The Clean Plate Club

By offering kids healthy options and unique culinary events, clubs are securing their position—and future—as a smart dining choice.

by Joanna Lefebvre (jll@clubandresortbusiness.com)
August 2008
 

SUMMING IT UP • Healthy kids’ food is “a huge, untapped market,” one club chef feels. • Menus that show you care about the health of your younger members and guests can pay off—with kids and their parents—in both the near and long terms. • Kids will gravitate to healthier options, especially when there’s a chance to be part of the preparation process.

Is it wrong to offer a hot dog on your kids’ menu? Absolutely not. But by offering healthful alternatives alongside long-time favorites, clubs are showing they care about the next generation of members—and that can go a long way towards securing their own futures, too.

Some clubs, though, argue that while healthful kids’ menus are a great idea in theory, they’re not a smart business decision. If you don’t offer your young customers the french fries and hamburgers they crave, this thinking holds, they’ll go somewhere else that will.

But those who have ventured beyond just offering the old stand-bys in club and resort settings report there’s plenty of hunger among younger members and guests for foods that are healthful and delicious, too.

“Kids are catching on,” says Ellen Burke Van Slyke, Corporate Director, Creative Food and Beverage for Loews Hotels. “They still may want those chicken fingers, but instead of french fries, they’re asking for a fruit salad or carrot sticks.”

In response, clubs and resorts have improved the health profile of many of their dishes without compromising taste, so their menus can appeal to the full range of dietary possibilities. This has helped secure their position as a family-friendly dining-out choice now—and in the future.

Taking it a step further, clubs and resorts are building onto their kid-friendly menus with activities such as kids’ cooking classes, make-your-own-pizza night and garden tours.

A Class of Their Own
Most parents rarely cover etiquette basics for sushi with their kids. But that’s not to say kids aren’t interested.

“Sushi is an interesting phenomenon in this country,” says Burke Van Slyke. “Fifteen years ago, no one knew what sushi was. Now, it is becoming an American staple—and kids are especially interested.”

Chef Osamu “Fuji” Fujita, Master Sushi Chef of the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort, is teaching them all about it with his brand-new “SushiSKool,” developed exclusively for kids visiting the property.

“Chef Fuji” of the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort takes kids to “SushiSKool,” an activity developed exclusively for children of guests at the property.

“Kids crave creative attention as much as grownups,” says Burke Van Slyke. “Fuji’s program sets a higher standard on culinary activities for children.”

Held on Saturdays throughout the summer, the one-hour class is designed to teach kids—ages 5 through teens—the basics of ordering and eating different types of sushi, all while mastering the finer points of chopstick strategy.

Although it may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about kids’ cuisine, Chef Fuji’s pint-sized participants have lots of fun sampling gari (pickled ginger), wasabi (Japanese horseradish), shoyu (soy sauce) and sip ocha (green tea) during the class.

“Fuji is such an interesting and exotic character that the kids are captivated by his lessons,” says Burke Van Slyke. “The class appeals to them, and sushi is in perfect, bite-sized pieces.”

The progam’s “cool factor” can’t be denied. After class, kids take home a “Sushi Savvy” gift bag filled with a SushiSKool t-shirt, Chef Fuji’s Guide to Sushi, chopsticks, a CD of photos from the class, and a discount card mom and dad can use at one of the resort’s restaurants.

At another Loews property, the Coronado Bay Resort near San Diego, huge windows look out into courtyards full of tropical landscaping. One courtyard is dedicated to a spectacular herb garden, which has become the center of another popular kids-focused culinary activity.

“The chef will take a groups of kids out to the herb garden,” says Burke Van Slyke. “Just last week, we had a bunch of mint ready to be picked. So the chef took the kids out and explained how the herbs grow and can be used in different dishes. Then they came back into the kitchen, and the chef taught them how to make a mint pesto.”

To eat with the pesto, each child was given a crostini with goat cheese and lemon verbana.

Get the Kids, Get the Parents
As part of its effort to join the family-friendly trend, Olde York Country Club (OYCC), a private facility located in Chesterfield, N.J., now provides food that kids like and that also meets with their parents’ approval.

