![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/IMG_5361.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cWe are going to be doing a lot of the things that kids love, but in a healthy way,\u201d he states. \u201cWe are going to be introducing fresh tacos or find ways to do fried chicken but not dumped into the fryer. We\u2019re going to do a lot of fresh salads. We\u2019re going do some rice and noodle bowls. We\u2019re going to develop stock in every cafeteria so we can make homemade soups and homemade sauces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poole was hired this summer to move forward the division\u2019s vision for scratch cooking. Last year, the division piloted a scratch cooking program at Old Donation School which was well received and even inspired students there to carry out a \u201cTop Chef\u201d competition at the end of the school year.<\/p>\n
Now, the division is moving forward with replicating that success, but expanding to all 83 school cafeterias requires a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just like a restaurant,\u201d Poole conveyed. \u201cYou go to your favorite restaurant to have your favorite dish because it\u2019s the same way every time. If we don\u2019t do it the same way every single time, people are going to talk about it and it is just going to be like a restaurant with bad reviews.\u201d<\/p>\n
To ensure that consistency is not lost from school to school, Director of Food Services John Smith said that this school year Chef Poole and his team of lead bakers and a cooks, who were also hired this summer, will train cafeteria staff and work on recipe development.<\/p>\n
\u201cChef Poole is working on skills needed by our workforce,\u201d said Smith, who in addition to being a former school principal was a restauranteur in his earlier career and managed a number of restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be working with kitchen staff on lessons you would need in cutlery, baking skills, and all those different things that go with kitchen operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
This past year, the school division\u2019s Food Services also implemented a career ladder, adding manager-in-training and assistant manager positions similar to what is in commonplace in the private sector.<\/p>\n
Though the team is focusing on training and recipe development that doesn\u2019t mean students won\u2019t get a taste of this innovation this school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope to field test food items much like we do when we bring in a new product,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIn the second semester, we might see something like a chef\u2019s special pop up or possibly do limited-time offer items that we can push down to schools on special weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The school division already takes that approach when considering new items to introduce in menus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping for a good biscuit for breakfast,\u201d Smith added, which would give kitchen staff the opportunity to test their new skills.<\/p>\n
Although Poole and his team will be testing recipes out of the Landstown elementary and middle school cafeterias, which were selected because of their large student populations, Smith adds that expanding to a few elementary schools could possibly happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur big question now is how we are going to expand,\u201d he stated. \u201cAre we going to expand to five or six schools at a time, start them out at one day or move them to two days? We need to see how all this starts playing out. I don\u2019t want to do it so fast that we don\u2019t do it right. It\u2019s a big undertaking for a division this size.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poole agrees that doing it right is important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to do it right and we want to do it consistent. That\u2019s the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
As a chef, cook and general manager for notable restaurants throughout Hampton Roads such as Byrd & Baldwin and 4-5-6 Fish, Poole knows the importance of consistency.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just consistency in restaurants that is inspiring his passion.<\/p>\n
His most recent job was working for a Delaware-area high school where he launched a culinary arts program for low-income students. There, this Virginia Tech alumnus who earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in restaurant management followed by a master\u2019s in education grew a program that was handed to him with 30 students and a kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started selling food and from there it turned into a little restaurant where we started catering and were booked two years in advance for weddings. This was all high school Title I kids. They were cooking the whole thing,\u201d Poole recalled.<\/p>\n
They were also doing pop-up restaurants and turned the school\u2019s agriculture program into a seven-acre farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur students were planting, watering, feeding, harvesting and bringing it back to the kitchen doing farm to school to table cooking. I did that for about seven years. I\u2019m very passionate about helping kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
And helping students he did, even starting a foundation which funded $45,000 in scholarships in a four-year period.<\/p>\n
Then, the Food Network\u2019s \u201cGuy\u2019s Grocery Games\u201d television show came calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey reached out to me and said, \u2018Would you like to be on the show\u2019 and I said, \u2018Not really, but I have a lot of students who would want to be on it.\u201d\u201d That landed one of his students on the show. Poole eventually did agree to appear but, again, he did it for his students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did it to help the kids so if I did win, it would go right to them,\u201d Poole emphasized. \u201cUnfortunately, I came in second.\u201d<\/p>\n
A native of Hampton Roads, Poole wants that same success for Virginia Beach schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super excited about everything that is going to happen. Once we get the two big things, which are the recipe development and staff trained, the sky is the limit. Who knows, students might be growing their own lettuces, spinach, onions, potatoes for their own scratch cooking cafeterias. We want students to get excited about school lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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