Last month, the Maine Department of Education (DOE) Child Nutrition team hosted ten School Food Service staff members in their Culinary Classroom in Augusta for vegan/vegetarian culinary training.
Five teams of two prepared eleven dishes from lentil sloppy joes, Asian salad, sweet potato & bean burrito, and tortilla soup to cookie dough hummus. After preparing the dishes, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor and discussed each dish.
Comments included the ease of preparation, how ingredients could be used in other dishes, how appealing the look and flavor of several dishes were, and how some were a good way to use commodity products.
The Maine DOE Child Nutrition team operates the Culinary Classroom to provide culinary and food safety training to School Nutrition Professionals across the entire state of Maine. Along with in-person training, the team also records training videos and recipes that are accessible as needed via their website.
For more information, reach out to the Maine DOE Child Nutrition Team.