The Revere High School cafeteria staff has begun cooking certain lunch items in house with a new process that makes lunches cheaper and of higher quality.

Beginning this year, the Revere Café  implemented a process known as speed scratch. This technique allows certain lunch items to be made mostly in house, and with plans to expand the process in the future, students could notice a major difference in the food they are being served in the coming years.

Revere Local Schools Food Director Aaron Gnap used pizza to explain speed scratch.

“We’re not making the pizza dough here, but we’ll get a raw dough in and then we top it and make them [the pizzas] ourselves,” Gnap said.

This system does not just speed up the process, but Gnap explained how this makes food “healthier because there are less preservatives” and how they are “using fresher ingredients” which should create a superior product.

Having lunches made in house does have its many benefits, but it also comes with some limitations which are drawn by a mix of cost and a lack of special equipment.

Head Chef Ricardo Alaimo explained some of these limiting factors.

“A lot is restricted to either cost or what we can get in from the government. A lot of the food that we get in is through a commodity program,” Alaimo said.

Though there are many items that would be possible to make in house Alaimo explained how he has “been wanting to make fresh burgers here which would be very time consuming, and would be so much more money.”

Further limitations come in a lack of equipment, specifically in items that require special equipment. Alaimo explained how making chicken tenders in house would be nearly impossible because the kitchen “does not have a deep fryer.”

While making items may increase Café employees’ workload, cook Nicki Tessmer explained how she thought the benefits outweigh the cons.

 “Making the food in house majorly increases quality, which in turn increases the amount of food purchased, so it is really a win-win,” Tessmer said.

Both Gnap and Alaimo hope to expand the speed scratch process in the future, but shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic have limited the expansion of speed scratch items available this year. However pizza, pasta dishes, and many specialty items will be available year round made fresh daily.