The Power of Professional Development

Making successful changes towards more sustainable school food programs and increasing scratch cooking requires staff buy-in, and with a focus on professional development, staff can become part of the solution. To learn a bit more about the importance and power of professional development, we caught up with Chef Albert Nguyen to learn about his experiences and passion for equitable & sustainable school food. He shared how Chef Ann Foundation’s (CAF’s) online School Food Institute (SFI) courses supported his professional development while working to improve the school food environment, from cafeteria to classroom, at The Equity Project Charter School (TEP) in New York, NY.

What brought you to TEP and the world of school food?
Growing up in a Vietnamese/Chinese household, food was always a central part of life. After attending Johnson and Wales University I took a job at Momofuku restaurant in NYC and worked for 13 years as a restaurant chef. Leading up to 2020, I started being more cognizant of social inequalities particularly in relation to food and the ratio of chefs to diners in the restaurant world. I learned about Chef Dan Guisti who used to work at the famous Noma restaurant and now works with schools and wondered, why aren’t there more chefs in the school food field? Luckily, starting in 2020, I was offered the opportunity to work as a school food chef in the kitchen at TEP.

Chef Albert worked first as Assistant Chef, and was soon promoted to Head Chef in the central kitchen, cooking with a team to produce 1000 scratch-cooked meals per day that were distributed between the three separate campus cafeterias.

How did you learn about SFI courses?
Our food service department offers two reimbursable days of professional development each year of the staff’s choice, and I had heard about CAF through social media and thought, THEY ARE CRUSHING IT in the school food space! The Director of Food Services at TEP, Bennett Finns, also uses a lot of the recipes and tools offered on The Lunch Box, and after taking a look at the course catalog and certificate programs, I thought- I CAN DO THIS.

Chef Albert enrolled in a Silver Certificate program which included School Food 101 and his choice of four courses, from which he selected:

• Mission, Vision, and Strategic Planning

• School Food Finance

• School Food Operational Models

• Marketing and Lunchroom Education

How did the SFI courses support your professional development and work in school food?
I thought the courses were very inspiring. School Food 101 was amazing because it really covers how school food came to be, and School Food Operational Models stood out because I’m a systems guy, and systems are so important in school food. Taking that time to look specifically at equipment in school food I realized, we need central kitchens in each district. Marketing and Lunchroom Education got me thinking about more ways to educate kids about food in school. Our most successful lunchroom education events were the times we had [recipe] demos with students which were very successful in gaining the support for the food program. I also went into classrooms to talk about food with the students; I’d do things like bringing in a cucumber to talk about where it comes from, show pictures of it growing etc. Children need better food, and to develop a good relationship around their food and the world.

How did you support recipe development at TEP?
FSD Bennett Finns did a lot of community outreach and research to learn what foods students really enjoyed most and develop socially inclusive offerings. With a predominantly Dominican population, rice and bean dishes with chicken were our most popular, so I wanted to develop a standardized recipe that worked for our kitchen, and worked to standardize methods for how to cook items like beans, rice, and chicken to be able to do many more recipes more efficiently.

What are your plans for the future in school food using what you have learned from SFI?
I’m starting some work with both the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), a private culinary school, and Farm School NYC which focuses on school food justice, urban agriculture, and social justice, both here in NYC. I’m hoping to pull from my experiences working in school food and what I learned from my SFI courses to share with my peers and inspire more culinary professionals to support improving school food.

SFI’s engaging courses give school food service professionals and childhood nutrition advocates the in-depth training, operational skills, and strategic vision necessary to make school food fresh, healthy, and sustainable. Click here to learn more about how SFI courses meet USDA professional standards and check out the comprehensive list of courses today!