Written by: Abby de Riel

More scratch-cooked, plant-based, and culturally inclusive recipes are coming to menus this fall. And, to get there, the process is multilayered. We liken it to “how a bill becomes a law”. Read on to learn about this extensive and thoughtful process.

One year ago, Wellness in the Schools developed a Chef Council, chaired by Chef Racheal Ray and comprised of a group of ten diverse and talented chefs who each were charged with developing 10 recipes, for a total of 100 recipes to be vetted by the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS), and more importantly by NYC children! A handful of recipes made it to the finish line and were served throughout the 2023-2024 school year. Some fan favorites are Kachumber Salad, Pineapple Rice Medley, Jollof Cauliflower, to name a few.

Now in our second year of program implementation, recipes are developed not only by the Inaugural Chef Council, but also by WITS Chefs and OFNS Cooks who are in the field, hearing directly from children. 

Before a new recipe is featured on the menu, it takes a long journey down recipe development lane. First, the recipe is reviewed by OFNS to ensure that ingredients are still available and that  it meets all USDA and OFNS standards. Then, the OFNS Menu Management team, comprised of WITS Chefs and OFNS team members, test the recipe at the OFNS headquarters kitchen. If then brought forward, the recipe is both taste-tested with a small group of students and parents for qualitative feedback; and sampled in dozens of school cafeterias for quantitative feedback through a thumbs-up or thumbs-down voting process. In preparation for this Fall Menu launching in September, we developed multiple recipes to test, taste, and sample, with a standout being WITS Penne Bruschetta.

The new Penne Bruschetta recipe was developed by WITS Chef Rob Tinell, who joined us last year. With a year’s worth of experience in NYC public school kitchens and student interactions across 10 schools in the Queens borough, Chef Rob wanted to turn what is typically a cold recipe into a simple hot dish that students could enjoy. Penne, tomatoes, and spinach come together with a mix of spices and herbs for a savory, colorful presentation. Students will also be cooking this recipe in classrooms during our WITS Labs, with the star of the show being fresh spinach. 

Introducing a new recipe like the WITS Penne Bruschetta has been well-received by all parties. This is the first time WITS Chefs are joining the recipe development process, especially Chefs who have now had the experience of working in school kitchens to train cooks on preparing the original Chef Council recipes and hearing student feedback in the cafeteria. WITS Chefs know what ingredients are available on the procurement list, understand how to write a recipe that works for school kitchens with different equipment and are ultimately grounded in their school communities and cultures. 

During the recipe development process, Penne Bruschetta first traveled to the OFNS headquarters kitchen for recipe testing this spring. In the recipe testing process, WITS and OFNS Managers prepared multiple iterations of the recipe to compare side-by-side on taste, consistency, and simplicity of preparation. Preparing the recipe with canned tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes was the winner: canned tomatoes worked best when tossed with the herbs and seasonings before going into the oven with the pasta, and also would be the most consistent when producing the recipe in larger quantities as is necessary to feed the hundreds of students in each school. While being practical about a recipe’s production, the testing kitchen is just as much of a place to be mindful of maintaining a recipe’s cultural origins. Classic bruschetta recipes have a special balance of tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, and basil, and Chef Rob is in the testing kitchen to comment on the flavor and presentation of the different preparations. 

WITS Chef/Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Ricardo Díaz is always in the testing kitchen during this process and shared, “It’s fun to troubleshoot how to take a recipe and develop it in a school kitchen along with necessary nutrition guidelines and an ingredient procurement list. It’s a very collaborative process from start to finish and the final recipe is representative of our partnership.” 

Next, students participated in a small-group tasting and cafeteria-wide samplings to share their feedback on the recipe. Throughout the school year, WITS Chefs build a special rapport with students and they learn to trust sharing feedback with us. We emphasize the importance of using juicy chef words to share feedback properly, commenting on the flavor, appearance, texture, and temperature (just a “Yuck!” can’t help a Chef amend a recipe!). Fourth-grade students shared in the tasting, “It has different noodles [to spaghetti], but that won’t beat the outstanding taste!” and “It looks really fresh.” 

They loved the tomato taste and thought it was fun to have a say on what appears on their menu by making a thumbs-up or thumbs-down vote at lunch. Students are much more curious about a recipe’s ingredients during sampling days, having asked WITS Chefs, “Why do the tomatoes look the way they do here?” (Canned tomatoes!) and “What’s the green stuff in this recipe that makes it taste good?” (Spinach!).

From testing to tasting to sampling, there are opportunities for feedback from OFNS Cooks and Managers, WITS Chefs, and most importantly, the students themselves. With a great receipt of this recipe from all parties, it has been selected to appear on the lunch menu for all NYC public school students starting in September. 

We welcome recipe submissions from our community. If you have a recipe to share, in the hopes that it becomes a “law”, feel free to reach out to alexina@wellnessintheschools.org.