How hard is it to improve the way students eat in the school cafeteria? At a recent training for cafeteria cooks in Miami, I learned that it’s a bit harder than it looks. Three of Miami’s top chefs took over a teaching kitchen at the Johnson and Wales University culinary campus. Their goal? To turn typical cafeteria ingredients into something healthy that the kids would actually eat.

For me, the timing couldn’t have been better since we’ve been discussing Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution reality show here on The Scoop (Click Here). The season finale airs tonight at 9pm/8c on ABC, and in case you’re just tuning in, the Food Network star chef has been trying to make revolutionary changes in cafeteria meals for school children in Huntington, WV.

One of Jamie’s biggest problems has been trying to win over “the cafeteria ladies” (and most are women) to his healthful way of thinking. He’s also battled bureaucracy in trying to banish the likes of sweetened strawberry and chocolate milk. In my estimation, Miami is light-years ahead of Huntington as far as staff attitude goes. Penny Parham, Department of Food and Nutrition Director for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, (the nation’s fourth largest school district), is full of ideas. She’s led such efforts as banning soda pop in school vending machines and has forced all of her food vendors to eliminate high-fructose corn syrup from everything her district buys. When you have this much commitment in top administrators, it’s a lot easier to make change happen.

However, good intentions aren’t enough.

You still have to convince the kids to eat food that’s healthy. And that’s where Penny’s newest idea came into play. She approached three of Miami’s top chefs and asked each to adopt a public school and to work with the cafeteria cooks to come up with new recipes that are both healthy and kid-friendly. So about 30 cafeteria workers gathered at Johnson and Wales to learn from Michelle Bernstein, owner of Michy’s restaurant and author of the cookbook “Cuisine a Latina”; Kris Wessel, chef/proprietor of Red Light Little River restaurant; and Ken Lyon, owner of several restaurants including Fratelli Lyon in Miami’s Design District.

The chefs were given typical ingredients – whole turkey breasts, pasta, tomato sauce, onions, broccoli, fresh zucchini and yellow squash. The chefs decided to make a turkey-tomato pasta sauce and “hide” chopped-up squash inside the sauce. A pan of bright-green broccoli and yellow squash would be served on the side. With three experienced chefs in the kitchen, skinning, deboning and chopping up the turkey looked easy as pie. The chefs then decided on whole-wheat penne and an array of fresh herbs.

The result truly was delicious, but Penny came away with yet another battle: The only fresh herb she’s currently able to buy is parsley.

“We’re working on it,” Penny said. “We’re working on it!”

And will the kids eat the new-fangled food? That remains to be seen.