Rachael Ray is now making New York City public school lunches.

Well, not with her own hands. But she is providing the recipes for cafeterias as part of a collaboration with the city’s Department of Education.

On Thursday, 600,000 students in the public school system, from kindergartners to 12th graders, will be able to sample the menu she developed — whole-wheat flatbread with roasted chicken, a ratatouille-style stew with beans, and corn salad on top. (Plus a side of broccoli.) The recipe, which uses items already on the public school ingredients list, will be available for cafeterias to make as they please.

On Monday morning, Ms. Ray — flanked by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn and other government officials — gave a sneak preview at P.S. 89/I.S. 289 in TriBeCa.

The strategy is to make food that excites students. “We want good food to sound as bad for them as bad food,” Ms. Ray said.

While the city has collaborated with a number of chefs to develop menus, including those from Candle 79 on the Upper East Side, Ms. Ray is the highest-profile celebrity chef they have worked with. In London, the chef Jamie Oliver did a similar project that became an award-winning television series. The teachers there reported a decrease in manic behavior and an increase in concentration after the menu was remade, and the school nurses noted a reduced number of asthma attacks. Those findings helped persuade the British government to invest more than a billion dollars to overhaul school lunches.

Source: cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com