After 22 years of creating healthy breakfasts and lunches that students rave about, Chef Paul Correnty is retiring as director of the Harvard schools’ food service. Superintendent Linda Dwight broke the news to the School Committee Monday evening.
Dwight told committee members Correnty had been “a true artist,” preparing nutritious meals that expanded students’ experience. She noted he had connected with local farms and used their fresh produce whenever possible. At the same time, he lowered costs by buying the oddly shaped or undersized fruits and vegetables that farmers couldn’t sell to supermarkets, but that were fine for cooking or chopping into prepared foods.
Dwight also noted Chef Paul’s service to the community beyond the schools, in cooking for town events and preparing soups and entrees for sale. The proceeds helped support the school meal programs. He also reached out to families in need and supplied food pantries with any surplus.
“I could go on for an hour about all he’s done,” Dwight said, as committee members nodded emphatically in agreement.
Increasing regulations and paperwork are the parts of the job that have turned Chef Paul away, according to Dwight. Harvard’s school food service has been audited consistently by the state for the past five years, checking for compliance with regulations.
In an interview several years ago, Chef Paul told the Press he didn’t want to pile a serving of vegetables on every plate if a kid was just going to scrape the veggies into the trash can. He preferred, he said, to convince students to help themselves to a small serving, in hopes they would learn they liked it. But this a la carte approach conflicted with the state’s requirement to serve vegetables with every meal, he said.
Dwight told the School Committee she is looking into dividing the food service director’s job into two positions: a chef to do food preparation and another person to handle paperwork and compliance with regulations. She said she hopes the latter might be a part-time position shared with another district. But, she said, she needs to go over the finances with the school business manager to see if the idea is feasible.
Chef Paul wants to make sure his legacy continues, Dwight said. And School Committee member Abby Besse pointed out that the motto above the door to the new elementary school cafeteria is “Fresh, healthy, and local.”
Meanwhile, Correnty will not be leaving Harvard altogether. He wrote in an email to the Press, “I’ve been offered an opportunity to pursue another passion of mine: cidermaking! Steve Rowse [of Old Littleton Road] … who owns New England Apple Products and produces copious amounts of sweet cider and Carlson’s hard ciders, asked me on board to help develop and ferment new ciders for the Cider Barn and the Carlsons’ canned lineup. This is very exciting for me, as we’ll be using many local fruits and ingredients in the same way as we did in our school kitchens. Sooooooo, I’m not really retiring, just moving up the hill!”
