Georgian, Fall 2003 by George School

Georgian A Publication of George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania Volume 75 • Number 3 • Fall 2003

From Stage to Stove By Diana Cutshall

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n a restaurant,” says Katherine Alford ’75, “there’s a performance that happens every night. You prepare, dress for the part, show off your skills, and then do it again the next night.” An honors graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, CA, where she majored in theater, Katherine moved from California to New York in the early 1980s. “I was prepared for Broadway,” she says with a laugh, “but not to spend all my time looking for work.” To keep herself busy, she enrolled in the New York Restaurant School and graduated at the top of her class. “I always had a fantasy of owning my own restaurant,” she says. “I thought there was something very magical about food.” Today, with more than 20 years of cooking experience, Katherine oversees the test kitchen for the Food Network. Her myriad responsibilities include directing two recipe testers and developers, coordinating special projects and writing the weekly Scripps wire service column, “From Food Network Kitchens.” “Testing recipes takes a lot of attention to detail,” says Katherine. “You start with a recipe and think of a way you want to make it better. Then you figure out how to get from point A to point B. I always tell young chefs to taste what’s in their heads and encourage them to come up with fresh ideas.” The challenge is getting from point A to point B. Katherine says she has tested recipes as many as 40 times before being satisfied with the end result. Most recipes, according to Katherine, are tested at least three times and as many as 20.

Katherine’s passion for cooking along with her beliefs that people learn more from their mistakes than their successes and that one should take chances when eating or preparing new foods, make her perfectly suited to supervise the test kitchen. “There are so many things that factor into fine tuning a recipe. Such factors as whether someone uses a gas or electric stove and the quality of ingredients being used play a role, so there is a lot of trouble-shooting involved. In the end, a recipe should be a set of instructions that anyone can use successfully,” explains Katherine. Katherine, who starts taste testing when she walks in the test kitchen door around 5:30 a.m., has found she ends up tasting more of the bad. “There is always someone running up to me asking me to taste something and tell them what’s wrong with it,” Katherine says with a smile. “You seem to eat a lot, which isn’t bad when the food is good. Testing recipes is really problem solving: tasting foods and determining how to tweak the recipes. I don’t mind though, we really do have very dynamic cooks.” Deciding whether or not a recipe receives a passing grade ultimately falls to Katherine, who says she has to like the end result. But because food is such a subjective thing, Katherine says as many as 10 people are involved. “I love what I’m doing,” emphasized Katherine, who began her career in New York at the trendy Commissary restaurant, where she would eventually become the sous-chef. “All the experiences of my life continued on page 3

Katherine Alford ’75 oversees the Food Network test kitchen.

“In the end, a recipe should be a set of instructions that anyone can use successfully.”

Inside this georgian George School Grad Helping Students

Ordinary Cupcakes Become Extraordinary Desserts

Master chef offers students entrée into

Couple creates taste sensation.

culinary careers.

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Careers in culinary arts

George School Grad Creates Pathway to Culinary Careers by Peggy Berger

y using the talent, dedication and creativity that have made him one of the country’s master culinary teachers and skilled chefs, Richard Grausman ’55 has developed a way to help many inner-city high school students find rewarding culinary careers.

Richard Grausman ’55 founded Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP) in 1990.

Richard, or Rick to those who knew him at George School, grew up in New York City. After graduating from George School and earning a degree in economics at the University of North Carolina, he worked in the importing business. For him, cooking was a hobby, an outlet for relieving stress. In 1961, Richard took his first cooking class, substituting for his boss who was called away unexpectedly. “I thought cooking classes were for women,” he relates and agreed to attend only after discovering there would be no refund for the class. Richard soon turned his hobby into a career, eventually earning the grand diplome from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France, and serving as its ambassador for 15 years. “Early on I realized I wasn’t meant to be a chef because I was too slow. I thought too much about every little thing I did. But that attention to details made me a good teacher. I cooked at a pace my audience could absorb,” he said. Teaching turned to writing in 1988 with the publication of his book At Home with the French Classics. But it was while attending a conference on

the future of American cooking during a fifteen-city US book tour that Richard became truly inspired. It was there he heard predictions of the cook-less home kitchens, microwaves in cars and varying family meal schedules with no one sitting down at the table together. Unable to digest the notion of this dire decline in American dining habits, Richard looked for a way to break the pattern. “I realized that if I could do anything to change that forecast, I would have to get into the schools to teach a group that hadn’t already made up their minds about food.” Starting with a look at high school home economics studies, Richard piloted a program at a dozen New York schools to teach inner-city youths about taste and technique. Richard created Careers through Culinary Arts Program, a non-profit organization known as C-CAP, in 1990. Through the program, the food industry gains skilled apprentices with the attitude needed to succeed in the workplace. Students in the program gain training, mentoring, career counseling, scholarships, and job placement.

