Forty of Manhattan Beach’s young culinary apprentices hailing from Grand View Elementary School conceptualized and created a locally-sourced menu item to be added to the Spring 2016 menu of gastropub, Manhattan House as a part of GrowingGreat’s Jr. Chefs Program.
Diana Stavaridis, Head Chef at Manhattan House, works with GrowingGreat, a community garden program, to educate elementary school students, allowing their roles to evolve as they grow older. Kindergarten-aged students plant and maintain produce at a garden located on their school premises. Upon reaching fourth and fifth grade, they see their hard work (literally) come to life. “Focus groups” comprised of 12-18 fourth and fifth-grade students are then invited to the gastropub’s kitchen with the assistance of Stavaridis, to strategize a culinary concept utilizing balanced ingredients for a savory dish composed of vegetables grown from their own garden.
“I’ve never heard of any other restaurants doing something similar to this. We’re exposing kids to a world where they can take a bite out of a snap pea that they picked directly from the vine, and taste the fresh flavors they wouldn’t get from the grocery store,” states Stavaridis.
GrowingGreat is a science-based community garden program aimed towards youth in local public schools where they learn more about culinary arts, food metabolism, healthy eating habits and a “farm-to-table” mentality that’s in the fabric of Manhattan Houses’ culture.
“Chef Stavaridis looked us up and reached out. The rest is history!” explains Jill Coons, GrowingGreat Director of Education. She adds, “We’ve never worked with a restaurant before in this capacity, and the effects on the children are mind-blowing. We’ve had students who have never eaten a salad at the dinner table before, until now.”
The entrée produced by the students is available on the restaurant’s menu as a limited-time month-long offering. Various South Bay elementary schools each get a turn to feature a new dish every month. Students are then encouraged to dine with their families in the restaurant during the month that their meal is featured. Upon these visits, the children are invited into the kitchen with Stavaridis and the rest of the kitchen staff to assist in making the dish that their family will later enjoy.
Manhattan House prides itself on its unique procurement of locally-sourced and seasonal fare. Stavaridis maintains local gardens where much of their kitchen’s produce is grown. This organic produce is then utilized in dishes that rotate seasonally.
This is the fourth dish that Stavaridis has created with a local South Bay elementary school. Past participants of the GrowingGreat’s Jr. Chefs Program have included Pacific Elementary School, Pennekamp Elementary School and Meadows Avenue Elementary School, all located in Manhattan Beach, Calif. The program is in its pilot year.
The fourth and fifth grade students of Grand View Elementary School’s Garden Club, located in Manhattan Beach, prepared a locally-sourced and organic dish, simply called the Capunti Pasta. It is currently featured throughout the month of April on the gastropub’s seasonal menu as a part of GrowingGreat’s Jr. Chefs Program.
Capunti Pasta:
The dish is composed of capunti pasta, garden peas, spring onion lemon butter, mascarpone white wine sauce, and garnished with house-made croutons, parmesan cheese shavings, and garden flowers.
“The special thing about this pasta is that the kids decided on many of the ingredients based on what they liked. Through focus groups, they were able to come together and create a dish that they could all get excited about. We just helped steer them in right direction,” explains Stavaridis.
Previous “student-inspired” menu dishes have included:
–a dairy-free garden salad containing organic greens, sorrel pesto and cashew milk-based ranch dressing,
–gnocchi with broccoli pesto,
–bow-tie pasta with smoked bacon, roasted cauliflower and ricotta cheese.
On a slightly different but related note: Manhattan House will be serving brunch on weekends.
Brunch. Starting Saturday, April 16, the New York-meets-Manhattan Beach eatery will begin serving brunch from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. weekly on Saturdays and Sundays.
ABOUT GROWING GREAT
GrowingGreat is a 501(c)3 non-profit school garden and nutrition education organization dedicated to inspiring children and adults to adopt healthy eating habits. Their mission is to empower every child to grow up healthy through science-based garden and nutrition education. GrowingGreat’s goal is to help children and families understand where their food comes from, appreciate that food serves a purpose in one’s overall health and has an impact on one’s longevity and well-being. For more information on the GrowingGreat program, please visit http://growinggreat.org .
ABOUT MANHATTAN HOUSE
Established in 2015, Manhattan House is a community-focused, American-style gastropub with a heavy emphasis on locally-sourced and seasonal fare. Head Chef, Diana Stavaridis maintains local gardens where much of their kitchen’s produce is grown. The gastropub’s culinary mentality is maintaining food sustainability and incorporating only the freshest, homegrown, ingredients. They procure seasonal, local produce, meats and seafood whenever possible from area farms and purveyors. All dishes are then made from scratch, yielding unique homemade flavors. Aged cedar wood panels – reclaimed from old Hollywood Bowl seats, plush leather seating and chalk art reflect a rustic take on contemporary interior design. Manhattan House offers private dining options for receptions, cocktail-style events and intimate dinner parties. Doors are open Tuesday through Sunday beginning at 5pm, and closed on Monday.
Follow Manhattan House on these social platforms.
Website: http://www.manhattanhouse.pub/
Twitters: https://twitter.com/mhousemb
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mhousemb/
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/manhattan-house-manhattan-beach
Manhattan House:
1019 Manhattan Beach Blvd. Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
310-574-2277
info@manhattanhouse.pub
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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This is a great idea. The kids get some real hands on training and experience and the restaurant participates in the community in a very positive way…excellent!