Raise your hand if you like kale. That was Robert Dell’Amore’s request to the group of about 30 kids at the Boys and Girls Club of Fairbanks.
Despite kale’s recent spate of success among the adult crowd, it has enjoyed precious little love from the younger age groups, and yet, when Dell’Amore posed the decision to the kids at the Boys and Girls Club he received a surge of hands from his audience.
By the time Dell’Amore posed the question April 29, the group of kids was as malleable to his will as the mushed-up ball of kale in his hand.
“They enter this room with one perception,” Dell’Amore said. “We want them to leave with another.”
Robert Dell’Amore is a chef and healthful foods advocate who spends much of his time traveling the country spreading the gospel of good food. He spent time in late April touring schools in the eastern Interior.
He was brought to Alaska through a grant-funded residency with the Alaska Gateway School District, which brought him to Tok, Northway and Mentasta.
At each school, Dell’Amore spent several hours wowing kids with his knife skills, teaching them about the health benefits of various vegetables and showing them how to incorporate those veggies into delicious and nutritious meals.
In addition to his presentations at each school, Dell’Amore offered a version of his demonstration for the school district’s food services staff. He wrapped up his tour of the Tok area with a dinner and workshop for parents Thursday evening before driving up the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks to visit the Boys and Girls Club.
Dell’Amore’s exhibition would look familiar to anyone who’s been to a cooking presentation — a long table set up in front of his audience, covered in brightly-colored fruits and vegetables. He stands there, towering above the fidgeting masses of little bodies and attempts the difficult task of taming the attentions of three dozen elementary- and middle-school students.
Dell’Amore had to battle through the fog of kids’ Friday afternoon attention spans to complete the difficult task of interesting them in the nutritional value of lycopene, but, within several minutes of starting, he appeared to have won over the majority of the group. When, for instance, he asserted sun-dried tomatoes have 30-times the nutritional value of fresh tomatoes, he received an enthusiastic “wow!”
With his recent trip to Alaska, Dell’Amore has taken his message to 20 states. He said he was initially inspired to begin this project more than a decade ago while working as a chiropractor. He said he was disappointed by the frequency of childhood obesity and nutritional deficiencies.
“We want to share the knowledge we have — over 10 years experience working with 100,000 kids — how to make this attractive,” Dell’Amore said. “We want them to go home with the recipes … and fall in love with the recipes so they know how to make them.”(backslash)
The recipes that Dell’Amore shares with kids lack many of the traditional — but not necessarily healthful — flavor additives. His recipes include no butter, no salt, no sugar, and they’re all vegetarian. He hopes he can convince kids that healthful food can also be delicious food.
All of the senses are important to Dell’Amore’s presentation. He and sous chef Elaine Medin connect kids to his recipes through the vibrant colors of the vegetables and by inviting them to the table to help. The smell of his meals, too, are of great importance, Dell’Amore said. By connecting the lessons in his presentation to the smell of his food, he hopes to create a permanent memory for kids. So, when they smell food cooking in the future, they might recall the lessons of healthful eating taught to them as kids.
“That’s really how we connect with the kids,” he said. “That link between memory and smell and taste is powerful … so we try to provide them with those memories now.”
Dell’Amore said his goal is that, by the end of the hour-long presentation, each of the kids goes home with not only a fun memory and a tasty sample but also desire to cook and eat their own healthful meals.
