Move over Jean Georges. There's a new "it" destination for haute cuisine in the Big Apple, and it's a place where vocal food critics are decidedly personae non gratae. Get caught turning up your nose, and you just might have to go to the back of the line. At Promise Academy, a charter school in Harlem, school leaders are targeting not only student achievement, but student health as well by revamping the cafeteria menu. Now, instead of pizza and fries, the kitchen (headed by a Johnson & Wales culinary school grad) turns out fresh gourmet fare. Children develop good habits in the classroom, and they also learn the advantages of eating healthy, nutritious meals - and table manners to boot! Gadfly hears that the exciting gustatory offerings at Promise Academy far outpace the banal food of the NEA Caf??. Possibly the French are right: Food does reflect life.
"Harlem School Introduces Children to Swiss Chard," by Kim Severson, New York Times, September 9, 2005