CV puts baked french fries to the test

In the market for some well-used deep fryers?

The Central Valley School District just might be able to hook you up.

As part of the push to offer kids healthier foods, the district is ditching its fryers; a daunting task considering the vats of oil churn out nearly 1,000 servings of french fries a day – at University High School alone, says Duane Smilden, the district’s director of nutrition services.

“That’s a lot of grease, a lot of oils and a lot of fries,” Smilden says.

So, Smilden and his crew went on a quest to find the tastiest baked fries, ones that fry-addicted teenagers would actually buy.

Toward the end of the school year, he launched “Free French Fry Friday,” in which kids were given free servings of baked fries in exchange for their reviews.

He tested baked fries at University High and at Central Valley High School. The kids gave their not-so-greasy thumbs-up to the Infinity Fry, a trans-fat-free product made by the J.R. Simplot Co., Smilden says. (The fries are available to wholesale customers only. Home cooks looking for baked fries without trans fats should check out Alexia’s line of frozen potato products.)

“They were impressed once again,” he reported after a taste test earlier this month at Central Valley.

Besides tasting good, the baked fries stayed crispy while being kept warm, he says.

“We’re looking at 900 servings a day of fries,” Smilden says. “Can we get that many cooked and held? Can we cook 20 bags and hold them all period and not have them be soggy?”

He plans on putting Infinity fries on the menu this fall.

He also tested out some no-trans-fat baked tater nuggets to good reviews.

Almost all of the fryers have been removed from Spokane Public Schools, says Doug Wordell, the district’s director of nutrition services. Two schools are undergoing fryer-ectomies this summer, and North Central’s fryer – the last in the district – will be carted off next summer.

The time table is due largely to logistics, he says. Electrical systems need to be rewired to accommodate the increased load of extra ovens.

The district has also switched to baked-potato products, including fries and tots and wedges, he says.

“The best feedback I get is when I sit with the students,” Wordell says. “They prefer the coated fries or the fried fries, (but) the newer products are good, and they’re eating them. They’re OK.

“We’re about modeling different choices. We’re about modeling portion control. We’re about modeling not having heavier-fat items all the time.”

Right now, Smilden is in the market for some new ovens to accommodate all of the baked products. And he still has some fryers to dispose of, too.

“The problem I’m going to have is getting rid of the fryers,” he says. “Nobody wants them.”