Adding a Dash of Fame BY KELSEY CASSELBURY Celebrity chef Jet Tila brings a pinch of star power to school recipe development while helping cafeteria teams engage their student customers. Americans have long had a fascination with celebrity chefs, stretch-ing back to the 1960s, when Julia Child fi rst brought her exuberant enthusiasm for food and fl avor to individual homes. Initially, the sole purview of public television, the rise of cable TV led to a sky-rocketing number of televised cooking shows—and a corresponding rise in the celebrity status of their chef stars. These personalities enjoy recognition throughout the generations, including among K-12 students. In fact, youngsters have become such a growing and infl uential audience that many popular cooking competition shows, such as “Master Chef,” “Chopped” and “Baking Championship” have extended their brands to feature kid participants. While children are demonstrating an increased fascination with chefs and cooking, the school foodservice segment has also been ever-more welcoming in opening its doors to the professional ex-pertise of chefs on staff ( see page 24 ). And cafeteria staff themselves have been a popular presence on TV cooking shows, such as the eight school cooks who participated in two seasons of “Chopped” and kitchen manager Jason Smith, who won three Food Network competitions. So, what type of recipe do you have when you stir together all these factors? One that is perfectly poised to be “elevated” by the passions and perspectives of Chef Jet Tila . Chef Jet Tila made a name for himself on Food Network as a judge for several top shows (including “Cutthroat Kitchen” and “Chopped”), as well as a competitor on “Iron Chef America,” before he discovered how his expertise could be applied to help children in schools. And it’s that celeb status that allows Tila to promote and participate in school meal programs in a way that few others can. Propelled by his passion for ensuring that kids get the best food possible, Tila has become an ally for school nutrition operations through involvement with Chartwells K12 and Schwan’s Chef Collective. In the latter program, Tila has joined other celebrity chefs for multi-day recipe development activities at Albuquerque Public Schools (2017) and Houston Independent School District (2018). [ Editors’ Note: Read about the Albuquerque visit in “Coming Together for the Collective Good,” Ideas at Work, June/July 2018 and the Houston event in this issue on page 44. ] Tila also joined Schwan’s at SNA’s Annual National Conference (ANC) in Las Vegas last summer. In Houston last December, School Nutrition had the opportunity to sit down with Tila to discuss his culinary-focused upbringing (his family opened what’s con-sidered to be the fi rst Thai restaurant in the United States), how he jumped at the chance to work with schools and his refl ections on the challenges and opportunities that K–12 operators face. 18 | SN | April 2019
School Nutrition Association April 2019: Page 18
