August 10, 2007

Local Girl Scouts get valuable lesson on food at Sunrise Assisted Living

Making meals can be lots of fun for those who enjoy grilling, sautéing, roasting and baking.

For some, that interest can lead to a career as an executive chef, sous chef, pastry chef or even a restaurateur. Still, there are many things to learn before one can choose a career in the Culinary Arts, something a group of Girl Scout in Evergreen recently discovered.

Phillip Domantay, Dining Hall Coordinator at Sunrise Assisted Living recently collaborated with Girl Scouts of Evergreen’s Older Girl Program to put together a workshop to assist the girls in completing the Girl Scout Cadette & Senior Level Creative Cooking Interest Project Patch. Domantay’s workshop included an informational packet, lecture and a “behind the scenes” tour of his kitchen.

The participating Girl Scouts prepared themselves for the lecture and tour by reviewing the food pyramid guidelines and learned how to read food labels. Troop leaders placed a variety of canned foods on the workshop table for the girls to evaluate. They were surprised how much sodium was in a can of soup and how much fat was in a can of Spam and corned beef.

Sunrise provided the girls with sample dishes of the day’s lunch and a copy of the Sunrise weekly menu. They evaluated the menu against the food pyramid chart and submitted their comments to Domantay.

Domantay’s workshop started off with a discussion of how institutional cooking differs from home cooking. This led to a discussion that ranged from cooked food temperature guidelines to the proper storage of food. The girls learned about the advantages and disadvantages of different heat sources in a kitchen and were amazed by all the commercial electric appliances. The girls concluded their three-hour workshop by eating their favorite item on the Sunrise menu – ice cream.