Oakland – The inaugural OUSD Food Lab Challenge was a resounding success on Tuesday with seven teams made up of student summer interns at the Central Kitchen, Education Center, and Instructional Farm creating amazing new meals for a panel of judges, hoping to be crowned the winning chefs.
The task was to create a meal that can easily be mass produced in the Central Kitchen on a daily basis for many, if not all, students across the District. The teams came up with meals that ranged from a Garden Fresh Pho noodle dish and Tortilla Salad Bowl to Green Leaf Pupusa and Ryna’s Stuffed (bell) Pepper. They also created desserts that included fruit cups and kale smoothies.
The winning team created what they called Jahita Rice, which was inspired by Destiny Ndubuisi’s African heritage, along with the peach cobbler inspired by a recipe in Amani Griffin’s family. Griffin just graduated from McClymonds High School, and Ndubuisi is a senior at Skyline High School.
The judges said almost all of the meals could be added to the menu at the Central Kitchen, and those that couldn’t were more for logistical reasons. Some of the interns were also offered jobs and internships at the Kitchen and at a restaurant represented by one of the judges.
