It’s hard to make food look good and beautiful for an extended period of time without running out.”

Chef Mike Demos

Hastings middle schoolers nervously approached the table, taking a serving of Thai peanut chicken noodles, mumbling thanks before fleeing back to their tables. Others eyed the servings of noodles, recoiling as they realized it was peanut sauce covering them. Others still pilfered servings before being dismissed to lunch and returned with empty trays, asking for seconds even as the lunchroom cleared.
It was the full expanse of reactions to the cuisine served by Chef Mike Demos across Hastings’ schools.
“It can be hit or miss,” said Demos.
Since January 2024, Chef Mike—as he is known across the district—has been traveling between all of ISD 200’s schools serving from scratch or speed-scratch meals that push at the boundaries of students’ pallets.
On Wednesday, March 12, that meal was Thai peanut chicken noodles. While the entree at the middle school that day was hot dogs and hamburgers, at a table set up at the front of the lunchroom, Demos served tasting portions of Thai peanut chicken noodles. Demos travels through the districts’ schools serving meals ranging from huevos rancheros burritos and churros French toast bake to orange chicken and Vietnamese chicken banh mi sandwiches. The most successful meals are graduated to the schools’ regular menu.
“We want them to be open to new things. If it’s a hit we can put it on the menu so it’s not the end of the world if they don’t see chicken nuggets for a week,” said Demos.
Such winners include honey garlic chicken stir fry and cheeseburger fries. Despite that, “we’d really love to say it’s an exact science,” but what works one day or one lunch period might not work the next.
While the seventh and eighth graders seemed wary of the Thai peanut chicken noodles, Damos couldn’t keep the noodles on the table for the fifth graders who lined up before him waiting to get their own bowl. Similar dissonance occurred with the cheeseburger fries that did well when served by Demos, but students were less enthused when it was served as a school entree.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Demos.
To that point, Demos has shifted how he serves meals at the high school. Previously Demos stood in the entree line but realized he was missing many of the students who came through. Instead, he shifted to a standalone table styling himself a “carnival barker,” to get students’ attention to his meal of the day.
As the stepfather to a picky 9-year-old in the district, Demos is sympathetic to students rejecting his meals out of hand. Nine times out of 10, however, if students try what Chef Mike has to offer, they’ll like it, said Damos.
The meals served by Chef Mike are dictated by various tensions, from what is in season, to what is available, to what needs to be eaten before the end of the school year. Damos works with the Minnesota Harvest of the Month program to source fresh foods locally. The program was created in cooperation between the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Department of Education, and the University of Minnesota to “promote the use of seasonally available, locally grown, raised and harvested products,” according to the Harvest of the Month’s website.
Creating healthy, appealing and often in-season meals for hundreds of students at a time—some 500 at the high school, 400 at the middle school and 300 across the elementary schools—is a fine balance.
“It’s hard to make food look good and beautiful for an extended period of time without running out,” said Demos.
The benefits of the from-scratch meals, however, are apparent: they’re “not only a better product, but [you have] better control over sugar and sodium,” said Demos.
Demos’ background is in catering and corporate dining. He recounts prepping meals for proms, weddings and golf tournaments until 1 a.m. after putting his daughter to bed. Those skills of batch cooking “definitely transfer,” said Demos.
But despite his position as one of the faces of the district’s food services, “I try to stay out of the way of the ladies doing the real work back there,” said Demos, referencing the food staff at the middle school who work daily to feed hundreds breakfast and lunch.
“There are some schools that aren’t doing the right thing and I’m proud to say Hastings isn’t one of them,” said Demos.