For ninth grader Ilianna Santangelo, food is part of her family tradition, from her family’s secret gnocchi recipe to the sundried tomatoes harvested from her grandmother’s garden.

 

The tomatoes and the gnocchi both became key elements in Ilianna’s school project this week, as she and other members of the “Diagnosing the Modern World” class worked to assemble the “perfect meal” based on nutrition, sustainability, economics—and, of course, taste.

 

Four groups of students participated in Fay’s mini “Iron Chef” experience, during which they researched recipes, learned about the origins of their ingredients, assessed their dishes’ nutritional value, compared costs, and chopped, diced, sautéed, grilled, and garnished.

 

Also participating in the project was a ten-person panel of expert judges, which included Justin Melnick, executive chef of Tomasso Trattoria in Southborough; Julie Caswell, chair of the Department of Food Resource Economics at UMass-Amherst; Dr. Joanne Foody, director of the Cardiovascular Wellness Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital; Julia Grimaldi, project coordinator in agricultural development with the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture; representatives from Stearns Farm, an organic farm in Framingham; Dean Lewis, Fay’s own director of Dining Services; and Sho Nihei ’12, one very, very lucky Fay student.

 

“Diagnosing the Modern World” is a class offered jointly by Fay’s history and science departments to ninth graders. It is an interdisciplinary look at such timely topics as global disease, water, and food. After reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, teachers Emily Callahan and Tim McCauley challenged students this winter to create meals that could be prepared for five people—or five hundred—while keeping in mind the issues that they had discussed during their classes.

 

On presentation day, the panelists were treated to an array of tasty treats, many of which reflected the international flavor of Fay’s student body (members of which hail from 17 different countries)--chicken kebabs with fresh peppers and mushrooms, arugula salad with shaved parmesan and lemon dressing, mini beef burgers on sushi rice “rolls,” Mexican pozole with pork shoulder and hominy. A couple of enthusiastic groups even made dessert: angelfood cake and oatmeal raising cookies.

 

The panelists savored their meals (this hungry writer noticed a majority of very clean plates at the end of the event) and took time to discuss the menu choices with the students, who explained the rationales behind their dishes and answered questions about nutrition, cost, and the benefits of “buying local.”

 

As for Ilianna and her teammates, it was a wonderful opportunity to make and enjoy a delicious home cooked meal—while also appreciating its benefits from an entirely new perspective.