The program, started in New York City with 12 schools, has expanded to 36. Nationally, C-CAP reaches 10,000 students and 250 teachers in 200 schools in New York and cities in six other states. Since its inception, C-CAP has trained more than 300 teachers, reached over 50,000 students and awarded over 1000 scholarships worth more than $10 million. Recent changes in education have prompted Richard to initiate after-school programs, together with a certification program to help even more students find careers. Through Richard’s vision and leadership, C-CAP has emerged as a national model for one-on-one guidance and diversified student and teacher services. In 1997, he was awarded The President’s Service Award, the highest recognition given by The White House for volunteer service.

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The Plate as a Palette by Carol J. Suplee

India Ennis ’91 fulfilled a dream of opening her very own restaurant.

ndia Ennis ’91 promised herself that by age 30 she would have her own restaurant. Now at age 30, she does indeed. Her Panino’teca 275 in Brooklyn, NY, was named one of the top 100 restaurants in New York by Time Out New York, a dining guide. The restaurant, open fewer than two years, has won favorable reviews in major New York newspapers and has a good rating in the highly regarded Zagat Survey. The opening of her restaurant also helped to generate a renaissance on Smith Street, which the restaurant press now calls “Restaurant Row.” “When I opened,” India says, “there were two restaurants on my block. Now there are seven, and forty on Smith Street where once there were about ten.” India has maintained her unique niche by serving only the highest quality panini, meat and cheese boards. Panino’teca means “sandwich board.” India’s path to success as a restauranteur was circuitous. Her interest in cooking was first stirred by watching her mother at their suburban farm in New Jersey.

“My mother was amazing,” recalls India. “Besides growing herbs and knowing how to use them, my mother directed culinary expeditions to find the best cloud-ear mushrooms, for example, when suburban families were just discovering the packaged white-button variety. Homemade sushi was a regular treat.” “I was her kitchen helper,” India explains. “When I was 11, I started my own berry business. As soon as I got my working papers, I went to work in restaurants and eventually learned all the jobs from dishwasher to executive chef.” Any latent aspiration to become a chef/owner took time to crystallize. After George School, she attended Guilford College in Greensboro, NC, for a time before leaving to travel and explore other interests. Then, a casual Christmas lunch with friends at the Gotham Bar and Grill in New York finally brought her full circle. “I was absolutely stunned by the beautiful plate that was set before me,” she said. “I realized that food was art. I saw the plate as a palette.”

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With her goal now defined, India set off to Italy to study food, wine, vinegar, oils, and cheese. Back in New York, she began to design a business plan. When the opportunity arose to take over Panino’teca, she seized it. By becoming sole proprietor, she knew she would be forced to learn all aspects of the restaurant business. “I had never studied business, accounting or economics,” she says. “I knew I could do it. I had always taken jobs for which I was under-qualified just so I could learn. But in those first few months, I was constantly being overwhelmed by waves of unfamiliar challenges.” In many ways, George School’s example and values were her mainstay. The school’s “wonderful diversity” has made her cherish the diversity of her own staff. For India, language barriers do not exist; food is the true universal language.

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Produce in the freezer

Seabrooks Continue Family Tradition by Carol J. SuPLee

eabrook Farms has come full circle in its long history. The ten current shareholders of Seabrook Farms, Brothers and Sons, Inc., are all Seabrook family members, five of whom attended George School. Founded in 1912 by C.F. Seabrook, Seabrook Farms made history when, in 1931, it teamed with Clarence Birdseye, who developed a quick-freezing process. Seabrook provided the lima beans and the plant; Birdseye brought technology and his new company (General Foods). Together, the two pioneers produced the first commercial, frozen foods in America. Seabrook Farms, once entirely family-owned, was sold in 1959 and operated under different owners for the next 35 years. During that time, Seabrook family members were active in various management capacities. Jim Sr. ’51 spent almost 20 years with the “old” company, becoming president of the Northern Division before leaving in 1977. The following year he founded a new company with his brother Charles F. II (Charlie). In 1995 Jim Sr. and Charlie were able to buy back rights to the Seabrook Farm trade name created by their grandfather. Now, reborn as Seabrook Farms, Brothers and Sons Inc., it is once again wholly family-owned and operated, annually shipping 150 million pounds of frozen vegetables from its Cumberland County plant in Southern New Jersey. Jim Sr. is chairman of the board and CEO. Charlie retired from his post as president and now serves as vice-chair of the board.

