Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Michelle Obama was joined by students last month as they picked vegetables from the kitchen garden on the South Lawn of the White House.
WASHINGTON — The tables, which stretched the length of a full city block, were covered with pork lettuce wraps, catfish, spring rolls, all manner of vegetable soup and something called lunchtime waffles. Sam Kass, Michelle Obama's senior policy adviser on nutrition, leaned over a pork dish, stabbed it with a fork, then delivered his approbation. "Fantastic."
Robert C. Post, an associate executive director at the United States Department of Agriculture, seemed less moved by flavors. He carved into a small chicken potpie like an entomologist vivisecting an arthropod and studied the recipe for its nutritional content. "Yes, creative, O.K.," he said.
Sabrina Burton bypassed it all. "I'm going for the pizza," she announced, perhaps because she is 10.
The three were among the judges on a panel evaluating the 108 recipe finalists among scores entered in a recent East Wing healthy recipe contest. Their task was to whittle the entries from every state and four United States territories to 54 winners, whose authors will join Michelle Obama at the White House for a "state dinner" next month.
The two-year-old contest, the brainchild of Tanya Steel, editor of the food Web site Epicurious, is part of Mrs. Obama's continuing agenda to improve the eating habits of America's children. While much of her focus has been on exercise and improving school lunches, the campaign this year is trying to get people to cook better and more nutritionally.
"This is an incredible opportunity to utilize the platform we have in the White House to incentivize kids to get engaged in preparing healthy meals," said Mr. Kass, who runs Mrs. Obama's Let's Move program and is also an assistant White House chef. (Perhaps you heard he was furloughed. It was one day. Relax.)
"We see these young kids who have worked with their families to come up with these recipes be treated as heroes as they go back to their cities and towns," Mr. Kass said. "We are trying to give families recipes and tools to help make it easier for people to eat well."
More than 1,300 families with children ages 8 to 12 submitted lunchtime recipes that adhered to the latest U.S.D.A. nutritional guidelines and contained each of the food groups with fruits and vegetables making up half the plate.
Recipes, which were required to be original, were judged 50 percent on their nutritional value, 25 percent on taste and 25 percent on creativity.
Some hit the mark on calories, but were sadly uninspiring on the plate — fish with no verve, chili devoid of any seasoning.
"You don't need salt!" insisted Mr. Kass. Well, yes you do.
"Last year it was all about quinoa and strawberries," said Ms. Steel. "This year, lots of salmon and Greek yogurt. It seems like every plate has a message."
On Thursday Mrs. Obama will announce the winners, who will attend a lunch at the White House on July 9, during which they will chow down on healthy food — including a selection of the winning recipes — and visit the White House kitchen garden.
"Our Kids' State Dinner is one of my favorite events of the year," Mrs. Obama said in a statement. "And the kid chefs who come from around the country never cease to impress and inspire me with their creativity and ingenuity."
The simple act of creating the meals for the judges was something to behold. Each recipe, scaled to a serving, was prepared in the Washington Convention Center by cooks from D.C. Central Kitchen, a community kitchen that trains unemployed adults to cook. "It's a herculean task," Ms. Steel said, noting the sprawl of tables covered with "bodacious banana muffins," "nummy no-noodle lasagna" and the like. Judges moved along the tables like so many guests on a cruise ship, tasting and then discarding their forks into a basket for washing.
It was feel-good situation, but since it was also Washington, some controversy arose.
The miniature pizza with vegetables and cauliflower crust, submitted by Olivia Neely, a 10-year-old from Kansas, was deemed delicious by all. Mr. Kass and Mr. Post were nonetheless unconvinced, insisting that there had to be some type of flour in the recipe, so stable, so delicious was this crust, which was billed as gluten-free.
"Has to be," insisted Mr. Kass, in a shocking accusation of fraud and deceit. Mr. Post agreed. A trip to the kitchen ensued. The cooks assured all that there was in fact no flour in the recipe and that the cauliflower purée stood on its own accord. Mr. Kass seemed somewhat sheepish, although perhaps not enough. The pizza is among the finalists.
The full list of winners and recipes will be available online at recipechallenge.epicurious.com.
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