Photos by: Bret Brookshire and Jill Hokanson

University of Texas Elementary School students experienced a unique opportunity on June 1 — a chance to cook with White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses at the Whole Foods Culinary Center in downtown Austin.

The day of culinary activities began with Yosses’ visit to the UT Elementary School to mark the one year anniversary of Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools Initiative. He was joined by city leaders, including City Manager Marc Ott, International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) members, LeCreuset representatives, Vice President of Diversity Gregory J. Vincent and school staff.

Yosses talked to students about their involvement in Garden to Table, an after-school program, led by Toni Tipton-Martin, local chef and food writer. Later Yosses and chefs from the IACP helped students harvest the remaining vegetable crop from the school’s organic garden beds.

Yosses was a featured guest at the 33rd annual conference of IACP, an organization of nearly 3,000 chefs and food writers, from June 1-4 in Austin. Attendees included two chefs from Norway.

More about UT Elementary School:

UT Elementary School students annually grow and harvest foods in the school gardens as part of the Healthy Families Initiative, a comprehensive coordinated school wellness approach, which promotes physical activity participation and healthy nutritional behaviors among students and families.

UT Elementary School, part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, is the first university sponsored charter school in Texas. The demonstration school serves 260 pre-kindergarten to fifth graders in East Austin.

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