A Beijing school is livening up its lunches by drawing on the spirit of a TV cookery show.
Daystar Academy, which is part of the Ivy Education Group, has launched its own version of Iron Chef. The project brings together four master chefs to develop new recipes for the students to enjoy, and although there’s no competitive element, the school hopes that the energy and drama of the show will infuse the dishes.
The chefs are the school’s regular chef Xu Guang; Jennifer Yeh, a parent and Food Consultant at Daystar; Asher Gillespie from pizza legends Pie Squared; and Alan Wong from high-end sushi specialists Hatsune, who is also a Daystar parent. The honor of being first to contribute is Gillespie, who is creating a lasagne for the students based on his mother’s recipe. “It’s comfort food,” he explained, “something everyone can enjoy.”
l-r: Jennifer Yeh, Asher Gillespie, Xu Huang
The project was launched at two lively assemblies, where Head of School Elizabeth Hardage introduced three of the chefs and banged a gong to announce the start of the event. Afterwards, the chefs were interviewed by student journalists.
Head of School Elizabeth Hardage told us:
“We hope that students not only get excited about eating healthy sustainable food, but alos hope they are willing to be risk takers in trying new dishes from around the world that they may have never heard of before.”
Photos: Andrew Killeen
