Harmonious Menu at UNH Friday, April 29, 2011

Gourmet Dinner Menu http://www.wsbe.unh.edu/gourmetdinner

 

Harmonious Flavors A Melodic Approach to a UNH Tradition Featuring: Chef Sam Hayward James Beard “Best Chef” Award Winner Fore Street Restaurant Portland, Maine

 

 

 

MENU

Hors d’oeuvres
Rhythm & Blues

 Chicago Style Roast Duck
House Whole Wheat Cracker, Citrus Jam

Cold Smoked Cod Canapé
Daikon, Sriracha

Hush Puppies

Smooth Pecan Marble
Goat cheese, Rosemary

Appetizer
Contemporary

Beet Ravioli
Ricotta, Fennel, Meyer Lemon

Entrée
Salsa

 Lobster & Poblano
Black Turtle Beans, Baby White Corn, Spice

Intermezzo
Classical

 Sour Cherry Sorbetto
Lime Twist

Main Course
Country

 Pork Loin and Carolina White Grits
Root Vegetables, Apricot Barbeque Sauce

Salad
Jazz

 Sunburst Salad
Tabasco, Great Hill Bleu, Port Strawberries, Almonds

Dessert
Rock & Roll

 Banana Cake
Peanut Butter, Ganache, Candied Bacon

UNH Nutritional Science, Field Experience

Hello Seacoast Community! Mary Brower of Brookford Farm in Rollinsford, NH came to Dover High School to share yogurt on Friday, April 8th. The focus of the partnership with farmers and chefs at Dover Public Schools is to promote healthful, local food. The project provides education first, before naively trying to change habitual eating patterns. The process began as a capstone project researched by Matt Benham, UNH EcoGastronomy Dual Major graduate, and is now in action thanks to a team of five Nutritional Science Field Experience undergrads.

The event was coordinated to promote a simple, organic food option and to provide educational materials that boast the health benefits, like basic nutrition information per serving: calories, fat and protein. The term organic was defined, so students could begin to understand the lasting health and environmental impact of foods grown without the use of harmful fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics or genetically modified organisms. Simply put, raw, local foods taste better!

Brookford Farm provided five gallons of plain, low-fat organic yogurt. For those students who preferred a sweeter treat, a drizzle of local honey was provided as a natural sweetener. Mary also brought pamphlets, posters, and a variety of flours to show the students diversity of products made on the farm.

The high school students were very interactive, as they were able to taste the delicious yogurt and learn information about the farm through pictures, and by chatting with Mary. By the end of lunch, the bucket of yogurt was nearly gone!

The UNH students gathered an outstanding amount of feedback through a survey that they created and distributed during the tasting. The survey responses were quite positive and will provide needed information as to whether or not Brookford Farm yogurt will be added to Dover High School’s yogurt bar. Either way, the event gave our community and high school students a taste of the local food scene. For more information visit www.Brookfordfarm.com or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brookford-Farm/142997449050488

Food for thought… more events coming up at Dover High School:

“Two Angry Moms”, April 14^th

Dover High School will host a film screening this Thursday, April 14^th from 6-9pm. The movie is about two mothers who were not happy with what their children were served at school. The movie focuses on how schools serve mainly greasy, cheap U.S. commodity and processed foods over healthy options, often due to cost.

Before the movie, you will be able to indulge in some fresh, local snacks brought by Chef Evan Hennessy of Flavor Concepts. Also, after there will be a Nutrition panel to answer questions. Dover High School’s resident garden instructor will be available to provide information about the school’s outdoor vegetable garden and partnership with Dover school foodservice. And Slow Food Seacoast will join to provide foodie information. This event is free and open to the community, so we hope you join us!

Chef Evan Hennessy, April 29^th

Later in April, local chef and owner of Flavor Concepts, Evan Hennessy, will be accompanying the UNH students at Dover High School for a cook-in! He will work in the kitchen to whip up a tasty chicken stir-fry that will be given to the students as a 4-ounce tasting. Chef Evan will use all fresh ingredients and locally farmed chicken from Lasting Legacy http://www.llfarm.net/ in his recipe. We hope to “wow” the students into a new menu option. And surveys will be provided as a way to gain feedback. The pressure is on… if the results are high, the menu cycle will include Chef Evan’s stir-fry!

Again, we hope to see you all on Thursday at the film screening!

Good eats!

