SALEM — The school kitchens of Salem may seem worlds away from the fine dining at the Top of the Hub, but they have more in common than you think.
Chef Kirk Conrad used to be a chef at the famed Boston restaurant, but these days he is getting things cooking with the food services staff in Salem, helping create nutritious, cost-effective meals for students, while trying to break kids of the habit of always reaching for pizza and hamburgers.
Conrad is in the Salem Public Schools thanks to Project Bread, an anti-hunger agency that launched the Chefs in Schools program in Boston several years ago.
This year, it expanded to Salem.
"I think it's amazing they picked us," said Deborah Jeffers, Salem food services director.
During a busy lunch period at Salem High on a recent morning, Conrad and the kitchen staff served up grilled chicken wraps with roasted onions and peppers, jalapenos, and low-fat cheddar cheese, with a side of beans and rice.
Some students eyed the food suspiciously, but Conrad talked it up.
"Some kids are as picky as the millionaires who order the $50 steak at Top of the Hub," Conrad said, "so I've got to sell it. I've got to work the crowd."
A student with a Mohawk-style haircut was immediately sold as he made his way through the bustling food line, saying he was going to forgo his usual sandwich to try the new offering.
"The kids are starting to respond," Salem High School kitchen manager Jyll Hudson said.
"He brings more energy, and he comes with a lot of information," Jeffers said. "He was doing this in the Boston schools, so he's got ways that we didn't even think you could cook something. So we're improving, which is wonderful."
Conrad, who goes by "Chef Kirk," is in Salem on Thursdays and has worked with the high school kitchen staff so far this year. First thing every week, he reviews the previous week's menu with the staff, and then they set to preparing food for that day.
Jeffers said it is critical to serve wholesome school meals. In September, the school cafeterias served an average of 2,492 lunches a day — meaning the schools are feeding more than half the school population daily.
And roughly 54 percent of students in the Salem schools received free or reduced-price meals.
"Project Bread went to Salem because Deb Jeffers is such an advocate of serving healthy foods to kids," Conrad said.
Jeffers was previously the cook at Horace Mann Lab School and took over the whole program in summer 2009. Under her leadership, the department has secured grants to acquire healthier foods, and she has advocated cooking from scratch with fresh ingredients.
Conrad fits right in with that goal, teaching healthier cooking techniques, food variety, fresher presentation and professional skills, like a knife demonstration he ran for all the school cooks in the district and a training on basic soup recipes.
"I share tips I've learned in the field," Conrad said, "like what kinds of bases to use for soup, simmering time, roasting the vegetables first for flavor."
"He's so nice and down-to-earth," Hudson said.
Conrad said he works with schools to create kid-tested and -approved healthy foods and to cut down on fattening ingredients like cream and oil, using skim milk and low-fat cheeses instead.
"We try to make it as flavorful and healthy as possible," he said.
Project Bread expanded the program to Lawrence this year, too, and the greatest challenge everywhere is to keep costs down, he said.
"We're not going out and getting exotic ingredients," Conrad said. "In the restaurant, I can grab the brandy and do a peppercorn reduction with shallots. Some things are really not available (here), so you really have to adapt."
He works with the kitchen staff on how to best use the ingredients from the government, called "commodity" items.
Jeffers credits Conrad for pushing the new menu items and encouraging students to try new things. He puts samples in small cups and hawks them during lunch period like a vendor at Fenway Park.
"Kids are as tough as restaurant critics," he joked.
"Once they taste it, they like it," Jeffers said. "It's trying to get it on the plate that's the challenge."
Staff writer Amanda McGregor can be reached at amcgregor@salemnews.com.
Let's get cooking
Chef Kirk Conrad is working with the Salem Public Schools' cooks and students on a recipe they will submit to a competition as part of first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative.
The Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge is part of the government's overall efforts to combat childhood obesity.
The Salem team will test the recipe on students before submitting it, and it must meet nutritional requirements in three categories: whole grain foods, dark green and/or orange vegetables, and dry beans and peas (legumes).
The winning teams will be invited to prepare their meals alongside White House chefs, and the top 10 recipes in each category will be published in a Recipes for Healthy Kids Cookbook.
Eating healthy
Here's a sample of a Salem school lunch a few years ago:
Scrambled hamburger
Mashed potatoes
Corn
White bread
Canned peaches in heavy syrup
Milk.
Here's a meal they serve today:
Chicken fajitas with roasted vegetables in a wrap
Brown rice and beans
Choice of apple crisp or fresh apples
Milk
The regular price of high school lunch is $2.50; middle and elementary school lunch is $2.25.
Let's get cooking
Chef Kirk Conrad is working with the Salem Public Schools' cooks and students on a recipe they will submit to a competition as part of first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" initiative.
The Recipes for Healthy Kids Challenge is part of the government's overall efforts to combat childhood obesity.
The Salem team will test the recipe on students before submitting it, and it must meet nutritional requirements in three categories: whole grain foods, dark green and/or orange vegetables, and dry beans and peas (legumes).
The winning teams will be invited to prepare their meals alongside White House chefs, and the top 10 recipes in each category will be published in a Recipes for Healthy Kids Cookbook.
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