The plant operates 24 hours a day, seven days week. When fresh produce arrives, it is usually cleaned, processed and frozen within two hours of arrival. Huge storage units hold the vegetables either for further processing into the Seabrook line of specialties or for shipping to private-label customers like Heinz, Stouffer’s, ShopRite, Pathmark, Campbell Soup Company, and numerous others. The original Seabrook Farms owned vast farms where, during the war years, hundreds of Japanese-American internees were employed. Currently, the company owns some land, which is leased to farmers, but buys most of its vegetables from farmers throughout New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. When crops don’t come in on time or the yield is smaller than necessary to satisfy customers’ orders, the company will buy vegetables from more distant suppliers. Of the 150 million pounds shipped annually, 50 million pounds of frozen product are purchased from other suppliers. “It is a very satisfying business to be in,” says Jim Jr. “Our products are real, they are good for people. And we are doing our part to keep the ‘Garden’ in the Garden State.” Seabrook produces 12 percent of the nation’s frozen green beans and 18 percent of the nation’s frozen spinach. The biggest seller of all is creamed spinach.

The Seabrook product list includes some organic and Kosher foods. The firm also supplies frozen vegetables around the world to buyers in Israel, Chile, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. Jim Sr.’s three sons are officers: Jim Jr. ’76 is president of the firm, responsible chiefly for financial operations, William E. (Wes) ’78 is vice-president in charge of engineering and maintenance and Brian ’80 is vice-president in charge of sales. Their sister Mary is a shareholder. Charlie’s sons are managers as well. Peter oversees computer operations and Charles III directs finished goods sales and inventory functions. Daughters Lucille Harriet and Sara Joan DeJong are stockholders. All the Seabrooks grew up in the business. Beginning in their teens or even earlier, they worked on the farms, operated and learned to maintain equipment and moved as they were needed throughout the plant operations.

Jim Sr. recalls that even at home, all the kids had jobs. Their mother would draw up lists of chores. “The first one out of bed in the morning got his or her pick of the lists,” Jim says. “It worked like a charm.” “I sat down and told my sons, ‘If you see any job that you’d rather do, just speak up,’ ” Jim Sr. says with a smile. “I guess it worked. I seem to have all the ugly jobs now.” With a fruitful heritage to build on, the Seabrook family has found a way to work together in harmony with one another and with nature. The brothers are certain that succeeding generations of Seabrook brothers, sons and sibling stockholders will do just fine. They will make the right decisions. They are, after all, a family.

“I’m really excited about this project,” says Katherine. “Along with the most amazing photography, the book has over 150 recipes. It also gives a behind-thescenes look at what goes on in Food Network kitchens.” “People are interested in cooking shows for a variety of reasons,” Katherine says in discussing the genre’s increasing popularity. “Food is an unending topic. Some people are interested in how things are prepared while others are interested in what foods go together. It [food] is entertaining and fun.”

In 2001, Katherine published her first cookbook, Caviar, Truffles, and Foie Gras: Recipes for Divine Indulgence. “I am so lucky I have been able to take this one skill and do so many things,” says Katherine, who lives in New York with her husband and young daughter, Abigail. “I have a wonderful life.”

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Jim Jr. ’76, pictured on the far right, said that George School’s egalitarian values influenced his management style. “I remember the twice-weekly meetings for worship. It was a place where everyone’s voice was heard, everyone’s opinion mattered,” he said. “I have always carried that with me.” Also pictured, from left to right, are Brian ’80, Jim Sr. ’51 and Wes ’78.

From Stage to Stove…cont’d from page 1 have come together in this job. It integrates theater, performance and food. It’s a perfect fit. I really have a good time and feel very lucky to have such a passion for what I do.” After her stint at the Commissary, Katherine served as lunch chef at Hubert’s in New York. She then enrolled in L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Paris, France. “That was a turning point for me,” she says, “opening up for me an exciting world of tastes and culinary pleasures. It helped to sharpen the focus of my career.”

Returning to New York in 1985, Katherine worked as kitchen manager of The Quilted Giraffe, where her job included training, staff supervision, devising menus, and researching and developing recipes for publication. During her career she also managed New York’s famous farmers market for the Council on Environment and served as director of instruction at Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School. This fall, under her supervision, the Food Network published Food Network Kitchens Cookbook, its first cookbook.

