Elmhurst Academy chef teaches kids to eat — and love — veggies
In cooking, Chef Sigy Rafalovitz lives by these rules: Use fresh vegetables. And the simpler, the better.
With this philosophy, she gets children to eat their vegetables. No, really. And the students at Elmhurst Academy, where she works, aren't just eating their veggies, they've loving them — and their parents are requesting her recipes.
By exposing kids to “the language of food,” and involving them in the process of how a meal gets to the table, she's figured out her own recipe for success — one that's ultimately healthier for everyone.
At the private early learning school for infants through kindergartners, “Chef Sigy,” as she's known, visits classrooms with raw vegetables and fruits in hand, showing students how, for example, a pineapple looks before its skin is peeled, and letting them touch and smell it.
“Some of the kids have never been introduced to a whole pineapple before, so for them, it's a new experience,” Rafalovitz says.
The school has an organic garden, and the kids help with watering, as well as harvesting and cleaning the vegetables. “The children work with their teachers to plan and design their classroom garden,” says Kaitlyn Berger, the school's nature curriculum specialist.
In addition to the garden vegetables, Rafalovitz uses organic foods from sustainable farms to produce two meals and snacks each day for the students. She runs a zero-waste kitchen, and in the classroom, students compost their scraps and paper towels.
“The whole point is for them to consume more vegetables and fruits, which they do, if they understand where it comes from and they can explore the ingredients,” Rafalovitz says.
She cooks everything from scratch, including sauces and stocks, where she often “hides” veggies and herbs, such as basil and garlic in pizza sauce.
“You get that boost of vegetables, and it's not just marinara from a can,” she says. “It's about using fresh ingredients and letting them shine in a dish.”
Other favorites are roasted cauliflower with fresh herbs or broccoli baked simply with garlic and salt.
Even her traditional kid-friendly meals are healthier than the classics. Her mac and cheese features a butternut squash sauce, instead of regular cheese. And the black bean brownies have no flour and pack a protein punch. “The kids love them and can't tell the difference from regular brownies,” she says. “To them, they're just a treat.”
The ultimate goal, Rafalovitz says, is to help children learn to make healthy choices while eating more fruits and veggies. “Not every mother is a chef, and that's OK,” she says. “So we just have to get creative.”
She advises parents to not get discouraged if their children don't like a dish the first time they make it.
But by keeping them involved in creating meals and repeatedly exposing them to fruits and vegetables, Rafalovitz says, children will come around, eventually. “They will want to try the finished product,” she says. “They will take from this experience for life.”