Palmas Academy petit chefs induction day

Le Petit Chef was born from another good initiative; on this occasion from Miss Rocio Feliciano, 1st grade English and Math teacher.

“My emphasis is nutrition and health. I want my students to eat and prepare nutritional snacks in a fun and easy way.  They also learn about portions and food groups. They learn to be creative and that health food could be tasty and fun to prepare,” said Miss Feliciano.

“Why the French name?  Because it is in France where creative cuisine began.

The program is being developed in coordination with a professor from University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez campus, Prof. Rosana Rivera, who holds a master’s degree in home economics and nutrition.  She has prepared the curriculum I am going to be using which also includes the parents.”

For example, she explained, one of the projects was to carve a pumpkin and save the seeds to be toasted. “They went through the whole process including learning the nutritional value of the pumpkin, its seeds and uses. Amazingly enough the majority of them hadn’t tasted pumpkin seeds before.  We also read a storybook of how pumpkins are planted and about how after peeling a mandarin orange we can place a piece of celery as a stem, combining a fruit with a vegetable in a fun way.”

The program counts with the collaboration of Miss Maggie Pizarro and they already had an activity in the Culinary Art room with an invited chef, Chef Fernando from Bistro Rico, who demonstrated for them how food is prepared in a restaurant. Chef Fernando prepared for them (with their assistance) a spaghetti and meatball dish (which they loved) full of vegetables to demonstrate to the students that flavor does not to be sacrificed in order to eat healthy.

Great initiative and much needed in a world of so much junk food!