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Recipes for success

Couple Makes Cupcakes Into Works of Art

Fruitful Valleys

by Kimberly Robbins

by Diana Cutshall

ake a step into the Cupcake Café in New York, NY, to view first-hand how Michael Warren ’67 and his wife Ann took the ordinary and made it extraordinary. Theirs is a tale of two bakers who met in wholesale. Mike was a baking supervisor and Ann, an artist and cookie packer. They fell in love, married and welcomed a daughter into the world. And now they work to keep a display case full of some of the most colorful cakes along the East Coast. However, in the beginning, the duo didn’t have visions of buttercream flowers adorning their cakes. In 1987, shortly after leaving wholesale, Michael decided they should enter the world of entrepreneurship. As they started out drafting their plan and perfecting recipes, they considered the current trends in consumer consumption of baked goods. “At the time, many baking entrepreneurs were having success with new twists on the cookie and the brownie,” Michael said. “But not much was being done with the doughnut.” Together, Michael and Ann began experimenting with doughnut recipes in the kitchen of their tiny New York City apartment. “I didn’t really know how to cook or fry. We learned as we went along,” Michael confesses. “We held taste tests with friends and went through a steep learning curve.” The couple knew that the doughnut’s natural shelf life was only a few hours and were looking for ways to possibly extend its freshness and moisture to a day. As Michael likes to joke, they were on their way to “reinventing the wheel”—the doughnut wheel to be exact.

As fate would have it, during a visit to Renninger’s, an antique and farmers market outside Reading, PA, the pair stumbled onto an ingredient that would add natural moisture to their doughnut recipe. “A man we knew told us to use mashed potatoes in the batter and that it would add the moisture and the soft palatable texture that we were looking for,” Michael said. Adding mashed potatoes did the trick and soon they developed additional doughnut recipes using the sweet potato and pumpkin. In 1988, armed with recipes that received rave reviews from their social circle, Michael and Ann opened their doors for business and sold a variety of refreshments, doughnuts, pastries, and “Big Bucks Buns,” a sticky bun that paid homage to Michael’s years spent at George School in Bucks County, PA. Looking for a way to bring Ann’s artistry and design skills to the mix, they started decorating cakes. Before long, Ann’s cupcake sensations—cakes and cupcakes with buttercream frosting poinsettias, daffodils, roses, and many other gorgeous blooms—were decorating the café’s display cases and quickly became the top-seller with large volume orders of the cakes requested for birthday parties. In fact, the café’s popularity led Michael and Ann to publish many of their recipes in The Cupcake Café Cookbook in 1998. Although they shared their recipes, traffic in the café hasn’t slowed. It continues to blossom. Perhaps the cakes are best enjoyed when made by Mike and Ann?

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Love Affair Becomes Career by Kimberly Robbins

en Aldin ’87 began his love affair with cooking at the age of 9. “My mother is also a chef. By the time I was 14, I was visiting her at work after school,” explains Ken. “I hung out in the kitchen and helped her prep vegetables.” Today, Ken resides in New Orleans, LA, serving as the executive sous-chef at the Windsor Court, a five-star, five-diamond establishment where he prepares classic French food. Ken credits Bill Enos, his George School advisor and geometry teacher, for teaching him how not only

to understand math, but also visual structure—an important presentation skill for today’s chef. “When I design plates, I refer to what Bill taught me,” Ken adds. “Cooking is very visual. It’s all about presentation. Filling the whole plate is very important.” “The thing that attracted me to the food industry is that it’s a field of apprenticeship just like masonry. I respect that you can learn by doing and there are few trades where you can still do that,” he says.

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n 1988, Midori Maruyama Schroder ’62 and her husband Hans Peter Schroder purchased a 700-acre farm, Oude Nektar (Old Nectar) as their retirement home. Situated near the table-grape farm where Hans was raised, their farm is in the wine heart of South Africa, 30 miles from Cape Town. Midori, a native of Japan, and her husband worked in Japan for 23 years before they moved to Los Angeles, CA, in 1988. “After one year there, we moved to the farm because we couldn’t stay away from this beautiful place.” Upon their return to Oude Nektar, Midori and Hans partnered with Neil Ellis Wines. Focusing on the production of wine rather than on the maintenance of extensive vineyards, Neil Ellis buys grapes from growers in the region. Oude Nektar supplies grapes for red wines. Midori is involved in marketing Neil Ellis wines, particularly in Japan, where she meets once or twice a year with retailers. She also entertains buyers who visit from around the world. “We often do Braai, which is similar to an American barbecue, outside by our dam,” she says.

