WFP nutritionist Sineide Neres represented the World Food Programme Centre of Excellence against Hunger in Brazil and participated on Wednesday (21) as one of the judges in the ‘Super Chef of Education’ competition for school cooks, an initiative of the Mato Grosso state government to reward the best school cooks in their state schools.
With the aim of giving visibility to and valuing local school cooks, the competition was devised by the Mato Grosso state school feeding co-ordination team and inspired by the reality TV show “Vida de Merendeira”, a partnership between the National Education Development Fund (FNDE), the World Food Programme Centre of Excellence against Hunger and the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC).
This was the second edition of the competition in the state of Mato Grosso. In all, 14 finalists from various regions of the state came to Cuiabá to showcase their recipes, which favoured local ingredients such as freshwater fish (pintado and tilapia), pork, plantains and cabotiã pumpkin.
‘There were varied, tasty and very creative dishes, such as baked fish meatballs in fresh tomato sauce with courgette spaghetti, for example,’ said Sineide, who tried all the dishes. ‘It was a lot of food, and all very tasty,’ she said, laughing.
She explains that fish isn’t always well received in schools, where it can’t be served fried. ‘But the cooks managed to get round it and come up with very tasty options, accompanied by plantains in the form of mash or farofa.’
The people responsible for cooking for children in schools are usually women, but there was one male finalist in the competition. ‘It serves to break down the stigma that this is only women’s work, despite the fact that it’s a heavy job with little visibility,’ said Sineide.
And speaking of visibility, here are the names of the three winners of the competition in MT and the dishes they made:
1st place: Natália de Freitas
Recipe: fish broth with yams and cabotiã pumpkin
City: Nova Canaã do Norte
2nd place: Josiane Marinho
Recipe: guinea fowl fillet with cabotiã cream
City: Sinop
3rd place: Geraldina Vala
Recipe: pumpkin cream casserole with banana and fish
City: Tangará da Serra