A Class Act

Once a week, Broncha (Bea) Stern carries sacks of groceries and enough cooking gear to stock a kitchen into Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School in Sherman Oaks.

She’s on her way to the third-grade class her son Gary teaches.

Soon an electric cooktop, pans, knives, measuring spoons and cutting boards appear on tables at the front of the classroom. A recipe goes up on the blackboard. And eight eager young cooks get ready to work.

Their classmates and students from a special education class pull their chairs up close. Today is not their turn to cook, but who cares. “They all eat,” says Stern, who’s taught the class as a volunteer for four years.

Today’s lesson is chili. Stern is cutting corners by using canned beans and tomatoes and a chili seasoning mix. Otherwise, the dish would never get done by the end of class. To make sure there will be enough to eat, she has brought a potful of the same chili from home, along with tortilla chips, sour cream, grated Cheddar cheese and green onions for topping. One of the teachers has contributed corn bread, so today there will be a real feast.

Stern is a retired teacher and knows how to weave lessons on geography, science, nutrition, food safety, history and math into recipes. She is generous with praise. “You did a really good job,” she tells a first-time onion chopper. And she is delighted when a youngster comes up with the word “translucent” for the way onions should look when properly sauteed. “This is a very difficult word,” she says, admiringly.

A boy wants to know if chili is healthy. That leads Stern into a discussion of basic nutrients. She posts a copy of the food pyramid and has the students match each chili component with a category. Their math exercise is to cut the recipe in half. Geography involves spots key to the development of chili, like Texas and Coney Island. For history, they talk about the origin of chili. Stern says the dish probably dates back to the 1850s.

Food safety is fundamental. “This is a requirement with me: They [the cooks] must wash their hands first,” she declares. “We talk about using pot holders, about washing fruit to make sure we’ve gotten rid of all the pesticides and about refrigerating food.”

There have, however, been accidents. “A couple of children were cracking eggs, and the eggs landed in their laps,” she says.

Stern tells her students about cooking failures, confessing that she has had them too. When newly married, she left the leavening out of a chocolate cake planned for a dinner party. To save the day, she cut the leaden cake into brownies and served them topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce. “They thought it was so funny that the teacher, the adult, could also make mistakes,” she says.

Stern rehearsed the chili recipe thoroughly because it is not a dish that she normally makes. “I got the recipe from my hair stylist,” she says.

Meanwhile, the cooks take turns stirring the chili pot to prevent burning. “Is it beginning to smell good in here?” Stern asks. One boy volunteers that his mother made a mistake and produced what in his household is known as “yucky chili.” Another asks, “Are we ever going to make anything like what I eat at home for breakfast?” When Stern learns that he is talking about Apple Jacks cereal, she says no.

Instead, they learn simple dishes that kids like--spaghetti, sloppy Joes, submarine sandwiches, pancakes, chocolate cake and oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. Stern works in ethnic foods such as tacos, sopa con fideos, Chinese rice, potato latkes and matzo brei.

She does all this without so much as running water. “This classroom has nothing. I have to bring everything from home, from soup to nuts,” she says. That makes baking a bit complicated. When Stern teaches the Jewish bread challah, she bakes the bread at home, brings it for the children to taste and has them mix the dough in class. She has also compiled a handout of 30 recipes that is presented to each student.

The recipes used in class vary according to the season. “I do pamper myself. In the fall when it’s hot, I make all the cool things,” she says.

Stern, who lives in Sherman Oaks not far from Dixie Canyon school, taught child development and early childhood education for 30 years at Los Angeles Valley College. She still teaches a couple of night classes there. “I wanted to work with children,” she says, to explain why she started the cooking classes.

One of her goals is to introduce the children to foods that may be new to them, such as jicama. “We haven’t had a dud yet. Everything has been a smashing success,” says son Gary loyally. But his mother reminds him of one disaster. Turning milk into soft cheese was a “yucky” experience for one class.

By 11:20 a.m., there’s an urgent cry from the back: “I’m hungry.” Within a few minutes, the class is lined up outside ready to be served. In a few more minutes, both chili pots have been scraped to the bottom, and the corn bread and chips are history.

Former third-graders glance longingly at the picnic as they walk by. “I think it’s one of the most memorable experiences the students in my class have,” says Gary Stern. “The one drawback is, they never have room in their stomachs for lunch.”

BEA STERN’S CLASSROOM CHILI

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons oil

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 (1.48-ounce) package chili seasoning mix

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 (15-ounce) cans chopped tomatoes

2 (15-ounce) cans pinto beans, drained

Grated Cheddar cheese, optional

Sour cream, optional

Chopped green onions, optional

Tortilla chips, optional

Saute onion in oil over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add beef and cook until lightly browned, 7 to 8 minutes. Add seasoning mix, tomato sauce, tomatoes and pinto beans. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour.

Serve with grated Cheddar cheese, sour cream, green onions and tortilla chips.

8 to 10 servings. Each serving:

331 calories; 986 mg sodium; 48 mg cholesterol; 18 grams fat; 26 grams carbohydrates; 18 grams protein; 3.11 grams fiber.