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Director Sara Sweet of Bishop's School

The Bishop's School in La Jolla was founded 100 years ago as a girl's boarding school and later merged with San Miguel School for boys. Today they have 1,000 students, faculty and staff in a rigorous academic program. In addition to serving lunch, the food service program provides catering for their frequent school related events. Sara Sweet, a registered dietician and Director of Food Service at The Bishop's School proudly serves healthy, homemade foods made with fresh, high quality ingredients.

What is your official position?
Director of Food Service

How long have you been at this position?
26 years

What is your background?
I am a registered dietitian and have a master's degree in public health nutrition. Healthy and homemade is my mantra.

What made you want to become a dietician?
I was always interested in cooking, gardening, and good health. I am one of the lucky ones who know what they want to do.

Is dietician the same as nutritionist?
A dietitian has completed the educational requirements set by The American Dietetic Association for education, internship and passing a qualifying exam. Anyone can say they are a nutritionist.

What are some of the menu items you serve?
We serve foods kids like, and hope if we serve a variety they will learn to like more. The difference with us is quality. It it's a hamburger its fresh ground chuck and a whole wheat bun, if it's chicken noodle soup it's made from fresh whole chickens. In the fall all our apples and pears come from Julian. Brown rice is our standard, and fresh vegetables surround everything.

Is everything prepared on school grounds?
We get most of our bread from Bread and Cie Bakery, and locally made tortillas, otherwise yes we make our meals from scratch.

How is your menu developed? What lends inspiration to your meal plans?
We try and engage the students and create fun during the lunch period. Lunch is everybody's time to relax and enjoy and we like to create fun and festivity. We like to feel like part of the school and not a group hiding behind the scenes. When Barak Obama was inaugurated we served the same meal using the same recipes as were served at the event. We have featured famous chefs, most recently Julia Child. Students participated in garnishing and tasting whole poached salmon. We had an Oktoberfest this year with accordion music, Root Beer and a German lunch. At Mardi Gras the staff wore feathered masks and served Creole and Mardi Gras Bread. We color Easter eggs at Easter and serve special meals for our language and history departments. Recently a visiting math scholar inspired a menu using all math terms and a sourdough bread challenge as a "math puzzler" where one of our cooks created starter and baked bread for the whole school.

What is the most popular menu item?
The kids like things they can pick up in their hands and walk with. Pizza, sandwiches, burritos, bread, cheese. Our job is to make these things healthy.

Do you allow the kids to suggest menu items?
Definitely, and they come in our kitchen for tours where we put them in the walk in freezer and turn the lights out. They love that.

Have you noticed over the years, a change in the foods kids want to eat?
No, I think people crave fatty, salty, sweet foods for the most part. What has changed is the interest and support for healthy foods, the exposure to a bigger variety of foods, the value placed on chefs, and a growing interest in where is food is coming from.

Have the portion sizes changed?
We use a 9-inch plate and they can fill it up all they want. Portion sizes are up to them, but our community is pretty trim.

What is your culinary/nutritional philosophy?
Healthy and homemade

If you could have dinner with one culinary legend dead or alive that would it be?
Alice Waters. I really respect her passion and dedication to making changes in the way people eat. I believe, like her, that simply prepared fresh food is the best. I took a two day class at her Edible School Garden last summer and when she spoke to us her eyes welled up with tears.

If you could suggest one vegetable or fruit that kids should eat more of, what would it be & why?
Variety is what I would like to see them eat more of. I find students are pretty good with raw carrot and bell peppers, cooked broccoli, cooked fresh green beans, lettuce, and winter squashes like acorn and butternut (which we serve an average of 80 pounds a week). They are very sensitive to mushy textures and new things. At Bishop's we present an ongoing variety of vegetables to provide them with exposure.

What is the best advice you would give to someone looking to get healthier foods into school lunches?
Make them yourself. Do not buy little packages of processed things and put them in a box. Try yummy fresh baked breads, hard boiled eggs, interesting cheeses, veggie sticks and yogurt. Make a cookie with whole wheat flour and add one to share with a friend, get a thermos and serve soup. Make it fun sometimes, put in a little treat, a message or surprise so lunch is something fun. When you make things fun and give treats sometimes, you gain trust for trying new things.

What accomplishment at Bishop's are you most proud of?
I feel our lunches are unique in their healthy focus. I am appalled at the food service provided in most schools and colleges. I feel lucky to have a passion and grateful to this community for their inspiration and support.

If you have questions about her school lunch program you can email her at sweets@bishops.com

Pea Tendrils

If you could be one piece of fresh produce that you get from Specialty what would you be & why? How would you prepare yourself?
I would be a pea tendril because it sounds funny, is healthy and green, is grown locally on a 100-year-old farm, and is in season right now. I would take a bag of them to a group gathering and eat them plain, inspiring food conversations and nutrition lessons. I am not about recipes, I am about principals. I love trying new recipes but I always fall back to making what is easy and fresh. If it is fresh and seasonal it needs very little to be delicious.

Pea tendrils are the edible young leaves and shoots of a pea plant. They often contain curly vines and flowering buds. They have a distinctive and robust flavor that tastes like a cross between sweet peas and spinach.