Chef Kent Getzin Consulting

Chef Kent Getzin Consulting Leader in the transformation of the child nutrition industry. Continue to earn reimbursements while receiving quality skills you teams can use tomorrow!

We inspire confidence and purpose in school nutrition professionals, empowering them to serve beautiful, nourishing meals that kids love! With 42 years of successful, innovative foodservice industry experience, Creative Culinary Solutions is prepared to assist with just about anything food-industry related that you can imagine. Through Kent Getzin Consulting, I offer a wide variety of consulting s

ervices to schools and restaurants. Services will include but are not limited to:

SERVICES

"Live Setting" Meal Preparation Trainings: Train your teams in their live work environment, during production. No need to wait for early release days to train your teams. "Live Setting" Meal Preparation Trainings will help your staff learn and retain more of the information they learn because they will see the immediate results, being served to your students! Designed to meet new professional standards regulations.

- Menu and Recipe Development
- Administrative Review Prep
- Wellness Policy Update Assistance
- New School Food Service Director Training
- Interim Director and Transitional Services
- Live and Webinar Speaking Events
- Troubleshooting, Technical Assistance and problem-solving your most complex food service issues.

Hey there! its almost Friday! You made it! Whoop!Remember my new Chilaquiles recipe that Melanie tested out for me?Well,...
04/23/2026

Hey there! its almost Friday! You made it! Whoop!

Remember my new Chilaquiles recipe that Melanie tested out for me?

Well, I have a couple more recipes that I am looking for a few lovely school food folks like yourselves to try out!

Now, these aren't "untested" recipes. I have made them but these are a couple breakfast ditties I want to test with a real food service team and on real kids to get thought and opinions on!
Plus, they are really freak'n tasty or I wouldn't even put out the offer.

And, no worries about failing, either. I'm going to walk you through the whole thing all the way! Think of it as a remote cooking class! You just need to commit to sharing your results and a few pics.

Here is a pic to entice. Oh, and ZERO added-sugar!

More that one school can give it a go!

So who is in?

Earth Day reminder from the kitchen:Scratch cooking reduces packaging waste, supports local farms, and helps kitchens us...
04/23/2026

Earth Day reminder from the kitchen:

Scratch cooking reduces packaging waste, supports local farms, and helps kitchens use ingredients more efficiently.

Small changes in how we cook can make a big difference.

Happy Earth Day! šŸŒŽļøšŸ©µ

One question I get a lot is: Whatā€™s the difference between a Live-Setting training and a Lab-Setting training?Both appro...
04/21/2026

One question I get a lot is: Whatā€™s the difference between a Live-Setting training and a Lab-Setting training?

Both approaches are hands-on and focused on helping school nutrition teams build the skills and systems needed to cook more meals from scratch. The difference is really about the environment and the learning experience.

šŸ„•Live-Setting trainingsšŸ„• happen during a regular school day in your own kitchen. Your team prepares a scratch-cooked menu to full scale from start to finish and serves it to students, all while learning practical techniques they can use every day. Itā€™s real-world training in your real work environment.

šŸ„•Lab-Setting trainingsšŸ„• take place away from the rush of service, usually on early-release or non-student days. This setting gives staff time to slow down, focus on specific skills, and build confidence before applying those techniques back in their kitchen.

Both approaches help teams strengthen skills, improve kitchen systems, and move toward doing more and more scratch cooking every day.

If either (or both!) of these sound like exactly what your team needs, let me know! I'll walk you through next steps.

We think Bradley said it best "Thank you for the food today. I liked the food. You guys made good food." Thanks Bradley ...
04/16/2026

We think Bradley said it best "Thank you for the food today. I liked the food. You guys made good food." Thanks Bradley šŸ„¹ feedback like this makes it all worth it!

Thanks so much Melissa, excitement in the kitchen is always the goal!
04/14/2026

Thanks so much Melissa, excitement in the kitchen is always the goal!

No ifs ands or buts about it, scratch cooking programs succeed because of people!Over the years Iā€™ve learned the most su...
04/09/2026

No ifs ands or buts about it, scratch cooking programs succeed because of people!

Over the years Iā€™ve learned the most successful programs all have something in common: teams who feel confident, supported, and proud of the work they do.

Equipment can help. Systems matter. But the real transformation happens when school food pros realize they have the skills and support to make great food from scratch every day!

Looky this... šŸ‘€šŸ‘€šŸ‘€ We are Almost Famous! An article Chef Laura and I wrote hit the California SNA Poppy Seeds quarterly J...
04/08/2026

Looky this... šŸ‘€šŸ‘€šŸ‘€ We are Almost Famous!

An article Chef Laura and I wrote hit the California SNA Poppy Seeds quarterly Journal!

It is about Scratch Cooking in Schools and that is what we are all about!

By the way, we post lots of great, kid-tested recipes and things to really make you think about the importance of feeding kids well in our nations public schools!

What you do everyday is incredibly important work. Like I need to tell YOU that! šŸ˜œ

Please take a look, then follow, like and share!

Here is a link to the full publication: https://view.flipdocs.com/CalSNASpring2026

This Chicken Fried Rice recipe is a favorite with the kids, and is WAY easier to prep at scale than you think!
04/07/2026

This Chicken Fried Rice recipe is a favorite with the kids, and is WAY easier to prep at scale than you think!

