Students want tasty, on-trend meals at school just like they experience outside of it. Parents want nutritious meals and snacks. Educators want to fuel students to improve attendance, mood, concentration, memory, and test scores.
An innovative program is aimed at meeting the needs of all three groups. The Aramark Student Nutrition Culinary Alliance brings together chefs across the U.S. to collaborate on creating tasty new recipes and sharing their wins and best practices with schools managed by Aramark Student Nutrition.
The group of approximately 15 classically trained chefs meet formally throughout the year and engage with each other online to keep the culinary innovation and collaboration going.
“We meet regularly in a think-tank setting to collaborate, spark innovation, and bring the Aramark Student Nutrition brand to life for schools and students,” said Beth Ann England, RDN, Vice President of Operational Excellence, Aramark Student Nutrition. “We work together with dietitians, purchasing, brand, and concept development teams to refine recipes and menus based on local and regional taste preferences and trends.”
Driving Creativity, Consistency, and Satisfaction
The Culinary Alliance works with other Aramark field chefs, chef managers, and food service directors on training for recipe execution, plating, presentation, and more to ensure consistency and quality, as well as driving meal participation and satisfaction among students.
“We’re providing an opportunity for our school staff members to interact with the chefs—to learn from them and gain their support,” said Laura McMann, Senior Executive Chef, Aramark Student Nutrition, who co-leads the Culinary Alliance along with Engelland. “This is especially valuable in schools where districts don’t have chefs.”
To build engagement in everything they do, the Culinary Alliance not only uses student feedback and insights to drive new recipe ideas. They also test new recipes with students, bringing them directly into the development process.
Their feedback shapes the menus in their schools. Involving students leads to recipes and menus that are tailored directly to their tastes while meeting regulations.
Coming Soon: New Flavors!
Thanks to the efforts of the Culinary Alliance, many students going back to school this semester can look forward to a variety of new and rotating menu items designed to create excitement and introduce them to new flavors and unique meals.
New menu highlights this year will include Chipotle Cheese Nachos, Egg Roll in a Bowl, Spicy Tzatziki Beef Gyro, and Hot Honey Chicken Biscuit Tostada.
Last year, the Alliance introduced Harvest Grain Bowls, Chipotle Chickpea Hoagies, Loaded Breakfast Scones, and Cubano Eggoji Waffle Sandwiches among other dishes.
The Culinary Alliance periodically tests new products from Aramark vendors to see if they will work in a school setting and for students’ tastes.
For example, the chefs recently got to work in their own kitchens, trying out new ways to use whole wheat dough.
“We had so much fun working with the dough and getting student feedback,” said Maria E. Davis, Executive Chef at Revere Public Schools in Massachusetts. Chef Davis and her team tried the dough as samosas, flatbreads, empanadas, biscuit sandwiches, and pretzel dogs. “The students really liked it when we made biscuits with it,” said Chef Davis. “They gave us a lot of great feedback."
As another example of the Alliance in action, the team held a recipe co-creation session with chefs from Morningstar Farms® where they developed several plant-based recipes, including Baked Parmesan Chik'n Nuggets with Whole Grain Spaghetti and Marinara Sauce and a Chimichurri Buffalo “Wing” Power Bowl with Brown Rice, Chimichurri Sauce, Cucumber, Corn, and Roasted Red Pepper Pico.
Learn More
Find out more about the Aramark Student Nutrition Culinary Alliance and how it’s driving culinary innovation and excitement among students, parents, and educators.
