The recipe called for three large leaves of mustard greens, but De'Shar Marcellous was skeptical.
That's a lot of greens. More than this teen can stomach.
"We're not going to use too much of the mustard greens," the 17-year-old concluded. His cooking partner, Kheyland McNeil, 14, didn't object.
After all, Marcellous said, "It's supposed to be a pizza."
True. But the goal this day inside Grant High School's new kitchen was to teach two dozen Sacramento youths how to make a notoriously unhealthy teenage favorite – pizza – better for the body.
Translation: Less pepperoni, more greens.
"We'll disguise it well," teacher Ann Marie Kennedy assured Marcellous. "Sometimes, that's what you need."
Each week this summer, nearly 100 teens pass through Grant High's new kitchen as part of two city-funded programs. They cook up homegrown delights harvested from the school's garden.
The students develop their green thumbs as well, guided by teachers from Grant High and other partnering organizations. The goal is to cultivate understanding of the tremendous effort it takes to get food to their table, as well as how to keep that food as healthy as possible, teachers say.
That's increasingly important as child obesity rates continue to swell and as cooking becomes a "lost art" in the rush of daily life, said Kennedy, who teaches environmental horticulture at Grant High during the school year.
She has been dreaming of a cooking kitchen on campus for years, but it wasn't possible until Kaiser Permanente gave the school $66,000 in the fall. The new kitchen opened this spring in what once was a storage room. Now, it's full of gas stoves, dishwashers, double sinks and ovens.
During the school year, biology and health classes will incorporate the kitchen into their lessons. The kitchen also will be available to the school's GEO club – Grant's Environmental Organization – and to community members.
This week, the vegetable pizza was accompanied by a chicken and fruit salad.
Fatima Malik, a Grant High graduate who works for the Health Education Council, told students they would be using vegan mayonnaise to give the salad a lighter, healthier twist. This did not go over well.
"I know you guys are making faces, but wait until you try it," she told the class.
Part of the mission for the garden and cooking classroom is to expose teens to food they've never tried before and that they can easily access in their communities – like the vegan mayonnaise and mustard greens.
Marcellous allowed that he has tasted the leafy vegetable in the past. "And I didn't ask for more," he said.
His teammate, McNeil, said he doesn't eat many vegetables at home, but he was willing to be a good sport.
Vanessa Stevens-Milo, 15, had her own reservations. As she prepared the Waldorf salad, she told McNeil that it looked "nasty." He agreed.
Still, when the table was set and the food was plated, curiosity overcame them. The room grew silent as two dozen adventurous teens scarfed down a meal that just an hour before had seemed, well, nasty.
"I wish we had more pizza," lamented 15-year-old Miguel Jason Gonzalez III.
Call The Bee's Kim Minugh, (916) 321-1038.
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