Inside the Scoop: Creative cooking revolutionizes school lunch

Photo: Food Network

Arlene Leggio

OXFORD HILLS — A school bell can be heard, then Ted Allen announces,  "Attention students. Your favorite subject, that would be lunch, is about to get the chopped treatment.

"Balanced nutritious meals for every child, that is the goal. So we welcome four cafeteria wonder women who are ready to give it their all."

Allen, the host of Chopped, a competitive cooking television show on the Food Network, continues, "Four chefs, three courses, only one chef will win. The challenge: create an unforgettable meal from the mystery items in these baskets before time runs out ... one by one, [chefs] must face the dreaded chopping block."

On this particular episode of Chopped the four chefs, Cheryl Barbara, Rhonda DeLoatch, Dianne Houlihan and Arlene Leggio, are cafeteria women. White House Chef Sam Kass serves as a special guest judge.

With healthy school lunch food becoming an important topic in national and local politics, Arlene Leggio's nutritious meals stand out. Leggio is the head cook at Islip High School, in Islip on Long Island. Though she did not win Chopped, she is happy to talk about her work.

"My goal is to have restaurant style food in our cafeterias," says Leggio. "Every school is capable of making changes. Every school. Stop with the reheating. Just start cooking."

When Leggio began working in the high school cafeteria in 2000, she had spent six years in an elementary school kitchen. When she started working, students had only one option for lunch each day, so Leggio began trying to provide more. When she moved up to the high school, Leggio brought her wish for expanded menu options with her.

"Everyday I always have 17 different choices," says Leggio. "There isn't a specific reason for that number. It's just what it turned out to be ... I hate eating the same thing. I want to have different choices."

In addition to the various options that Leggio offers, the meals are also nutritious. Leggio uses inexpensive, government-issued food as a basis for all of her meals.

Breakfast sometimes includes a fruit granola yogurt parfait with walnuts and blueberries sprinkled on top. A Swiss potato roll, made from canned pumpkin with low-fat cake mix, quinoa, strawberries and blueberries, is dessert at lunch.

Pears are cut in half and filled with apples to make healthy apple crisps. Collard greens with shallots, garlic and cubes of cream cheese are rolled in mozzarella cheese.

Spaghetti squash sauteed with sauce and shallots become another lunch option. Paninis with different sauces such as garlic basil pesto and olive tapenade are other courses that are served.

Leggio offers two soups, one of the most popular being her curry soup with homemade chicken dumplings.

"Do you know how many veggies I can hide in those dumplings?" says an excited Leggio, sharing her little secret.

One day, she received catfish from the government. She cooked the catfish with quinoa to make cooked sushi rolls. Then, she used leftover bagel seeds that she had collected from the fresh bagels served every morning, on the sushi for decoration.

"It's all about presentation and bright colors," says Leggio, remarking on how an appealing variety of foods can lure in anyone, even a picky high schooler. Even if the meals aren't immediately popular, Leggio is willing to try again.

She mentions a study that proves "... a meal may need to be repeated nine times before a child will like it." She also believes that change happens gradually and that new, healthier meals can be introduced over time. One of her suggestions is to slowly incorporate healthier foods into the cafeteria budget.

"Just use one-eighth of it towards fresh food," says Leggio, "Why buy bad government food when you can buy good food? ... instead of the money used to buy chicken nuggets and pizza, buy healthier foods." However, Leggio also believes that, "You can create so much with that government food. Just be creative and make things stretch."

Leggio's staff serves about 1,000 students and makes about 700-800 lunches for the high school a day.

At Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, more than 2,200 meals are made for both the elementary schools and high school. While this is a huge difference in meals, Leggio believes feeding 2,200 students "really isn't that much ... it all depends if they [the school cooks] want to or not."

The ultimate goal is to leave the kids with a "memory of good cooking" and to promote healthy diets. "I love my job," says Leggio, "And I love showing you [students] healthy new things ... I have the best job in the world. I wouldn't trade it for anything."