Guest Chef Day brings creativity to N.Y. district lunch

April 29—As the students poured into the Lake George (N.Y.) High School cafeteria, A.J. Richards, a chef at Dunham's Bay Resort, was there to greet them and hand out samples of Jamaican chicken stew and minted mandarin oranges.

Richards was invited to the high school for “Guest Chef Day,” a first-time event. Richards’ challenge was to prepare a meal using the same foods the school uses, while complying with federal regulations, and to cook up a lunch students would eat. The meal included confetti corn bread with apple butter and rice pilaf. The stew was made with red and green peppers, black beans, carrots, chicken and chicken stock — foods he found in the school’s pantry.