From left, Sam Huang, Ben Jacobson, and Alex Leopold knead dough for making bread at Bridge School.
(Wiqan Ang / Globe staff)
LEXINGTON - It sounds like a recipe for chaos: 20 fifth-graders in a school cafeteria kitchen on a muggy Saturday afternoon, preparing an ambitious seasonal menu for a guest list of 120. But at the Bridge School here late last month, everything was running like clockwork. The children were lined up, wearing aprons, ready to cook dinner for a crowd of parents, grandparents, siblings, and school and community leaders.
Of course, they'd have a little help. The meal was the culmination of a five-week after-school program called the Dinner Party Project, designed to teach kids about cooking, nutrition, meal planning, food safety, and etiquette. Codirectors Lori Deliso and Liza Connolly were there to supervise.
The program was created by Spoons Across America, a nonprofit focused on children's culinary education that was founded in 2001 in New York. Deliso - a cooking instructor; cofounder of the Lexington Farmers' Market; and, with her husband, David Jick, co-owner of Dave's Fresh Pasta in Somerville - learned about the organization through a member of the farmers' market board of directors. "I wanted to do some educational programs with the farmers' market," she explained. "It seemed like such a natural fit." And Connolly, a former chef and an active farmers' market volunteer, was a natural fit as Deliso's codirector. Her daughter, Lyla, also participated in the program, implemented with a grant from Spoons Across America. The duo made the farmers' market a component of the Dinner Party Project; the class visited the farmers' market, in what most of the students said was a highlight for them, and learned what was in season.
They then planned the menu themselves: bread and butter, Cobb salad, and roast chicken with garlic, lemon thyme, and rosemary (the children selected the herbs after tasting them at the market). There were also roasted vegetables and maple syrup lemonade that a group of parents helped make. Families brought the desserts.
On meal preparation day, bread baking came first. In to help were Thomas and Helene Stroh from SwissBakers in Reading. Thomas Stroh explained the basics of bread making to the children, and they helped make dough. There wasn't enough rising time, however, so Stroh brought some that was already risen. He divided it among the children, who split into groups to knead, roll out, and shape their own dough. They placed their assorted mini-braids, rolls, turtles, and knots on baking sheets, then moved on to butter.
Each table held small jars filled with whipping cream, one for each child. Their mission: to shake the jars till the cream became butter. They shook and shook and shook some more. "When I was little we tried this at home, but we had a trampoline so it was easier. All we had to do was jump," said Rebecca Labitt. Adult helpers circulated among the students, pitching in when arms started to tire. Within minutes, small yellow balls emerged from within the white liquid. "Can we un-butter it?" Joe Blumberg wanted to know. The answer: No, you can't un-butter butter.
Next the group moved into the kitchen for a short lesson on prepping a chicken from chef Michael Anzivino, a friend of Deliso's. As he showed the kids how to turn one whole roaster into eight tasty pieces, each hack was met with a chorus of "Ewwww!" "Cool!" "I've always wanted to see a rib cage." One child vowed never to eat chicken again.
When the clamor had subsided, the children moved back to their tables in the hall, where herbs and garlic were waiting. Connolly showed them how to strip the rosemary and thyme leaves off the stalk and how to crush and chop garlic cloves (using big plastic knives). Then they each got pieces of chicken and tucked the garlic and herbs under the skin. "It's gooey; it feels good," said Sam Alen, who in a previous class said he loved to cook with his father. Some of his classmates tried to lift the chicken on the plastic knives to avoid touching it.
Cobb salad was a two-part process. First the group made a corn-and-black-bean salad. Then they plated it over romaine lettuce and topped it with olives, eggs, and avocados they'd chopped themselves.
After all that work the kids took a much-deserved break to play outside before it was time to set the tables and change their clothes for dinner.
When the parents, grandparents, and siblings arrived, the corridor smelled of garlic and rosemary and freshly baked bread. Cafeteria tables were hidden under autumnal-hued cloths topped by colorful fall leaves and displays of pumpkins decorated by the students. Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" played in the background. As they had been instructed, the young hosts greeted their guests by offering them a choice of cider, water, or homemade lemonade.
Students Joe Blumberg, Alex Leopold, and Ben Jacobson delivered a toast, thanking Deliso and Connolly, among others. "We learned about knife skills, place settings, honeybees, how to make bread and butter," said Blumberg. (The Dinner Party Project was such a success, the Bridge School plans to repeat the program with future groups of students.)
Then the 20 young hosts disappeared into the hall to pick up trays heavy with the food they had prepared - testimony to all that they had learned. They returned to proudly share the bounty with an expectant - and hungry - crowd.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
