Feeding Kids for $3.41 | Dan Giusti | TEDxCharlottesville

Dan Giusti, former chef de cuisine at world’s best restaurant Noma, talks about his venture into school lunch. Dan re-defines success with his company Brigaid, bringing chefs into schools to cook lunch from scratch all for $3.41. Raised in a large, food-loving Italian family, Dan Giusti attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and quickly rose the ranks of the culinary world. He served as Executive Chef of 1789 in Washington, D.C., then crossed the pond to work at Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark. After three years as Head Chef, he returned to the United States to tackle another challenge: school food.
In 2016, he founded Brigaid, which recruits trained chefs to lead institutional kitchens under the premise that students deserve real, wholesome food, cooked from scratch with care and passion. This guiding principle continues to inspire Dan’s work as he leads his teams in the schools of New London, Connecticut, and the Bronx. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@Fudgeey]

What an amazing feat. If I had to feed a whole school on $1.25, there would literally be pork and beans, rice and canned fruit every day. This man was able to produce a decent lunch, AND students ate it. Incredible.

[@lilianabatista9867]

We are put in this earth to help one another. This man gets it

[@derekpointer1592]

Everybody watch his KZbin vids they are very professional Epicurious . He does cooking on a budget vids they are really good.

[@willwatson4134]

This guy is incredible! It's so refreshing to see a master of something be so humble, you definitely don't see this enough!! Much respect to Dan!

[@chadloveland2821]

Dan is my favorite chef. Incredible guy, decorated chef! I watch all his Epicurious videos the day the drop and make at least one of the recipes everytime. Without fail every single one I've tried has been amazing (and I'm just a home cook who loves cooking, not a trained chef). He's certainly changed my cooking and I couldn't be more thankful towards him. Someday I wanna be a chef and he's certainly made me rethink various things about being a chef. Really incredible to step away from #1 restaurant and checking ones ego to make lunch better for other people. The word noble can get thrown around pretty hastily sometimes but this is honestly one of the more noble, idealist things I've ever seen. Great talk!

[@letterspace1letterspace266]

This brought tears knowing how many schools don't care

[@KoolRanqe]

This man is a hero

[@lukystarrk4life]

Fan of Dan from Epicurious 🥳 great series… inspiring

[@HeronCoyote1234]

Dan is amazing. I love watching his series on Epicurious (KZbin) in which he’s challenged to create meals under $3 or $4 from frozen veggies, or canned soup, or canned fish, or rotisserie chicken, or canned tomatoes (you get the idea).

[@kirika119]

He’s such a down to earth guy and he seems so genuine…I love this guy because he honestly wants to bring a little good into the world by feeding kids ^^

[@Danny_dboi]

How does this video only have 1.2k views?? :/

[@4seasons546]

August 28 2021 it shows 131 views?! … that’s one hundred & thirty one ☝️ views !? 🧐 not realistic

[@its.ronnie]

Thank you for your efforts Dan. You're a visionary. Wish I had someone like you in my school days. ♥

[@4seasons546]

August 28 2021 it shows 131 views that’s one hundred & thirty one ☝️ views !? Hmmm 🧐

[@animeboy2195]

You really cant hate this guy.

[@whiskeyandsarcasm]

Kids have a very unique way of humbling anyone. Dan's awesome.

[@xoshanland]

This whole approach reminds me of being an artist vs a designer. You can use your same set of skills for both but one is entirely your vision & the latter is all about creating something that is someone else’s ideal. Awesome work. :)

[@jeanniewahine5443]

Good point!

[@wmbrice]

Thank you for the work you do, Chef Dan!

[@Garfonzo]

never really had someone to look up to until i saw dan

[@evanhadkins5532]

Absolutely love what you're doing.

[@kristaholden7485]

Yeah this is fabulous! Great guy - great idea - great food (for kids)!

[@polarberri]

Dan is an inspiration. Thank you for all you do to increase awareness and education. You've made a difference to so many!

