Do-it-yourself delicacies

Danette Goulet

Little arms crisscrossed eagerly Tuesday morning as fifth-graders reached

for every imaginable ingredient, piling pizza bagels three and four

layers high.

“If my mom was here, she would say I was being a pig,” said 11-year-old

Andrea Catalan.

Students from Davis Education Center were learning from George Poston,

the executive chef of Maggiano’s Little ItalyRestaurant in Costa Mesa,

how to safely make after-school snacks for themselves.

“When I was growing up, both my parents worked. So if I wanted a snack

after school, I had to make it,” Poston told students.

Like Poston, many children from single-parent homes or whose parents both

work, must fend for themselves for several hours after school.

So Poston wants to act as a role model for children who may not have

someone to teach them how to make healthy snacks.

“I’ve been doing food demonstrations for a long time,” he said. “But it’s

different now that I have kids. I really see that they don’t know how to

cook food and it’s gross for them to eat chips and stuff all the time.”

Some of the students already knew how to make snacks for themselves, so

they just had fun with their classmates.

“I can make birthday cake all by myself,” Andrea said. “I cook dinner on

Saturdays. My mom usually wants to cook, but then I ask her if I can

cook.”

For others, however, it was a new experience to do it all on their own.

“I make French toast and tacos and burritos and burgers,” said

10-year-old Diann Heinrichs. “Well, my mom cooks those -- I make toast.”

Diann and her classmates are now able to make turkey burritos, pizza

bagels, English muffin pizzas, and stuffed baked potatoes.

“They were hoping they’d get to eat some of it,” said Diana Thompson, the

students’ fifth-grade teacher. “So they are really excited that they can

make three things themselves and eat them.”

Since all the recipes for snacks taught by Poston could be cooked in

microwave ovens, he taught them how microwaves actually work and how to

use them safely.

But before he began the program for the children, Poston got his own

little surprise.

Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan presented Poston with a plaque of

appreciation for all his hard work and dedication to the children of

Costa Mesa.

“We heard about it and decided to put together a proclamation,” Monahan

said. “He’s really good with the kids and trying to give a little back.”