Eleanora Pullen took a whiff of the tomato mix in front of her and smiled.
“I think this is going to be so good,” said the 4-year-old, who said she likes spicy foods. “It smells so good!”
Eleanora and her preschool friends at Queensbury Elementary School learned how to make pico de gallo in their classroom this week with Chef Steve Sutliff, who filled the room with the aroma of cilantro, garlic, jalapeno peppers, cumin, salt, tomatoes and onions.
Students helped Chef Steve pour the ingredients into a food processor and then got to sample their kid-crafted cuisine.
“It’s a little bit spicy on my tongue,” Eleanora said.
But it didn’t stop her from dipping another tortilla chip into her cup of salsa.
“Mine’s not spicy,” said her friend Teodor Plotnic, who sits at her table.
Themed tastings allow the chef to interact with the students and offer them a chance to try a food item that isn’t always offered at the school — like salsa, a great, low-fat alternative to dip. Allowing the students to help make the salsa gives them even more incentive to taste it, said Chef Steve.
“‘Salsa Mexicana’ is what they call it in Mexico,” he told students. “The reason they call it that is because the colors in it from the tomatoes, the peppers and the onions, represent the colors of the Mexican flag.”
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