MARIETTA, Ga. — The Marietta City School District has a new full-time chef for the upcoming school year.
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It’s the first chef the district has ever hired. Chef David Garcia is bringing 17 years of his culinary expertise to school lunches, changing the game for the traditional school lunch experience. The goal is to get students excited about school lunch while also providing culturally inspired dishes with fresh ingredients, to the cafeteria.
The district says it works with a number of local farms to get the freshest food.
“We’re just using the menu to go ahead and get kids excited about what they are actually eating,” said Garcia.
“They come here Monday through Friday all school year so we want to give them lots of variety so they get excited to come eat with us. They deserve the best food we can provide them. We’re adding more fresh options, and more variety within our menu. Six different menus so that they have a lot to choose from,” said Cindy Culver, Marietta City School Director of School Nutrition.
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Marietta City Schools is a minority-majority school district. The revamped menu reflects the diverse community.
“We are going to have a comfort line. Asian, Latin, and sub-line, also a grill line (and) Chicken tikka masala. We also have Peruvian chicken coming. We have a Cuban sandwich coming,” said Culver.
Garcia whipped up a burrito and a side of fruit for Channel 2′s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell who quickly gave the chef a big thumbs up to the dish.
Garcia says he is looking forward to cooking up great dishes with his team, but there is one item on the menu he is looking forward to cooking, the most.
“There was one item that really spoke to me and that’s the Mexican corn salad. For me growing up I always would go to the street vendors and they would always have the corn. They’d put all the fixings on it. So that to me is awesome. I’m looking forward to actually making that and serving that to our kids,” said Garcia.
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