Confessions of Tazeen Chowdhury

Tazeen Chowdhury, foodservice director at Mt. Lebanon School District, in Pennsylvania, doesn’t get food foams or green ketchup and wants to vacation in a tree house in Bali. 

Q. What is the best part of your job?

Feeding healthy food to hungry kids.

Q. What is the worst part of your job?

Dealing with naysayers.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

Being part of a delegation to China that helped the Chinese government build its national school lunch program.

Q. What is the most unusual foodservice/catering request you have ever received?

White asparagus with truffles.

Q. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Be more patient—at least that’s what my kids say.

Q. What is your greatest fear?

If something bad were to happen to my family.

Q. Which living person do you most admire?

Bill Gates for being a humanitarian.

Q. What is your favorite meal?

Roasted rack of lamb.

Q. What is your guilty pleasure?

French macarons.

Q. What will people always find in your refrigerator?

A large variety of cheeses.

Q. What food fad do you wish had never started?

Green ketchup.

Q. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?

Deep-fried scorpion.

Q. What do you consider to be the most overrated foodservice trend?

Food foams.

Q. What are your words to live by?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”—Gandhi

Q. If you had a time machine, what historical event or era would you visit?

The 1960s, a time of revolution and drastic change.

Q. What would be your dream vacation?

Tree house in Bali.

Q. What is your most treasured possession?

I don’t put much value on material possessions, so it would have to be treasured memories.