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The Ultimate Dessert by Cristina Lucuski

lix Palley Grossberg ’92 has had plenty of time to get her molten chocolate soufflé recipe just right. As a pastry food editor for Gourmet magazine for three and a half years, she spent a lot of time in the kitchen developing recipes to be featured in the magazine and testing them to make sure they were just right. Although Alix has moved on from Gourmet and now runs her own catering company with her husband Jason, her passion is still baking pastries. The couple developed Jayson Michaels Intimate Dining, a catering company that sends a chef to your home to cook an entire meal for a party. Jason is the chef and Alix makes all the pastries in addition to coordinating the event and doing the billing. At the age of 16, Alix started a small catering service. She provided the food and flower arrangements for dinner parties of her parents’ friends. “That experience solidified what I wanted to do with my life.” Three days after her George School graduation, Alix left for New York City to start classes at The French Culinary Institute.

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Food in the making

Turning Fruit Into Jams and Jellies by Odie LeFever

Head of School Nancy Starmer in front of a crabapple tree on campus. She is an inveterate fruit picker.

few months into her tenure as George School head of school in 2000, Nancy Starmer slipped into the grove of crabapple trees between Orton and Main dormitories early on a Sunday morning, having planned a stealthy foray before the campus awoke. “I wasn’t sure what people would think if they saw their new head of school up in a tree picking crabapples,” she explains, “but I couldn’t walk past those trees on my way to and from the office each day without seeing visions of jelly.” Nancy can’t pass up fruit of any kind. In rural New Hampshire, where she and her husband Jack built a postand-beam house several years ago, wild berries are especially plentiful. “There isn’t anything that I find more relaxing and restorative than being out among the blackberries on a sunny morning in the mountains, or floating along in my kayak, listening to the loons and picking the blueberries that grow along the sides of the islands,” Nancy explains. Being far from New Hampshire during much of the summer hasn’t hindered this determined fruit picker.

In addition to locating sources of crabapples and pears right on the George School campus, it didn’t take Nancy long to discover the many farms in Bucks County, PA, and in Southern New Jersey that have “pick your own” fruit and vegetable offerings. All year round, Nancy relaxes by baking and canning. Homemade jams, jellies, chutneys, and salsas crowd her shelves. Her freezer is full of fruits and vegetables picked or bought in bulk and readied for future use. Nancy bakes regularly for her advisees, enjoys preparing meals or get-togethers for groups of faculty and staff, and at exam time each fall, she invites all boarders (almost 300 students) to Sunnybanke for homemade cookies. One of nine children, Nancy finds feeding crowds comes naturally to her.

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eFacts Below are some of the comments submitted by alumni who took the food eQuiz.

Nancy Caplan Leson ’76 People often ask me how I came to become the restaurant critic for a leading metropolitan newspaper. Actually, it was all Anne LeDuc’s (ffac) fault. She — and Judy Bartella (fac) — were responsible for getting me my first waitressing job, at the Chalfont Hotel, circa summer of ’76. I ended up copping out of college and waiting tables for the next 17 years: in Cape May, NJ; Santa Barbara, CA; Rincon, Puerto Rico; Anchorage, AK and eventually Seattle, WA. Then I went back to school and at the age of 31, received my journalism degree, later putting it — and my waitressing career and love for food and cooking — to good work.

Daniel Peter Loucks ’50 I was in the first all-male cooking class in George School. We even made the news and got our picture in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Students Serve on Committee to Choose New Food Service by Ron george

presentations from five food service providers, including long-time George School service provider Sodexho, who were competing for the contract with George School. “George School is a unique place. I knew what we were doing wasn’t a life-changing experience but rather one of those surprisingly fun things George School allows students to do,” said Ruben, who also sits on the Student Council. “It’s one of those obscure things [food service] we take for granted that I had the opportunity to learn about.” In the end, CulinArt, a food service provider headquartered in Lake Success, NY, was awarded the contract.

eorge School takes pride in its family atmosphere. So it comes as no surprise that when it was time to select a new food service provider, George School did what any good family would do; it turned to its family members for help. The Food Service Selection Committee, comprised of faculty, staff, students, and administrators, was given the challenging task of selecting a food service provider that would have to satisfy hundreds of appetites and a myriad of dietary preferences for the next year. Twenty-four percent of students who responded to a survey by the Georgian identified themselves as vegetarians. Ruben Davis and Yattah Blanton, both members of the Class of ’05, sat on the selection committee that saw

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Yattah Blanton ’05 and Ruben Davis ’05 were concerned about the diversity and quality of good food choices and the daily availability of vegetarian items.

