MHS students take to Instagram to explore culinary creation with school lunches
Sahaj Datta | The Chronicle
Crispy Chili Chicken, Special Sandwiches and Chicken Tandoor Soup. These are just a few of the creations that four Mason High School (MHS) freshmen have made using school cafeteria food. What started as a joke at the lunch table became a unique project showcasing creative dishes made from cafeteria leftovers.
The MHS Meal of the Day Instagram account has become a place for freshmen Rishabh Menon, Tejas Sriniketh, Anshul Kamineni and Sion Seebu to express their innovative reuse of leftovers, while also spreading an important message to their followers.
“There [were] a lot of leftovers [at lunch], so we didn’t just want to throw them away,” Menon said. “We tried to make something out of them so we’d have something more to eat, but also have fun with it.”
The groups’ recipes range from desserts such as a different take on the ice cream sandwich, using two of the cafeteria chocolate chip cookies and Hershey’s Chocolate Sundae, to meals like the Chicken Tandoor Soup, which includes the school’s chicken tikka masala, cucumber slices, crushed chips and drizzled ranch dressing. Other dishes they have made include the Crispy Chili Chicken (General Tso’s Chicken and Doritos) and Special Sandwiches (Goldkist Hot & Spicy Chicken Sandwich, lettuce, chips and ranch dressing).
“For [the Crispy Chili Chicken], we mainly used the orange chicken,” Menon said. “We just sprinkled Dorito powder on top, added extra chicken and called it a meal. It was really [simple], but it was different.”
Sriniketh, who handles the group’s social media along with Menon, said that moving from the middle school to the high school was a big change for them, not just socially. He said that although their group became more tight-knit when their surroundings increased, they also gained more opportunities in terms of food.
“When we came to the high school, we were shocked by the variety the school lunch gave us compared to the middle school,” Sriniketh said. “[We’ve been] using the menu to scout opportunities using the more diverse foods [in our posts].”
Right now, the group said they acknowledged that some of their food is inedible, like the Milk Salad, which they said was just some fruits and vegetables dumped in milk. Kamineni said that they sometimes mess around and that there are things the group could improve on.
“A goal we’re trying to work on is making our food more edible and tasty so that we don’t waste the leftovers, even when we’re making something [really weird] out of [them],” Kamineni said. “Our [account] was mainly about looks at first, but now we actually want to make [the food] taste good.”
Seebu said he and his friends started making their meals as a joke, but as time has gone on, they have become more serious about it. He also said he feels like their outreach to spread their message could be bigger.
“In the future, we [may] want to start a club that teaches people more about [food waste],” Seebu said. “This could let us inspire others and create a bigger impact on people to not waste their food.”
Menon said he wants to continue making more cafeteria creations throughout high school. He said that he doesn’t want to waste the opportunity he has to use social media and food as a platform to spread awareness about reducing waste and making the most out of what is available.
“We want to spread the message [to others],” Menon said. “Stop throwing away your food.”