| SAITAMA, Jul. 17 – Eat French cuisine at school and feel additional excitement for the Paris Olympics and Paralympics Games!
On July 16, five primary schools in Honjo City, Saitama Prefecture, served “Olympics School Lunch” as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games opening is approaching. Students thoroughly enjoyed traditional French cuisine at school. Just before noon, serving carts carrying soft baguettes, Julienne soup cooked with bacon, cabbage from the neighboring town of Kamisato, and some other ingredients, and chicken white bean Cassoulet stewed in tomato sauce were brought to classrooms at Honjo Higashi Primary School. Julienne is a French word for cutting vegetables and ingredients into strips. The menu to celebrate the Games in Paris was developed through trial and error by Minori Kuroiwa, a 28-year-old school nutritionist who works at Honjo Kamisato School Lunch Center. The center provides school lunches to schools in Honjo City and Kamisato Town. “I hope that the Games in Paris will encourage students to become more interested in unfamiliar French cuisine,” she said. “The sauce (of the cassoulet) is thick and so good,” a 12-year-old sixth grader, Daigo Sakaue, said. “Do the Japanese players eat them in Paris?” he wondered. Also, many students said, “We’ll cheer for France and Japan!”  Students enjoying Olympics-themed school lunch (in Honjo City, Saitama Prefecture) |