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Mary Jane Mikuriya ’52 I like to cook hearty soups for the homeless shelter. I also contribute by cooking for social action fund raisers. This way I can cook creatively with a purpose.

Pollie Peter Rodrique ’87 I cook most every night in the fall, winter and spring. I learned how to cook by watching cooking shows on the Food Network.

Margo Vitarelli ’64 I enjoy reading up on healthy foods, teas and their contents and affect on the body. I am now having a cup of Rooibos Tea (Red Tea) from South Africa, full of antioxidants.

Hospitality as a gift

Cooking Remains a Labor of Love

George School Community Becomes Extended Family

by Odie LeFever

by Bonnie Bodenheimer

Anne Storch covers 50,000 miles a year visiting alumni and parents.

nne Culp Storch ’67 and husband Jay Storch ’68 drive the 35 miles into Philadelphia, PA, the weekend before the Resources Committee arrives at George School. They have their regular stops. They go to Esposito’s for meat, DeBruno’s for cheese and Anastasio’s for fruits and vegetables. They fill the back of their station wagon with bags of exquisite edibles destined to be chopped, blanched, sautéed, grilled, or baked over the next several days in preparation for a dinner for the Resources Committee. Anne is not a caterer. She is the director of development and advancement planning at George School. She does the catering because it saves George School thousands of dollars and because she loves doing it. Cooking relaxes her. Anne was a chef for two years at the romantic Deux Cheminées restaurant immediately following her graduation from the Restaurant School in Philadelphia in the early 1990s. She also worked on a cookbook with food writer Andrew Schloss. Before that, she spent 14 years as a family counselor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her expertise was infant intensive care. Anne was the volunteer chair of the George School 1993 centennial celebration before she began working as a George School major gifts officer in July 1993. Today, Anne heads up George School’s fund raising. She is gearing up for a capital fund-raising program. The Resources Committee, the recipient of her cooking largess, is an advisory body for the school. Head of School Nancy Starmer relies on its members to explore the most effective ways to develop the resources needed to keep George School in the educational forefront. Members are traveling to libraries from Texas to New Jersey to understand the role of libraries today. Their input will influence the deliberations of faculty and administrators as they contemplate a new library. “Our Resources Committee meetings always get off to a great start,” says Art Henrie ’47 who flies in from Michigan. “Anne and Jay Storch have the entire committee plus some staff to their home the night before our formal meeting. It is, without fail, a wonderful gourmet adventure prepared by Anne, displaying her considerable talents acquired in a previous career. In addition to much socializing we are able to informally talk among ourselves about issues that may or may not be on the next day’s agenda. A lot is accomplished and under such pleasant circumstances.”

he daily sights and sounds of the George School hot food line are pretty standard: colorful entrées and side dishes, and clanging plates, trays and serving spoons. But there’s a special addition to the George School dining experience that other school’s don’t have—a daily serving of a big smile and twinkling hazel eyes, accompanied by sounds of “Hi honey, how are you doing?” and “Are you feeling better?” or “How’s your mom?” That’s the warm presence of Katie Lumpkin, who has been a fixture in the George School dining room since September of 1981. Katie’s favorite part about working at George School is clear. Her quick and definite response to the question comes with a brightly-lit face, “The kids. They’re so nice, social, cooperative, and generous.” Katie often comes in early to get some of her work done so that she can “make everyone happy” — if she gets her dining room tasks accomplished, she’ll have the time to be able to say hello and chat with the students as they come through the food line. “If you had kids here, that’s Katie has been a part of the George School family for over what you’d want—someone to say ‘good morning’ as your children stum22 years. ble into the dining room in their pajama bottoms, half asleep.” And Katie definitely has the experience to know what parents might want—she and husband Frank have 8 children and 19 grandchildren. “The kids are so much fun. With my children at home I had the fun part and I also had the discipline part. Here [at George School] I just get the fun part. These kids make me laugh—they’re so full of vim and vigor. I love the laughter and the joy they bring. They keep me on my toes. They keep [me] young.” Katie often talks to George School students who will say that they don’t get along with their parents, but then when they return from a school break they tell her how great they get along with their parents. Katie says that it’s not that the parents have changed, though. “It’s a growing thing,” she says, remarking on the way the students change during their time at George School. Last year, Katie became the second adult in recent years to participate in a George School student dance show. Dance teacher Barb Kibler’s students performed Rhythms of the Day and had Katie as part of the lunchroom scene. Katie was honored and felt so grateful to be included in the performance. Over the past 22 years, Katie has seen many different students come and go, “...but when you look around, you see the same child from year to year.” And when she hears adults in the community complaining about something the kids have done, she says “People forget they were like that at one time, too. The kids are just doing their jobs—they’re being kids.” Katie loves people and notices the good in those around her—a quality she recognizes as a blessing.

