chicken, fresh basil and chives. She added the mango and other twists to a salad recipe similar to one her mother tasted at a local restaurant.
“I grew basil in science, and I wanted a recipe that included basil,” she said. “I made it for my grandma’s and grandpa’s anniversary, and they liked it.”
Choosing the winner was difficult, Ruhlman said. “I judged them just like I do on the Top Chef. They were really very close, but we were all in agreement on the top two.”
Celia’s recipe will go on to the regional competition. All the recipes will be featured in the school lunch menus over the next few weeks.
“We will have the girls come down and help us in the kitchen when we make their salad,” Wylie said.
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