Jane's Pocket Change: Guest Post from Food Service Director

Tony Penezic, Director of Food Service
During the holiday season, when friends and family gather to celebrate, food often takes center stage. I thought this would be a perfect time to invite our talented food service director Tony Penezic to be a guest author for Pocket Change. You may want to have a snack nearby for this one…

Food as Art
For me, it all started a few months into my first restaurant job… a French restaurant in London, 25 years ago. My Chef de Cuisine Philip Tammet said to me "...the plate is your canvas, the food ingredients are your paint, there are plenty of ‘brushes' around the kitchen...go paint!!!" 

Since those early days—from restaurants, to retail, to universities—and now cooking at CSW, my philosophy on food and eating has always been about enjoying everything in sensible way, about making sure my “canvas” is balanced. My team and I focus on preparing delicious and innovative dishes from fresh ingredients, sourced locally whenever possible and grown/raised sustainably.

I take food as one of the life’s greatest joys and it makes me really unhappy when people consider food to be our ‘enemy.’ I believe in using good ingredients to make even those most “notorious” foods—burgers, stews, pasta dishes, and cakes—and applying some common sense. If you want to enjoy a nice, cheesy macaroni and cheese, have it once in a while, and have a sensible portion next to a fresh salad or grilled chicken breast.

Of course, it’s easier to achieve balance if you know how to cook! With some basic cooking skills, you’ll be able to create delicious meals using local ingredients when they’re in season, at their best, and of course, most affordable. My personal favorite is Mediterranean cuisine; not just because I come from the Mediterranean part of Europe but because it’s easy to create meals with sensible balance, and the focus is on healthy ingredients—vegetables, fruits, olive oil, legumes and nuts, fish and sea food, poultry, and a lot of fresh herbs and spices.

At CSW we talk a lot about mindfulness, which absolutely applies to eating. I agree with Julia Child, who said that: “Americans should embrace the philosophy of French diners; the meal time should be a chance to slow down and really appreciate what they eat… to learn the beauty of the meal. It is an important part of our lives.” In that same spirit, I believe that every time you have something on the table, you should dedicate some time to discussing what it’s like and how it was made… just like you’d discuss a good movie, book or a painting. After all, as Julia Child said, “It is terribly important for one’s appreciation of food as an ART FORM. And it should be an art form if you’re eating it every day.”

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CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.