Schools hope chef's touch whets cafeteria appetites

Like any good chef launching a new venture, Kirk Conrad knows you have to work the room. He wears his white chef's coat and mingles with the customers, asking about their $2.25 entrees.

"It's not the best I've ever had. It's not like Domino's," said Abreah Wesley, a seventh-grader at Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, several hours after eating the chicken parmesan pizza Friday. "But for a school lunch, it's probably the best."

Assigned to slim down the school lunches at two Boston middle schools and boost up their nutritional value, Conrad could simply take pizza off the menu. But he won't. "You can't do it. They would riot," he said.

Conrad, who has worked in kitchens at the Top of the Hub, Mariott Hotels, and Talbots headquarters, is instead bumping up the vegetable toppings, dumping greasier cheeses, and training cafeteria managers across the Boston public school system in how to make their food healthier and more attractive. He started serving schoolchildren in Boston last week.

Almost half the children in Boston's public schools are overweight and many are obese. At the Frederick school, 41 percent are obese; at the chef's other pilot school, the Mario Umana Middle School Academy in East Boston, 52 percent are obese and 17 percent are at risk of diabetes, according to school officials.

"I think this chef's program will get kids to change their eating habits," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "What we're trying to do is make sure they're educated about what to eat."

The $124,000 pilot program - which includes Conrad's $60,000 salary - runs through March with funding from the Boston Public Health Commission and Project Bread, a statewide nonprofit agency that works against childhood hunger.

The two pilot schools were chosen because they have cooking facilities that are well-equipped and a high percentage of students who receive reduced or free lunches.

Chef Conrad, 37, a West Roxbury father of a preschooler and a kindergartner, first tackled the students' food challenge by dressing up the dining rooms. Photos of his chicken sandwiches, fruits, and "Mamma Kirk's Authentic Spaghetti Dinner" now hang in the two schools' lunchrooms.

It was important to Conrad to have photos of actual school food on the walls and not teasers. "I didn't want a kid to say, 'Hey, my food doesn't look like that,' " he said.

Conrad, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, said the schools' kitchens were already creating tasty, nutritious meals. "They were doing good things here. We're just kicking it up a notch," he says, borrowing a phrase from his favorite television chef, Emeril Lagasse. (He hopes to broadcasting too, with a show being planned for Boston City TV.)

Unlike in Conrad's last job, teaching culinary skills to disabled students at the Ivy School in Brookline, there's no money in this pilot program for special high-end foods. The kitchens have to work with what they usually get, though Conrad makes sure the breads and pasta are whole-grain.

He's serving burgers on a whole-grain roll with fresh lettuce and promises not to use anything canned unless the produce truck breaks down. He hopes to introduce fresh herbs, and plans to teach his young patrons about the benefits of locally grown produce by serving it and then chatting them up.

His version of corn-on-the-side involves fresh frozen corn sautéed with onions and peppers. One of his breakfast entrees is a roasted vegetable-and-egg burrito. And during the first days of school last week, he introduced the middle-schoolers to hummus. Servers carried tasting cups of the chickpea spread around the dining room.

Gail Mazzola, the Frederick school cafeteria manager, said the hummus was not an instant hit. As to introducing other unfamiliar items, she and Conrad have a rule: If they themselves won't eat it, they won't serve it in the cafeteria. That means no tofu.

The biggest sellers so far are the whole-wheat chocolate chip cookies.

But if Frederick principal Debra Socia is in the house, students who buy more than one might get questioned. "I ask, 'Now who is that one for?' said the principal, who runs 3 miles every morning.

Boston Superintendent of Schools Carol R. Johnson said getting students to eat healthy must be a priority for parents and teachers.

"Students cannot learn unless they are properly fed and ready for the school day. We are grateful to the city and Project Bread for expanding our resources to address the overall health and wellness of our students," she said.

Menino said he hopes parents will learn about healthy food choices through their children in the pilot program.

Several seventh-grade students at the Frederick said it can be hard to eat healthy each day. Sweets are always tempting, said student Leroy McPherson.

Student Antonio Deandrad said he enjoys eating in the school's cafeteria "because it's so clean." And he already likes broccoli, he said - but with cheese sauce.