Our first School Meal Challenge event was held on April 26, 2018 at Southern Season in Chapel Hill. Chef Sean Fowler, Chef Bo Peterson, Chef Regan Stachler, and Chef Jake Wood created delicious and healthy school meals for fifty school meal advocates and parents to taste. Each meal provided a serving of a healthy protein, a serving of vegetables, a serving of fruit, and a whole grain.
Chef Sean Fowler of Mandolin in Raleigh has a deep love for made-from-scratch meals and cooking with high quality, seasonal ingredients. While tending his family’s garden, licking spoons in his grandmothers’ kitchens, and hunting and fishing in the fields and streams of the Southeast with his father, he learned the bounty that North Carolina’s farms and waters provide, and their deep connection to the community. After attending culinary school at Johnson & Wales in Colorado, Fowler honed his skills at the legendary 3 Michelin Star Le Bernardin in New York City, and then as a chef at AAA, 5-Diamond Fearrington House Restaurant in Pittsboro, NC – both of whom put a premium on celebrating ingredients at their peak. In 2011, Fowler returned home to debut his own restaurant, where classic technique and North Carolina’s freshest ingredients would be at the center of the plate. Fowler puts a premium on locally sourced ingredients from nearby farms, including from his own Mandolin Farm.
Chef Bo Peterson of Primal in Durham grew up in a small town in Michigan. After spending time in Las Vegas and New York, Peterson has made North Carolina his home, along with his wife, Jessica, and two sons, Oscar and Magnus. Peterson is interested in giving a different perspective on how school lunches can be made.
Chef Regan Stachler was born and raised in Florida, and has been working in professional kitchens for over twenty years. In his early twenties, Regan rapidly worked his way up into leadership positions in several restaurants in Florida. This experience shaped his time in culinary school in NYC, and as he sought to further refine and develop his talent in some of the best restaurants in NYC. Regan’s resume includes the famed Gramercy Tavern, Osteria del Circo (owned by the Maccioni family of Le Cirque), and Country (Geoffrey Zakarian). Trained and experienced in the style of European cuisines, after relocating to the Triangle, Regan worked at Piedmont before opening Little Hen in 2012, an acclaimed restaurant which was awarded 4.5 stars by N&O reviewer, Greg Cox. In 2013, Regan also founded a culinary pop up event concept – ChickenWire; events gather the Triangle’s best chefs to raise funds to benefit not-for-profit organizations. Since closing Little Hen in 2017, Regan founded a prepared foods and catering company – Hull Foods through which he also crafts pasta and is a vendor at local farmers markets.
Chef Jake Wood of 18 Seaboard in Raleigh grew up in Apex, NC and has family in Apex, New Hill, Moncure, Garner, and Winston-Salem. Before becoming the Executive Chef at 18 Seaboard, Wood created the food program and pokè menu at Raleigh Raw and was the head sushi chef at The Cowfish Sushi Burger Bar in Raleigh. Wood credits his grandparents, who grew up poor on farms in the country, for his passion for seafood, barbeque, and southern farm-to-table cuisine.