Cuisine Solutions’ Café + Teria Spices Up Lunch in Four Virginia School Districts
Alexandria, VA. – Cuisine Solutions and its sister company CREA, The Culinary Research and Education Academy, are pleased to announce that their innovative Café + Teria program, which launched in 2017 to provide high school students with a healthy, balanced, customized lunch, is expanding into four Virginia districts for the 2019-2020 school year. The program is also launching in South Carolina at four Pickens County high schools. At each Café +Teria, students select ingredients in four steps to build a nutritious meal. They pick a base of grain, salad or a wrap; a protein: antibiotic-free chicken, ground beef, or Paneer cheese; a topping of vegetables, cheese and sauces, and a dressing. Café + Teria features popular international cuisine types including Mexican, Asian, Mediterranean, Caribbean and Italian designed to address menu fatigue, along with a new BBQ bowl being introduced this fall.
In 2017, Café + Teria was originally introduced to high school students attending Arlington, Virginia’s three public high schools, Wakefield, Yorktown, and Washington & Liberty. Due to the success at these schools in Arlington it will also expand to The Heights (the new home of H-B Woodlawn) and the Arlington School Career Center on September 3.
Alexandria City, Virginia’s T.C. Williams High School, Minnie Howard Campus and George Washington Middle School will continue to offer Café + Teria daily for the second year, starting September 3, with plans to expand into Francis C. Hammond Middle School later in the year. Additionally, 2018 welcomed the expansion of Café + Teria into Loudoun County at the new Academies of Loudoun in Leesburg, Virginia, and is continuing the program.
Virginia’s Fredrick County is also pleased with Café + Teria as this healthy lunch offering, mirrors a fast-casual restaurant appealing to young diners. It premiered in 2018 at Millbrook, Sherando and James Wood high schools and will return in 2019. Robin Dick, School Cafeteria Manager at James Wood High School says of the program, “Here at James Wood High School we find happiness being able to serve our students something different and fresh to eat with this tasty brain food at our new Café + Teria Bar.”
Director of Pickens County, South Carolina Student Nutrition Services Jenaffer Pitt has elected to launch the concept at four high schools on August 20, 2019: Daniel High, Easley High, Liberty High and Pickens High, after running a successful two-day test earlier this year. Pitt advises she is “ecstatic” about implementing the program, noting, “Café + Teria is a fast-casual concept designed to meet the USDA guidelines. It is also structured like the many popular restaurants that kids want to frequent. They love to build their own meal and this gives them the freedom to select their base, then choose a protein and toppings for their bowl. All ingredients are of the highest quality and the veggies are chopped fresh daily. The dressings are homemade and crafted to fit the flavor profile of each dish. Building your own bowl is especially powerful because it enables students to fit their own tastes.”
“Want spicy? Vegetarian? Packed with super foods and protein? You’ve got it with this concept,” exclaims Ms. Pitt. “Customization is key, and students can build lunch however they like it. Café+Teria will keep them engaged and excited about eating school lunch!” Pickens County estimates 1000 student will participate in Café + Teria per day.
The concept for this innovative school lunch program is designed around using Cuisine Solutions’ proteins. Café + Teria resembles a franchise for schools, which can be replicated at any school district in the country. Cuisine Solutions provides the school partners with the recipes, standard operating procedures, name brand and marketing materials to support the program. For example, every Café +Teria in the participating Virginia and South Carolina schools has a serving line with bold graphics that invite exploration, designed with a distinctive, modern look to help attract students to these healthy meal options.
Café + Teria’s protein choices are all prepared with the sous-vide method, which fully cooks and pasteurizes the food. Sous-vide is French for “under vacuum” which describes a cooking technique in which food is vacuum-sealed, then slow cooked in hot water. Cuisine Solutions’ chefs and its Café + Teria team continue to source product selections with recipe creations that will appeal to students and provide healthy, quality, delicious options with pleasing combinations, incorporating local produce from area farms for the toppings. The recipes are also low in sodium, fat and sugar. CREA, the global leader in culinary research, education & consulting, and the sister company to Cuisine Solutions, has been integral in the development of this lunch program.
CREA Executive Chef A.J. Schaller advises, “The Culinary Research and Education Academy (CREA) develops base menu ingredients, spice blends and dressings for Café-Teria. Along with Bill Stablein, the chefs and engineers at CREA enjoy working on this passion project to provide a healthy and tasty option for school lunches.”
About Cuisine Solutions
The world’s leading manufacturer and distributor of sous-vide foods, Cuisine Solutions is recognized by top chefs as the authority on sous-vide—the innovative slow-cooking technique that the company pioneered, perfected and popularized decades ago. Cuisine Solutions’ culinary research and development team innovates new cooking techniques and recipes every day, anticipating clients’ needs and market trends while incorporating the finest ingredients. Computerized monitoring systems and precise cooking times and temperatures ensure that every dish is consistently excellent. Launched in 1989 and based in Sterling, Virginia, Cuisine Solutions services more than 22,000 restaurants, as well as airlines, cruise ships and major hotels. For more information, visit www.cuisinesolutions.com.
About CREA
The Culinary Research and Education Academy (CREA) is a global leader in culinary research, education and consulting. Founded in 1991 in France by Chief Scientist Dr. Bruno Goussault as Centre de Recherche et d’Études pour l’Alimentation, CREA aims to change the way chefs prepare food through rigorous training, food science innovation and food consulting. To date, CREA and Dr. Goussault have trained over 5,000 chefs around the world and over 80% of the world’s 3-Star Michelin chefs. Through its headquarters in Paris and Washington, D.C., CREA educates and consults professional chefs and top industry professionals alike through educational programs, global seminars, online video courses and customized engagements. For more information, visit http://www.lecrea.com.
