Display cooking pop-up gives school lunch star power

Several times a year, the cafeteria turns into an interactive live cooking show at Noble Middle School (NMS) in Berwick, Maine. Recently, Nutrition Services Director Tyler Goodwin, NMS principal Mike Roberts and middle school teacher Mr. Crawford served as celebrity chefs, creating made-to-order nutritious noodle bowls for students and staff.

“This was a big hit with our kids, eliciting some great positive feedback like ‘best lunch ever!’ and requests to cook for them like that every day,” says Jennifer Allain, nutrition services administrative assistant and transportation secretary for Maine School Administrative District (MSAD) #60. This event was all about classic Italian pasta, but next up in January A Taste of Asia will be the theme, followed by a Mexican pop-up in March. Here are a few scenes from this month’s pasta bowl event.