Cooking for kings and queens

One City Schools Executive Chef Nick Johnson (photo credit: One City Schools)

The majority of Chef Nick Johnson’s career has been spent cooking and serving five-course meals and developing menus for fine-dining establishments like Rare Steakhouse, DelecTable and the former award-winning Restaurant Magnus in Madison, Wisconsin.

Today, Nick’s passion and love for the industry and cooking continues, but now, he’s cooking for his most honest food critics yet – students at One City Schools.

“I work for Kaleem [Founder and CEO of One City], but the kids are like my boss,” said Nick. “I treat every child at One City like they are a customer at my restaurant. I love the hospitality industry, but my hospitality is not just restaurants.”

Nick made the move from restaurant kitchen to school kitchen in January of 2021. While COVID shook things up in the restaurant industry, Nick’s journey to becoming Executive Chef at One City and his interest in school food programs had been on his mind for a few years.

“I feel like there’s a group of people that are forgotten about when it comes to food,” said Nick. “Kids and older adults. It’s easy to just give them any kind of food without thinking about it, but food is more than just substance.”

For Nick, food education and developing a love for it begins by building palates and peaking a child’s interest with a food’s backstory. From there, he believes an entrepreneurial mindset can be developed about food, which opens more avenues to the human services path in the future. “You can go be a nutritionist, run a food truck, be in management and more in this industry,” said Nick. “Cooking is there, but you can also do a lot of other things with food at the core.”

Food lessons are shared daily with Nick at the helm. He and his team make food from scratch every day as part of the Healthy Meals Program that began when One City opened in 2015. The program allows children to eat healthy prepared breakfast, lunch and a snack every day.

Each week, Nick plans a menu that has consisted of meals like lamb shawarma, pea curry chicken confit with brown rice, berbere spiced lentil and spinach soup and more. “One time I made them Creole popcorn chicken and they thought I went to KFC,” laughed Nick.

He follows all USDA guidelines and quantities, while also planning and cooking for any students who have dietary restrictions and needs. One City uses all fresh fruits and veggies and has partnerships with organizations like Artemis Provisions & Cheese to receive fresh meat.

“If we have a vegan student, I will make a vegan meal. Even if it’s just one,” said Nick. “We don’t have to, but we do. We’re a non-profit, so our goal is show people that healthy eating can still be done in schools. You can follow all the guidelines and still make things from scratch.”

He’ll often post his meals on social media (@chefnickjohnson or One City Schools) to show parents and the community he practices what he preaches. He utilizes several hashtags, one being #kidsdeservechefs, to drive his mission home.

“When the kids come to school, I want the families to understand that I will treat them like the kings and queens that they are,” said Nick. “Anything that I can do to spark some interest in agriculture, cooking and more. My goal is to have conversations around food.”

As a result of the Healthy Meals Program, staff has noticed higher energy levels, greater focus in the classroom and overall excitement about food. “It’s not, ‘I’m hungry, what are we having,’” said Nick. “It’s, the excitement of finding out what lunch is.”

During meal time, One City is served family style, so teachers can eat with their students and students can make their own choices. The family table model is implemented so students can carry that on beyond the walls of the school.

And while One City’s meal scene will get bigger as the school is moving campuses and is growing enrollment more each year, that fresh and healthy mindset will continue and grow.

“In the new school, we’re trying to put together a program for the kids that will be accessible, executable, and will have an outcome,” said Nick. “Food is not just cooking. It’s reflection, time management, people skills and more. I’m going to use food to teach them all that I can.”

Needless to say, #kidsdeservechefs.