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Parent Gives Gift to Child and School Sahale Casebolt ’03, an equestrian team member, received this hand-hooked rug made by her mother Claudia Casebolt as a graduation gift in June. Claudia gave 800 four-color note cards of the “A Community of Friends” rug to George School. The cards are available in the bookstore.

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Variety in the kitchen

Keeping the Dining Room Filled With Fresh-Baked Goods

Adding Asian Specialties to the Salad Bar

by Bonnie Bodenheimer

cream pie), and 120 pizzas on Pizza hile the George School Day. Bu’s favorites baked goods to campus sleeps, Buppha make include apple turnovers and cin(Bu) Niranon and her cousin namon bread—the apple turnovers are Pensee are hard at work in the baseher favorite to eat, too. ment of Main building. Not everyone At home, Bu cooks Thai food. Her knows that the fresh-baked breads and favorites include pad thai (a noodle pastries found in the dining room every dish) and a spicy papaya salad. She day are actually just that—fresh-baked used to have a plot in the George daily. Even more surprising to some School garden to grow fresh vegetables is that everything is prepared downto use in her stairs in the George home cooking, School bakery, a but has since room most have found a picknever seen. Five your-own farm days a week, from in nearby New midnight to 8 a.m., Jersey that offers Bu works in the produce she uses bakery, and then in her cooking, once every two like hot peppers, weeks she’s also eggplants, beans, there during the day and tomatoes. for Pizza Day. Since Bu has the bakery is closed been at George on the weekend, School since two she works extra months after she hard on Thursday Bu Niranon is the caretaker of the original came to America night to finish everyGeorge School sticky bun recipe, passed from Thailand in thing for Friday, down from her predecessors. 1993. She started Saturday and Sunday. in the dining room and the dishroom, What exactly do they make in the and then moved into the bakery when bakery? “Everything except the bagels,” an opening became available. She lives says Bu. The list includes cookies, pies, on campus with her husband, who cakes, muffins, brownies, breads, pizza, manages a Thai restaurant in Media, and pastries, including the George PA, and her two children. One of Bu’s School favorite—sticky buns. The sticky brothers works as a cook at the resbun recipe is the original, passed down taurant in Media as well. Bu has other to Bu from her predecessor. family at George School in addition The quantities are large—700 cookto her cousin Pensee. Bu’s niece, her ies in one batch (with 700 to 1000 sister’s daughter, works in the George cookies made at time, depending on School laundry. Bu is one of seven chilif they’re making one type or two on dren, five of whom are still in Thailand. a particular day), 25 loaves of twiceShe visits Thailand every two risen bread every day, 15 pies at a time years. (including a student favorite—chocolate

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Ok-Cha Gessner makes sure that food doesn’t get wasted in the George School dining room—she takes vegetable peelings and discarded fruit to the George School barn to feed the horses.

the community will enjoy—she doesn’t make traditionally hot items too hot or too sour; she tends to prepare them more toward the sweet side so everyone can eat them.

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k-Cha Gessner, at George School since 1985, is often called “Sonya” by many people in the George School community—but that’s not because they don’t know her name. “Sonya” means “angel” in Korean, and it’s a nickname her father gave to her many years ago. When some people at George School heard her husband, John, call her “Sonya,” the name just stuck. Ok-Cha keeps the George School dining room salad bars stocked with the traditional salad bar fare, but also makes sure there are plenty of opportunities for the community to sample some Asian specialities. She tries to present options that will be what the majority of

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Georgian • Page 7 G e o r g e S c h o o l F a l l 2 0 0 3

When Ok-Cha is finished preparing the food, she collects all of her scraps for a special delivery to other George School residents—the horses in the barn. Ok-Cha loves animals, particularly horses, and tries to go down to the barn to visit them at least twice a week, sending the scraps with someone else on the other days. She used to bring the treats to just one horse, but now she visits with all 22, talking to them, petting them and feeding them. She says they know when she’s coming—when they hear her, she hears them banging on the walls of their stalls and stomping on the floor, screaming and “talking” to get her attention. Sometimes when she visits, she sees them out in the pasture and when she calls to them they come running. Ok-Cha has apples and pears growing in her backyard at home, and will bring in fruit for the horses. She gives it to them along with bruised or discarded half-eaten fruit from the George School dining room. At home, family meals for her husband and 7 grown children (and 2 grandchildren) are often comprised of traditional American cuisine. For instance, Thanksgiving Dinner at the Gessners brings turkey and ham; Christmas dinner includes prime rib and lobster; and Easter dinner features leg of lamb. Ok-Cha also makes more traditional items from her native Korea and from her husband’s Irish and German background. She makes foods like hasenpfeffer (a highly seasoned German stew of marinated rabbit meat), kimchi (a Korean dish that is a uniquely pungent mixture of fermented vegetables) and chapche (a Korean dish she makes with noodles and vegetables). Ok-Cha likes working at George School because she feels safe in the community and she likes being with the students. And, she adds, “I love horses.”