Vivien Fam, Lauren Goldthwaite, Erin Greenhalgh, Sarah Iske, Kim Mayo

UNH Nutritional Science, Field Experience

UNH Nutrition Students Promoting Local and Healthy Food Options for K-12

Ciao! Seacoast Community. As five UNH Nutritional Science Students, we teamed up to complete a Field Experience project at Dover Public School District SAU 11 www.doverschoolfood.com. The focus is to promote local and healthy food options for K-12 students. The Dover-UNH relationship was established three years ago. Pilot projects are put into action to initiate a revamped outlook on school food. We are proud to take part.

For several weeks we have invited local farmers and locovore chefs into the high school café to share food products and culinary expertise with students and staff. Our goal is to educate the high school students so they understand and learn to appreciate the health, environmental and social outcomes of choosing local foods over conventional processed. Cost can be limiting, but we hope to push more local food options into the menu cycle for all K-12. It is doable with a little creativity and community backing. Another important task, we are surveying students for needed feedback before jumping into unsustainable change. And we are using compostable tasting cups and spoons to reduce waste.

Our team will share updates as we move through the next few months to encourage foodservice directors, teachers, parents and community members to do the same in other seacoast public school districts. Information will be posted to the Dover school food website, noted above. Future guests include: Evan Hennessey, Flavor Concepts; Evan Mallett, Black Trumpet; Debra Locke, Sugarmomma’s Maple Farm; and Curtis Gould, The Soup Guy. Stick around—this project could change the lives of many.

 

Riverside Vegetable Farm, March 4^th

In March, we were fortunate enough to have farmer David Tuttle from Riverside Vegetable Farm create a mock farmers market for students to browse and take notice of the type of produce available this time of year in New Hampshire. Dave was extremely helpful answering all of the questions that the students and faculty asked. Dave brought a sampling of turnips, potatoes, chard, greens (a mix of 13 varieties) jarred goods, and eggs. Not to be underestimated—students were interested in purchasing product! It was a pleasure to work with Dave. For more information on Riverside Vegetable Farm, feel free to browse www.riversidefarmstand.com.

Brookford Farm, April 8^th

This Friday, Dover High School foodservice will host guest Farmer, Mary Brower from Brookford Farm located in Rollinsford, NH. She will present a table of products from the farm during school lunch. A little about Mary…  she came to farming after spending many years as a professional cook, followed by a teaching career which spanned alternative and outdoor education programs to high school, post-secondary, and graduate settings. She now coordinates Brookford Farm's CSA program, writes recipes and newsletters for the farm, and is developing outreach programs to Seacoast communities. Brookford is an organic farm that strives for local business from the seacoast.

Mary Brower will share information about Brookford’s farming practices and she will spotlight available produce. Mary will also give a 3 oz. sample of plain, low fat yogurt for the students to taste. Dover high school has a salad and yogurt bar featured one day a week that offers Stonyfield yogurt. We hope the students rally for Brookford! For more information visit www.Brookfordfarm.com or Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brookford-Farm/142997449050488

Good eats!

Vivien Fam, Lauren Goldthwaite, Erin Greenhalgh, Sarah Iske, Kim Mayo

UNH Nutritional Science, Field Experience

Make this recipe and call me in the morning

Nutrition Rx: Cooking as a Strategy to Battle Obesity, Promote Health and Fight Chronic Diseases

Dr. David Eisenberg, EcoGastronomy External Advisor

by Janet on June 10, 2010

I'm a firm believer in the power of cooking.  I think it’s truly one of the  best ways we can all take better control of our health.
How can you really eat right if you don’t learn to cook?
How can we implement all of today’s dietary guidelines without making our own meals — or at least more often.
But do most people in this country have the confidence they need in the kitchen?  Or have we seen culinary literacy decline to the point that people are lost without a heavy reliance on foods in a package or take-out container.
That’s the focus of my article in the Chicago Tribune: Make This Recipe and Call Me In the Morning.
I was inspired to write this article after attending the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference at the Culinary Insitute of America at Greystone.  Maybe you remember me writing about this culinary conference for health professionals, which is a joint project of the CIA and Harvard Medical School.

The conference was spearhead by David M. Eisenberg, MD (pictured above), who is the director of the division of research and education in complementary and integrative medical therapies for Harvard Medical School.  This doc is  on a mission to get America cooking – and he wants physicians to be major evangelists for this movement.  He believes cooking — and appreciating good quality food in a mindful manner — may be the best long-term solution to help America battle obesity and chronic medical conditions.

One of the speakers during this 3-day conference was Mollie Katzen, who I also interviewed for my Chicago article.  Mollie is undoubtedly one of my earliest food influencers.

Who doesn’t adore her classic Moosewood cookbook…which was the first cookbook I remember buying.

Now she’s written a new book called “Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen “(Harper Collins, 2009).  She told me that she was urged to write the book by her grown children who are now living on their own.

