Abu Dhabi New School Lunch Program

I am a teacher and chef who has been hired to help implement a school lunch menu for a brand new school in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This school is being designed from the ground up to incorporate a cafeteria kitchen in each separate building along with kitchen classrooms.

My job is to help with the design and make all the right choices to equip these kitchens with the right tools and appliances needed to efficiently produce freshly cooked food for the students. Along with that responsibility I will come up with the menu and train the staff. I also will be teaching some of the cooking classes .

The Kitchen classrooms will be used to teach students the most important life skill to cook and understand the value of growing food, harvesting and cooking. This will be a school that will set a precedent in the region that has as its ethos to provide good healthy lunches to all its students and inspire children to be active in taking care of their well being by being mindful of food choices they make and how it impacts the world. This is very exciting for me to be part of such a project.

I have been following the Edible Schoolyard movement from the beginning and I would value the opportunity to be one of the lucky people chosen to attend and learn from the experience of the team behind the success of this 'delicious revolution'.

I want to take what I learn to expand the knowledge of my team by building a bridge from Berkeley to Abu Dhabi. I feel by attending the 4 day workshops at the edible academy I will have a wealth of new ideas to share and implement.