Power Players 2017: Scratch prep is the norm here

Aspen Schools Nutrition Services Director Tenille Folk was working as a chef in some of Aspen’s finer dining establishments when she decided to take on the challenge of school foodservice in 2009 at the local district, which has three schools and about 1,800 students. Today, her program is noted for its scratch cooking (even the ketchup and pizza dough are made in-house) and as much local sourcing as is feasible in the Aspen area—one district’s parent’s ranch supplies all the beef needs, for example. A 16-bed onsite garden supplies a nominal amount of produce for the kitchen, primarily hearty crops like potatoes, carrots, root vegetables, lettuces and kale, and Folk processes and freezes what she can get in season from nearby sources into products like marinara sauce, soups and chilis.

Folk started by overseeing the meal program in the elementary school, but two years ago also took on the high school. Meanwhile, the elementary site produces food not just for its own enrollment but also for the middle school, which is located on the same campus but only has a service kitchen on its premises.

Though the Aspen area is not a prime location for extended cultivation, Folk does manage to source locally grown crops early in the school year before the cold weather starts setting in.  “We’ll get a lot of tomatoes and things and we’ll batch-cook marinara and freeze it for the whole school year,” Folk says. “I have a lot of storage space.”

She also produces other bulk items like chilis and soups but says “marinara is a good mass production [item] because we put a lot of veggies in it we can get from local producers, things like onions, carrots, celery and zucchini just to add more nutrients to it.”

The scratch production extends to most breadstuffs except for burger buns.

As for the school garden, “the kids planted it before we got out of school [in the spring] and they will harvest it when we get back,” Folk says. “That will go into the production though it’s just a small amount. It’s really mostly an educational garden.”

Among the student favorites that Folk regularly menus are pastas. These aren’t whole wheat but the pasta dishes remain highly nutritious because of the scratch-cooked sauces and all the vegetables Folk is able to add. Even the meatballs are handmade and hand-rolled.

Other favorites include chicken noodle soup and her housemade bread sticks. As for that perennial favorite, pizza, “we make the dough—it’s a three-day process—as well as our own pizza sauce,” Folk says. For the higher grades, toppings include barbecue chicken, spinach, artichoke and even kale, augmented with feta cheese and onions.

“Up at the high school, we can get a lot more adventurous,” she says, “with a lot more Asian and other ethnic cultures and the kids are excited to try that stuff.”

“It was definitely trial and error at first” when she took over managing the high school meal program in 2015, Folk recalls, but she now has a good handle on what the teens prefer. She cites curry as a big favorite this past year.

“We’ll serve it with noodles or rice, and now they look forward to curry day.”

The high school has three serving outlets. There’s the main hot lunch line with generally two daily options, one with meat and one vegetarian. A café area has a lot of grab and go that is packaged in the school kitchen and includes salads, sandwiches.

“We bake the bread for the sandwiches and slice all the deli meats and cheese,” Folk says. “We also make all the dressings for the salads and make things like cookies and banana bread.”

A third outlet is also grab and go but with hot items like turkey melts, wraps and burritos.

The middle school has one serving outlet with the main lunch of the day, plus a chef’s special as an alternate. There’s also a make-your-own deli sandwich bar and a salad bar.

Aspen Schools has more flexibility in what it serves than most other districts because it is not in the National School Lunch Program.

“I do have a wellness program I have to follow that the district and the wellness committee created,” Folk offers. Otherwise, “we’re pretty much self-sufficient.”

The meal program also makes some extra revenue doing catering across the district to staff meetings and parent events, all on school grounds.

A native of Australia who trained as a chef there, Folk came to the U.S. in 2000 and worked in a number of prestigious dining establishments, including Todd English restaurant Olive’s in the Aspen St. Regis Hotel and the now-shuttered Lulu Wilson, but the necessities of raising a family led her to the school system eight years ago, first at the elementary and middle schools and now heading the entire program.

“It’s been a challenge” dealing with her young customers and making sure they eat healthy while giving them the kinds of food they like, “but I’ve always loved a challenge,” Folk says. “This is one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had.”