She said her kids could recite the names of all these celebrity chefs but they didn’t know how to roast a chicken.  Mollie said:

We may be living in a culture that is highly culinary aware, yet this “food as entertainment” trend has not taught people to cook.  There’s a skill set that has been lost.

That’s so true.
As a registered dietitian, I think it’s really important to go beyond talking about grams of fat, % of calories and milligrams of nutrients.  We can’t just urge people to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains or shop the perimeter of the grocery store and avoid processed foods without arming them with the culinary skills they need to implement this advice.  Culinary training and nutrition education should be joined at the hip.   And that’s what this CIA conference was really all about.
Hope you enjoy my article, which is reprinted below:

Copyright (c) 2010, Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Make this recipe and call me in the morning Doctors hope to fight obesity by teaching patients how to cook healthfully

By Janet Helm, Special to Tribune Newspapers

Copyright, Chicago Tribune

Imagine the day your doctor hands you a recipe instead of a prescription. Or what if hospitals were equipped with teaching kitchens where patients could trade in their hospital gowns for aprons before being discharged.

That’s the vision of Dr. David Eisenberg, who is on a mission to get America cooking. And he wants doctors to be the major drivers of the movement.
Eisenberg, who heads up the complementary and integrative medicine division at Harvard Medical School, forged a partnership with the Culinary Institute of America to help physicians get more comfortable in the kitchen.
The culinary conferences that he helps lead are not simply to encourage doctors to get in touch with their inner Julia Child. It’s to arm them with the knowledge and skills they need to inspire their patients to start cooking – which Eisenberg believes is one of best strategies to battle obesity and chronic medical conditions in this country.
“We need to first teach the teachers,” he said. “A physician’s own behavior is one of the strongest predictors of how they’ll counsel their patients.”
That’s why Eisenberg wants to see physicians roll up their sleeves and start cooking.
Then he wants doctors to transfer their passion for good food to their patients – who he said often feel overwhelmed at the thought of getting dinner on the table.
Culinary literacy has plummeted in this country, Eisenberg said. “Many people simply don’t have basic cooking skills.”
We’ve been going back to our homes for meals, but how we’re preparing food is quite different compared to a generation ago, according to Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst with the NPD Group and author of Eating Patterns in America. The definition of cooking has changed, he said.  Now it’s more likely to mean assembling and heating – and probably in the microwave, which has experienced a surge in popularity in the past few years, along with frozen foods.
For the first time, the lasagna eaten at home is more likely to be thawed from the freezer rather than made from scratch. If food doesn’t come in a box with instructions, many people are just not sure what to do.
While they may constantly hear about the virtues of fresh, whole and unprocessed food, and are told to eat more vegetables, whole grains and plant-based meals, people often feel ill-equipped to implement this advice.
Even with the wildly popular television cooking shows, many people are not active in their own kitchens.
Has cooking become a spectator sport? That’s what  Robyn Webb is worried about. “Food has become so glamorized, but the basic skills are missing.”
Webb is one of a growing number of culinary dietitians who combine nutrition counseling with hands-on cooking instructions. She works with clients in their own kitchens in the Washington, D.C., area to help them buy and prepare nutritious meals.
“It’s not enough to tell people to eat 20 grams of this or one-half cup of that,” she said. “They need to be able to translate that into food choices and learn how to do it.”
Webb often starts with knife skills, a lesson on how to select cookware and an overview of basic cooking techniques, such as roasting, sauteing and stir-frying.  Many home cooks are told to limit sodium, sugar and fat, she said, yet they don’t know how to do that in their own kitchens and still prepare food that tastes good – while being quick, easy and affordable.
Almost everyone is aware of what they should be doing to eat well, said Mollie Katzen, author of the new “Get Cooking: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen.” Now they need to learn the “how” part of the equation.
One approach may be to bring back a defunct high school requirement: home economics.  That’s the solution proposed by two health professionals in the May 12 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“Many parents never learned to cook and instead rely on restaurants, takeout food, frozen meals and packaged food as basic fare. Many children seldom experience what a true home-cooked meal tastes like, much less see what goes into preparing it,” according to the commentary titled “Bring Back Home Economics Education,” written by Alice H. Lichtenstein and David S. Ludwig.
“A renovated home economics curriculum could equip young adults with the skills essential to lead long, healthy lives and reverse the trends of obesity and diet-related disease.”
They believe a mandatory food preparation curriculum in school will also help young people develop a healthy relationship with food and be less tempted to follow fad diets. They conclude that it may be among the best investments society could make.
Reposted courtesy of Janet Helm, MS, RD, Nutrition Unplugged blog: http://nutritionunplugged.com/