[@EnidTheGamesNihilist]

I love this man

[@SUPERajMUSIC]

I'm in love with him.

[@Ina_5686]

Chef Dan is amazing!

[@teschchr122]

You are amazing! Huge fan! Keep the great school lunches up, spread them to other institutions, but to keep feeding the masses keep the Epicurious series up, whether through you r own initiative or Epicurious. This is helping SO many people.

[@lorrie2878]

He's so cool. I watch him still.

[@deanbush]

The BEST TEDx talk I've ever watched! Thank you, Dan!

[@ThePricklyash]

Awesome 👏🏽

[@stanley-wong]

He's a God-send

[@kinggeedorah8953]

that was..nice. thank you for this.

[@BitesTheDusto]

Dan the fuckin man

[@emmahakkakzadeh8064]

Pretty cool dude

[@joubess]

Great program Dan! I love your work on Epicurious. It's fantastic. I've tried a few recipes and they are as easy and delicious as you claim. Also inexpensive. I'm older, and school food when I went to school was based on local staples, but it seemed we had either more money or the money we had went a lot farther 50 years ago. We had a meat protein, milk, a veggie, a starch, a fruit, and usually dessert. The food was pretty good too. I remember cleaning my plate every day. By the time I got to high school I was in New Orleans, and the best food was either the hot lunch line or the po-boy line. There were pizza and burgers, but they were pretty bad compared to the other two lines. Nearly everybody in New Orleans, in south Louisiana, knows how to cook, and I mean for real, knows how to cook. We don't eat beans and rice because they are cheap, although they are cheap, we eat them because that is some of the best food there is. Red beans and rice is a Monday staple because historically Monday is wash day and you don't have time to fuss in the kitchen. You soak your beans overnight, throw everything together in the morning and give it a stir every once in awhile when you walk by the pot. It simmers on very low heat all day, and by dinner time, it's fabulous. Many people use sausage in the beans now because we don't have ham for Sunday dinner anymore, but red beans were made off the ham bone left over from Sunday dinner. Anyway, the food we had in school was very good and plentiful, and came on a melanin tray that was washed and reused for years before it finally broke. We also had stainless flatware, not disposable. I went to public school, but I don't know how school lunch programs were run back then. I don't think we were as constrained by federal funding. Our school funding sources were more local and state. Most of our schools had a dietician in charge of the kitchen. I think one thing that would help is for the amount of money to be allocated per student should be increased, if not doubled. Environmentally, we should have melanin trays or plates that are washed or plates and trays that are washed. Water should come in a plastic washable cup. Milk in the pouch or carton. We should be able to pay a dishwasher, and the schools I attended had commercial automated dishwashers and someone to manage dishes. We had stainless flatware. But disposable is environmentally a bad idea. From my own experience I know it's cheaper to wash and reuse the dishes. They last far longer per penny than anything disposable. But I understand with that little money, if you have to pay a dishwasher it would seriously cut into the budget. It's great you are providing the food you are for the money you're given, and the kids like it and eat it (very important). I will take the position of pushing for more funding for school lunches. Even $4 per student would make a difference for you. I'm also trying to get my local grocery stores to carry water in 12 oz cans instead of plastic bottles. Cans are completely recyclable and leave no waste. There are enough waste plastic bottles to circle the Earth at least a few times. Drink tap water. If your tap water sucks, get a filter. If you must buy water, buy it returnable large plastic bottles, like 5 gallons or 2.5 gallons. If you buy it just to take along, buy it in aluminum cans.

[@blaqknite1445]

How much money gets eaten by middle men limiting what is available for lunches?

[@danasandlin2435]

For very young kids--plain is better--I would never serve them chili powder or lime juice...good luck, dts/usa

[@jeanniewahine5443]

I agree, but he pointed out that the area they were in had a predominantly Hispanic population and I think they assumed the children were used to eating this type of food or accustomed to those flavors.

[@genieinthepot2455]

that's called bland. bland food is not good.

[@jeanniewahine5443]

@@genieinthepot2455 to each their own, no?