04/06/2026

I think the faces here say it all. It feels gooooood when your team realizes they can, in fact, do it! šŸ’Ŗ
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Hey you! In case you're new here, I'm Chef Kent Getzin. I travel all around the country leading the charge in the transformation of the child nutrition industry. I work every day to inspire confidence and purpose in school food pros, empowering them to serve beautiful, nourishing meals that kids love!

Part 3: Melanieā€™s Chilaquiles Test at Wright Elementary District! This will be the final installment in this follow-up t...
04/02/2026

Part 3: Melanieā€™s Chilaquiles Test at Wright Elementary District!

This will be the final installment in this follow-up to the Convection Oven Chilaquiles test that Melanie and Stephanie so graciously agreed to test last week with kids and share about it.

Thanks Again Melanie and Stephanie!

ABOUT SERVING THE CHILAQUILES:
Melanieā€™s comments (in quotation marks):

"The first group of students I served with the extra chips in the boat, on the side. The second group of students I served a bag of chips on the side instead. It was much easier to serve the bag of chips and less time prepping."

"I did have everything cooked 45 minutes before serving time. However, I hadnā€™t added the chips yet. I added the chips to the eggs and mixed them together about 20 minutes before serving because I needed time to scoop the eggs into the boats.
It's just me and Stephanie back here, thatā€™s why it was a lot easier just to serve with a small bag of chips instead of having to put chips into each boat also."

Chef Kentā€™s Comments:
When youā€™re faced with a lean crew, you gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done!

This is what Schools Food Pros are best at, making it happen under pressure!

This was the first time Melanie had ever made this recipe, so she had no idea how long it was really going to take except for my semi-educated guess. šŸ˜³

And now that we know it took 10 minutes at 375 to be completely done (and actually less time considering the temp was 180 when she checked it) then I would try to cook closer to service time.

I would also choose to make it on sheet pans instead of 2-inch hotel pans. A parchment papered, well oiled sheet pan as the recipe recommends will clean up a lot easier than a 2-inch hotel pan.

The recipe also talks about puddling the HEATED salsa in the egg mixture. Letā€™s skip the heating of the salsa part, as I now think itā€™s unnecessary and will save time.

The recipe recommends NOT stirring the salsa into the egg mixture. This is really great advice for the Combi oven approach, but with Convection, Iā€™m thinking a little bit of stirring would be good.

So, next time I would puddle the salsa as the recipe states but then SWIRL the salsa around, in the egg mixture, just a little bit with a spoon or a finger before applying the cheese layer. I think this will improve that texture and eliminate the need to stir midway through the cook.

I would also recommend reducing the temperature 325, but stick with the estimated cook time of 10 minutes.

AND... HOW DID THE KIDS LIKE IT:

ā€¦. And this is the best part, Melanie said,

ā€œIt was a big hit. The students are already asking when they can have it again. I will definitely be incorporating it into our menus.ā€

Chef Kentā€™s comment: Wahoo!!

Itā€™s so great that the kids loved it! Itā€™s also that we created a savory,
NO-SUGAR-ADDED breakfast to our morning lineup!

Letā€™s face it, we could stand to eliminate as many of those sugar loaded breakfasts as possible from our school menus.

If you made it this far, thank you for following this test!

I have another one in mind! Anyone interested?

Let me know and I will get the ball rolling.

Let's get saucy šŸ’ƒ One skill that changes everything in a school kitchen: scratch sauces.A few simple sauces in the rotat...
04/02/2026

Let's get saucy šŸ’ƒ

One skill that changes everything in a school kitchen: scratch sauces.

A few simple sauces in the rotation can completely change the way a kitchen operates! They add flavor, flexibility, and give teams more options when building menus.

More than anything, they build confidence. Once a team learns how to create powerful flavor from scratch, cooking becomes easier and A LOT more enjoyable!

Here's the thing. I know all about these super fun things called budgets, and they don't scare me. Know what does scare ...
03/31/2026

Here's the thing. I know all about these super fun things called budgets, and they don't scare me.

Know what does scare me? The ingredients list on all those pre-packaged breakfast items. šŸ«£

Everyone assumes scratch cooking will increase costs, but with the right purchasing strategies and menu planning, the opposite is often true. If you're ready to make a change but budget is a concern (and let's be honest, when is it not??) I can help!

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Chelan, WA

Telephone

(509) 668-8578

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With 40 years of successful, innovative foodservice industry experience, Creative Culinary Solutions is prepared to assist with just about anything food-industry related that you can imagine. Through Kent Getzin Consulting, I offer a wide variety of consulting services to schools and restaurants. Services will include but are not limited to: SERVICES "Live Setting" Meal Preparation Trainings: Train your teams in their live work environment, during production. Continue to earn reimbursements while receiving quality skills you teams can use tomorrow! No need to wait for early release days to train your teams. "Live Setting" Meal Preparation Trainings will help your staff learn and retain more of the information they learn because they will see the immediate results, being served to your students! Designed to meet new professional standards regulations. - Menu and Recipe Development - Administrative Review Prep - Wellness Policy Update Assistance - New School Food Service Director Training - Interim Director and Transitional Services - Live and Webinar Speaking Events - Troubleshooting, Technical Assistance and problem-solving your most complex food service issues.