“The number of establishments that serve wholesome and inviting foods for children is limited. It is a huge, untapped market,” says Jeffrey DeLawder, OYCC’s Executive Chef. “If we take the time to care about the entire family, then the possibility of new members is far more likely.”

Olde York’s kids’ menu is filled with familiar foods kids love—chicken fingers, pizza, and pasta. However, by adding a few interesting twists, DeLawder has improved upon these long-time favorites without any comments of ‘ew,’ ‘yuck,’ or ‘gross’ from the little ones.

“We use fresh, wholesome ingredients and develop funny words, cool garnishes, and puzzles that keep kids occupied,” says DeLawder, who preserves the vegetables’ vitamins by only cooking them briefly, and bakes chicken fingers instead of frying them.

At Tuscawilla CC, if a child chooses from each of the healthy food stations, he or she gets a free dessert.

“Kids like to have fun with their food, so we came up with a dish called ‘slippery noodles’ [rigatoni with a small amount of butter] that always makes them laugh,” he explains. For the more adventurous eaters, OYCC offers a Smoked Gouda Caesar Pita Pizza.

“Children aren’t afraid of more complex flavor combinations—and parents like to see more unique options for their kids on the club’s menu,” says DeLawder. “Members enjoy coming out to an establishment where their children can eat well and have fun.”


Spreading the Disney Magic
“If a child can customize his or her meal, be it toppings on a pizza or a choice of a side dish, he or she typically has a more enjoyable, memorable experience,” says Luis Navarro, recently appointed as the new Executive Chef at Celebration (Fla.) Golf Club. “Kids are more exposed to the process of cooking than ever before, so it’s important to get them involved.”

Navarro brought more than 15 years of kid-food experience with him to Celebration, having worked at three different restaurants within The Walt Disney Company. (Disney got out in front of the healthy kids-food trend a few years ago, when it instituted nutritional guidelines in all of its U.S. parks and resorts, stating that kids’ meals are to be automatically served with low-fat milk, 100-percent fruit juice or water, and side dishes like applesauce or carrots, in place of the traditional soft drinks and French fries.)

“At Disney, we would do cooking demos where the kids could get involved,” says Navarro. “They really enjoyed working alongside the chefs.

“So, while we’re working on developing our new menu here at Celebration,” he adds, “we are also going to try and incorporate more interactive culinary activities to get the kids involved, like make-your-pizza night and create-your-own-cookie day.”

Down to Their Level
Wednesday is Family Buffet night at Tuscawilla Country Club in Winter Springs, Fla., a family-friendly club with more than 600 members. And according to Brian Matt, the club’s General Manager, the buffet generates a great deal of buzz with younger members.

Olde York CC’s Executive Chef Jeffrey DeLawder gets kids involved in the cooking process with programs like make-your-own pizza.

In addition to the adult table, Tuscawilla offers a kids’ buffet geared to little ones 10 and under. This is literally a scaled-down effort: the tables are knee-to-hip height, with the legs folded down so the table can rest on milk crates.

There are three stations on the kids’ buffet. The first offers whole fresh fruit, in addition to fruit cups and sliced fruit. The salad station houses both composed and green salads that kids can build themselves. And the entrée station features two dishes, typically a pasta dish, such as fusilli with a homemade marinara and roasted vegetables, and a sliced roasted chicken.

The catch? Tuscawilla offers a complimentary dessert to any child who eats at all three stations.

“If a child doesn’t eat from each station, they can pay $2 for the dessert, which is either ice cream or sorbet,” says Matt. And he reveals a clever strategy for helping kids pick—and eat—a well-rounded meal. “It’s all in how you display it,” he says. “Green and slimy foods, like steamed spinach, never work with kids. But blanched, bright-colored vegetables, like squash, sweet potatoes, or broccoli, go over really well.”

Furthering the display angle, props and themes play a key role in the success of the buffet buzz. “We’ve done everything from Indiana Jones to SpongeBob,” says Matt. “The kids are always guessing what the theme will be next week.”