Cooking up an educational storm
Volume 45 No. 1
By Anna Killen
ASPARAGUS WRAPPED in prosciutto, drizzled with balsamic reduction. Pork tenderloin stuffed with goat cheese, mushrooms, and fresh herbs. Molten chocolate lava cake baked from scratch. This isn’t a menu one would typically associate with 11-year-olds, but on a blustery night in February a group of aproned Grade 6 students from Roden Public School rolled up their sleeves and got to work in the kitchen, mastering all of these dishes and more as part of an ongoing cooking program that sees local cops and local schools cook and compete in the name of nutritious eats. Since late last year, the Loblaws test kitchen at Victoria Park and Gerrard has become a stage for “Chopped 55”. Conceived by 55 Division community relations officer Glen Pablo, and supported by the school district’s nutritional team and ProAction Kids and Cops, the afterschool program sees school groups from across the district perform à la the popular kitchen reality show, Chopped. Students are given a menu, ingredients – and some instruction – and have a set amount of time to pull off and present their dishes to waiting judges who in turn offer up critiques and praise.
March 8, 2016
“We’ve kind of progressed them,” said Pablo of the sessions that saw the difficulty level increase each week. “They’re very receptive to the feedback.” On the evening Beach Metro News visited, the cooking confidence and skills developed by the students over the last four sessions was apparent – no one shied away from learning how to butterfly-cut pork tenderloin, or use twine to fasten the meat into a roll, once stuffed with a savoury goat cheese mixture. Several students said they had been practising and cooking more at home since joining the class. Presenting to the judges can be nerve-wracking, the students conceded, but aside from some slight suggestions (a soup was a bit too salty, the Beef Wellington a touch dry), the judges complimented the groups on their production and presentation, and particularly their teamwork – the real lesson underscoring the program. “There’s an emphasis on teamwork, that’s very, very important,” said Durward Anthony, school district nutrition liaison, and one of the guest judges. “And just have fun, you know?” He said the kids have fun with the program – as do the schools’ principals, who can be more competitive than the program participants.
PHOTO: ANNA KILLEN
Roden Public School student Jalen Phillips prepares ingredients for a meal as part of Chopped 55, an after-school program that teaches students cooking and teamwork skills alongside local chefs, cooking instructors, and officers from 55 Division.
“They want to win,” he joked. “They want to have the bragging rights.” The camaraderie among the students was noticeable as the groups sat down to share a meal, complete with stemmed wine glasses and co-
ordinated napkins and dinnerware. The six from Roden traded rapt conversation and inside-joke giggles like any close-knit crew. The finale will take place in the coming weeks at George Brown College, with Chopped Canada’s
chef John Higgens as the guest judge. Anthony said there is a plan to make a recipe book featuring the dishes created in the Chopped 55 program, and sell it throughout the district as a fundraiser.
Local opposition to Hydro One sale gathers momentum By Anna Killen
THE PROVINCIAL NDP are aiming to channel what they believe to be a strong current of public opposition to the government’s Hydro One privatization plan into a campaign that forces the Liberals to change course, while simultaneously reinvigorating the NDP. Nearly 75 East End residents – most apparent NDP supporters – turned out for a meeting at the Coxwell and Danforth library on a snowy March 1 to hear from and give feedback to Toronto-Danforth NDP MPP Peter Tabuns and opposition leader Andrea Horwath on the Liberal plan to sell a majority percentage of the Ontario government-owned electricity authority. That plan calls for 60 per cent of the $6-billion-a-year corporation’s shares to be sold, with the government maintaining that it would remain the single largest shareholder and that the money from the sale would help pay for infrastructure projects. “The Liberals decided to sell off
Hydro One without talking to a single Ontarian, without getting permission from a single one of the people who own Hydro One. They went through an election campaign without once mentioning their intention to sell off Hydro One,” said Horwath. “The Liberals have basically decided they are going to plow ahead with the sell-off. And it’s up to us … to get the message to the Liberals that they have to stop now.” NDP MPPs have been speaking with constituents and hosting similar meetings across the province, and the message Horwath says they hear from attendees is the same: they are not in favour of selling off a public resource. “I’ve been going door-to-door in my riding since January on this issue, and last year I was talking to a lot of people about the sale of Hydro One as well,” said Tabuns. “It’s not a popular issue at all.” That appeared to be the case at the March 1 meeting, with a number of residents raising numerous and broad-ranging concerns and
questions about the plan while also providing suggestions on how to organize and push the government to stop it. Rising energy costs were a major concern, not only for low-income residents and housing groups, but for local businesses.
“” “It’s not a popular issue at all”
– Toronto-Danforth MPP Peter Tabuns
Some questioned why the province would sell off a dependable source of yearly revenue that could pay for education, health care, and community programming. Suggestions included petitions, signs, letter-writing campaigns
targeting Liberal MPPs, and public demonstrations. Others wondered if anything could be done to reverse the plan – and get back the 15 per cent of shares that were part of the initial offering last fall – or if public opposition was falling on deaf ears. “We have to stay vigilant, letting the premier know she shouldn’t sell off this public asset,” said Horwath, adding it was important that constituents keep up the pressure on their area Liberal MPPs. Horwath said the opposition was focused on getting the government to hold at the 15 per cent of shares, adding that it would likely be more costly and difficult for a hypothetical future NDP government to reverse the sales if it were at 60 per cent. One audience member said he had been emailing with BeachesEast York Liberal MPP Arthur Potts’ office on the issue, and was dissatisfied with the “boilerplate” response he had been receiving. “I sat on the gas plant inquiry and I got to read the emails from
the MPPs’ offices to the premier’s office, and they were like, ‘Can’t you do something about this gas plant?’” said Tabuns. “They had all of their standard letters that they send out to constituents, but what they sent to the premier was, ‘We’re getting killed here, you’ve gotta do something.’ So they may put up the very friendly, there’s nothing to see here front, but when they get enough, they feel it and they yelp really loud.” But the meeting also provided a chance for area NDPers, some still rattled after the party’s 2014 provincial election loss, to come together and get fired up about a cause. “For me, I’m so disillusioned with politics right now, and I’ve always been supportive of the NDP,” said an attendee who identified herself as Shelly. “I think this is an opportunity for the party to connect a vision, to present themselves, to say what they stand for... we have to get people engaged again, so I think this should be taken as that opportunity.”