Melissa was the one in culinary school who was instantly easy to connect to. You’d spot her quickly, with bright blue curly hair and the projecting voice of an actor, and such an outpouring of enthusiasm about everything we learned or every dish we made that you couldn’t help but get excited yourself. Since graduation, she’s been working at KIPP High School in the Bronx, in charge of plant-based meals for the kids. I loved to hear about the way her zest (excuse me) for life translates into bold flavors that connect with kids in a setting not known for its encouragement of culinary appreciation: the school cafeteria.
After this conversation, she got excited about the idea of a workshop for kids (or adults) focused on developing language around food. “Do you remember how you learned about expressing yourself at the dinner table? Did we ever learn? Who asked us if we liked our food? Did we feel free to express when we didn’t like food?” — are some of the questions she posed. In the last interview, Annie also touched on the complexities of learning language to describe tastes and sensations, in the context of writing. It’s interesting to consider how developing that language could be part of the process of growing from a child encased in their own family and culture to an adult who engages with the whole world outside of that.
Mel: I feel boring, but I couldn’t stop thinking about lemons. I really couldn’t. I wanted to pick something else that was more interesting, but…
Kate: I don’t know. I don’t think it’s the ingredient that makes it interesting or not. I think it’s what you do with the ingredient or how you think about it or how you use it.
Mel: I kept thinking lemons, garlic, lemons, garlic, lemons garlic. Because those are the two things that, when I was very young, I realized, oh, you have to put a lot of stuff into food to make it taste good. You have to actually spend your day cooking sometimes to make something taste good. I would see my grandma doing it. One of the first things that I remember eating and kind of comprehending that there's complexity and flavor and things, is this avoglemono soup. It, like, lit a fire in my heart.
I feel like this soup helped me understand how flavors can be complex, because when I was a little kid I’d eat a lot of chicken nuggets and very very simple foods and dip a lot of crap in ketchup you know? But I remember having the experience of, This hits me in the face, when I eat it. I think it primed me to love lemons and have this impulsive thing about using lemon juice in literally everything.
Kate: It sounds like eating lemons was what made you first aware of cooking. So now you’re working at a school cafeteria. What would you say you're doing there with the food, are you trying to create lemon experiences for the kids?
Mel: So I cook plant-based meals for the kids. I feel like I have to hold myself to a higher standard because they're automatically going to reject the meal at first. When you put vegan or vegetarian in front of them they just assume that it’s going to be like astronaut food or or that it’s going to be bland. So when I make the lemon potatoes they have to be the most lemon ever, so when you say that yes, I guess I do. Whatever flavor profile I’m using, I have to commit to fully so that they actually react at all.
Kate: Can we trace how you got here from lemon soup? Did you see your grandma cooking and want to help her and immediately get into cooking yourself?
Mel: I really never thought I would be a chef or be cooking in this capacity. Ever. Until COVID hit. I love food and going vegan changed my life for a lot of reasons seven years ago. But I never thought that cooking was going to be my thing ever.
But the thing that I did know is that the kitchen and mealtimes were when we’d have family time. When I would see my grandma, her kitchen smelled like lemon because no matter what she was making, it was always lemon heavy. It was like this Greek lemon lair and it was so potent that you could feel it in the room. You know when the kitchen gets so hot that everything's kind of moist and the air is kind of heavy and it was like lemon juice was everywhere? I felt it all over my face. And I loved it. It sounds so unpleasant when I say it like that, but I loved it. I loved diving into this hot tub of lemon juice that was in the air. And yeah, so it's just that association for me of the space and it being all-encompassing in a sensory way. So that’s what I strive for. I wanted mealtime to be an experience for everyone.
Kate: How do you think that connects to cooking in a school? Is it different from creating a sense of home when you’re at home?
Mel: It’s a unique program where we’re getting actual chefs in the kitchen. And it’s relatively new. It’s an ever-evolving environment where I feel like it’s becoming something more than just going to lunch in the cafeteria. Like I started a program where we do samples every day, so we can make a little side thing that someone wanted to try out and teach the kids about a new food.
I don’t really want education to stop at the lunch room. It’s a place where you can develop really negative associations with food and negative associations with people and being social in general. It’s such a war zone for so many kids. At least I want the food to be an experience of sharing and a place where it’s safe to try things out and to express yourself.
I ask the student workers every day, if you try that and tell me you hate it, tell me why you hate it. You can learn to talk about food. I think you can create landscapes where people can learn about each other through sharing food. And you have to know how to talk and express yourself to be in those environments, right? So if these kids could start learning now, in the lunchroom, they’ll be so much better equipped to navigate those situations and use this lens to appreciate other humans and other cultures more.