A familiar food gets a healthy makeover in a junior high cafeteria.

On Slaw Day at Northbrook Junior High School in Northbrook, Ill., a weekly event in November, students taste a different fresh vegetable slaw made by prominent local chef and restaurateur Sarah Stegner who is out to show students, parents and foodservice employees that fresh, healthy foods prepared imaginatively can be flavorful as well as healthy.

Stegner, co-owner of the Prairie Grass Café in Northbrook and Prairie Fire restaurant in Chicago, visits the cafeteria each week to prepare the slaw with the foodservice staff. She pointed out in a slaw tasting for parents that although the term “slaw” is often assumed to mean coleslaw, it actually applies to any crunchy vegetable salad made mainly from raw vegetables. Her creations for the junior high students are Apple and Cabbage Slaw, Celery Root and Apple Slaw, Napa Cabbage and Black Bean Slaw and Fall Vegetable Slaw, the latter made with pumpkin seeds, squash, golden beets, spinach and fresh pears.

After the first two tastings, student reaction to Stegner’s fare has been mixed, but encouraging nevertheless. “It has been a great partnership so far,” says Sara Loeb, communications coordinator for the district. “Some of the kids were surprised by it and really enjoyed it, although some found it little more different than they were comfortable with.”

“Some kids loved it, some kids didn’t,” says Carol Wagner, a holistic nutrition consultant who advises the district. “But we all have learned that the more you introduce something new and the more they have an opportunity to taste it, the more you start to change their taste buds.”

“The whole idea is that we have a famous chef who can make things taste wonderful and is committed to the best-quality ingredients,” says Wagner. “We want the kids to learn that healthy food doesn’t have to taste like your shoes.”