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NOTE: Pages removed from this document to protect the privacy of GS alumni. Alumni may login to the alumni community at http://alumni.georgeschool.org to view the full version of this issue.

eQuiz highlights

Food for Thought The fall survey focused on food interests of alumni. We received a tremendous response to this survey. Thank you to the 411 alumni who participated! The following is a sampling of the responses. For complete results of the survey, visit the George School website at www.georgeschool.org and select “Alumni eQuiz” from the site index.

Bolo — New York, NY

Popular Restaurants Green’s — San Francisco, CA The French Laundry — Yountville, CA

Two or more respondents from around the world picked these restaurants as their favorite.

Tastebuds — New Hope, PA Buddakan — Philadelphia, PA Fork — Philadelphia, PA Los Catrines Tequila’s — Philadelphia, PA Pho 75 — Arlington, VA

Joe’s Stone Crab — Miami Beach, FL

The Scent of Cinnamon

Home is Where the Cookbooks Are

An Ocean Inclination

Forty-four percent of respondents said sticky buns were their favorite dessert when they were at George School. (See recipe on page 7.)

Fifty-seven percent of alumni favor seafood over any other type of main course. Chicken came in second at 36 percent and beef at 32 percent.

Chocolate clearly soothes the souls of GS alumni. Nineteen percent of respondents said that their comfort food of choice when they are feeling down is chocolate or candy. Baked goods came in second at 15 percent. Only 2.3 percent indicated they found solace in the fast food realm.

Thirty-nine percent of respondents have between 6 and 20 cookbooks in their homes. Twenty-five percent have 5 or less. Eight percent have more than 50. But when it comes right down to it, most people say they use just 3 to 5 of their cookbooks on a regular basis. The most popular cookbook they recommend, by far, was The Joy of Cooking, mentioned by 85 respondents. A Moosewood cookbook was mentioned by 19 respondents, a Betty Crocker cookbook by 17.

Cooking is Comforting

Eating Out and Often

In search of solace

Sixty-nine percent of alumni described cooking as enjoyable. Twenty-one percent found cooking relaxing. Rigid Recipe Attitudes

Only 12 percent of respondents follow recipes exactly. More than half tend to improvise when cooking.

Nineteen percent of respondents identified themselves as vegetarians. Most vegetarians (fifty-six percent) consider themselves semi-vegetarians, limiting the intake of animal products. Twenty percent describe themselves as lacto-ovo vegetarians, eating eggs and dairy products but no other animal products.

Forty percent of respondents go out to eat once a week and 34 percent go out 2 or 3 times a week. Fourteen percent never go out to eat with any regularity (60 people chose 0 when asked how many days a week they go out to eat). Forty percent of people never get take out. Forty-one percent get take out about once a week.

Georgian

Volume 75 • Number 3 • Fall 2003 In This Issue From Stage to Stove.................................................... 1 Pathway to Culinary Careers .................................. 2 The Plate as a Palette ................................................. 2 Seabrooks Continue Family Tradition ................ 3 Couple Makes Cupcakes Into Works of Art...... 4 Fruitful Valleys.............................................................. 4 The Ultimate Dessert................................................. 4 Love Affair Becomes Career ................................... 4 Turning Fruit into Jams and Jellies....................... 5 Students Serve on Committee to Choose New Food Service .............................. 5 Cooking Remains a Labor of Love ....................... 6 George School Becomes Extended Family ...... 6 Keeping the Dining Room Filled With Fresh-Baked Goods ...................................... 7 Adding Asian Specialties to the Salad Bar......... 7 Class Notes .................................................................... 8 Obituaries .................................................................... 15 eQuiz Highlights ....................................................... 16

Limiting the Animal

Ron George, Editor Georgian@georgeschool.org 215-579-6568 Georgian Staff Peggy Berger Bonnie Bodenheimer Odie Le Fever Alice Maxfield Rebecca Wilkinson

Advancement Office George School Box 4438 Newtown PA 18940-0908 www.georgeschool.org

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