CEO dishes about school food service during visit to North

GROSSE POINTE WOODS — The man in the white chef’s jacket serving the Spanish paella he’d been working on since morning might not have been familiar to students at Grosse Pointe North High School, but his company certainly is.

Bruce Taher, the CEO of Taher Inc. — the food service firm that provides meals to students in the Grosse Pointe Public School System — returned to his roots Sept. 25 to prepare this dish for hundreds of students, staff and district officials.

“We just love having fun with the kids, giving them an educational experience as well as good food,” Taher said. 

North was one of a handful of schools that Taher, who lives in Minneapolis, was visiting and cooking dishes at as part of a national tour. Rodel V. Endaluz, Taher Inc. district manager for Michigan, said Bruce Taher visits about 14 school districts a year.

“When do you have the owner of your company come and serve food?” asked Board of Education President Sean Cotton, noting the rare nature of this event.

But to Taher, getting behind the stove is a vital part of running his company.

“This is really CEO work,” Taher said. “This is what every CEO should do — to be in touch with your products, services and customers.”

Paella is actually the name of the pan — a large, round pan with a flat bottom — that’s used to cook it.

“(Paella) is a fall season menu item,” Taher said. “In Spain this time of year, you can go to various areas (and get it). It’s also very pretty.”

Endaluz said in Spain, every member of a family brings a different ingredient for the paella, such as the sauce, rice, chicken or peas. He said the dish is typically made outdoors. Different cultures make paella with different ingredients, based on what’s available and regional tastes, Endaluz said.

For Taher’s paella, lemon wedges garnished the edge of the pan, with giant farm-raised shrimp from India and mussels from Canada occupying prominent placement in the center, where they stood out against a backdrop of bright green peas and fiery orange sauce.

“This is fun, to see the kids hover around,” Taher said as students gathered to dish out servings for themselves. “You can just see the interest.”

He was happy to answer questions or tell students more about paella and its origins.

At a time when obesity and conditions like diabetes are on the rise, Taher believes school food providers can make a difference by giving students flavorful, healthy options.

“We value fresh food and instead of talking about it, we should be modeling it,” Taher said of his company’s emphasis on using fresh, sustainable ingredients as much as possible.

Many students said they’d never tried paella before, including freshman Hadley Beal, of Grosse Pointe Woods.

“It’s pretty good,” Beal said. “I like mine.”

Freshman classmate Adrianna Bogner, of Grosse Pointe Woods, also said the dish was good. She had never had it before.

“I like it,” said sophomore Nicholas Davidson, of Harper Woods, another newcomer to paella.

Sophomore Chris Caldwell, of Grosse Pointe Woods, concurred.

“I thought it was a pretty solid meal,” Caldwell said. “I’ve never tried it before.”

What Taher and the other visiting guest chefs prepare at the schools they serve is based on what school officials think the students might like to try, along with other considerations.

“Our biggest objective all the time is to have a dialogue with the students, find out their preferences,” Taher said. “When you have an opportunity to talk to that many students, it always makes an impression.”

Endaluz said Taher Inc. has a chef council — headed by Bruce Taher — that travels to different countries each year to learn about the cuisine there and get tips from local chefs. Last year, he said, they visited Croatia. The year before, Endaluz said, the council went to Thailand and the Philippines.

The chef council has chefs specializing in Lebanese, Italian and Japanese cooking, among others, and they visit schools regularly to make special meals for students.

“It’s important for us because it creates cultural awareness and it’s introducing (students) to different types of dishes,” Endaluz said.

He said there’s a greater desire among people to travel the world, and sampling a new dish might inspire students to learn more about a country or visit it themselves.

“We’re not just trying to feed students,” said Chris Vinson, vice president of business development at Taher. “We’re trying to create an experience.”

That’s not to say that school lunches are all international cuisine items — kids can still get staples like pizza and tacos. But Taher also wants to broaden that menu.

The GPPSS started using Taher for food services last year. Brandy Pavlik, GPPSS’s executive director of finance and operations, said the contract has to be renewed every year through the state.

Cotton said the company has been “a really great partner.”

“The usage of food is really up,” Cotton said. His own sons are among those giving Taher Inc.’s food high marks.

North Assistant Principal Kevin Shubnell said the school staff was excited about Bruce Taher’s visit.

“For students, it’s not the regular food for them but they’re sampling it,” Shubnell said. “It’s a really cool opportunity to have Bruce here.”

Although Taher provides food services to school districts in 27 states and has consistently been ranked as a Top 25 Food Service Management Company by Food Management Magazine, it’s not as well known in Michigan, where it’s only used by about four districts.

“We’re just very appreciative of the opportunity to be here in Grosse Pointe and to impact the lives of the kids,” Taher said.

Bruce Taher was born in Iran and came to the United States to attend the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics.

“I came here as a 19-year-old student with no money, washing dishes in the college cafeteria, and I’ve been in the kitchen ever since,” Taher said.

He would go on to earn an MBA from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Along the way, he earned money for school washing dishes and later, cooking them, which is where he developed his skills in the kitchen.

Taher founded his company 43 years ago. The father of three adult kids and six grandchildren ages 2 to 12 is 80 but still loves going to work every day.

“Working is fun, having the opportunity to contribute,” Taher said.