Miami students cook up healthy Southern classics: In a historically black neighborhood tucked beneath two highways far from Miami Beach, students donned aprons Friday and cooked up a meal of collard greens, parmesan chicken and bread pudding.
Their menu: The tastes of the South and Caribbean. Their guest: Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, in town for the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. The twist: Classic recipes with a few healthy alterations.
'They are good!' Oliver proclaimed after settling into his greens.
Students at Booker T. Washington Senior High in Miami's Overtown neighborhood - a once-vibrant community where Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole and other stars performed - have for several years been spending hours after school, reinventing family classics and discovering a bit about themselves in the process. Haitian and Jamaican students learned about foods from the American South. Hispanic students got their first taste of collard greens. Others who didn't know their family history learned it through food.
