DENVER — They still wear sensible shoes, but the nation's lunch ladies are trading in their hair nets for chef toques as they undergo a gourmet makeover.
With the childhood obesity rates creating demand for healthier foods in schools, more attention is being placed on the culinary skills of those charged with preparing it. What good are fresh local produce and grass-fed beef, for example, if the lunchroom employees know how to make only canned vegetables and frozen fish sticks?
"It's more work to cook from scratch, no doubt," said Dawn Cordova, a longtime school cafeteria worker attending Denver Public Schools' first "scratch cooking" training this summer.
Cordova and about 40 other Denver lunch ladies spent three weeks mastering knife skills, baking and chopping fruits and vegetables for some of the school district's first salad bars.
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Photo by Barry Gutierrez, Associated Press
