Renegade Lunch Lady

The Lunchroom Rebellion prevously in the new Yorker, archived by a helpful blogger.

Cooper, who calls herself “the Renegade Lunch Lady,” was hired last fall to revamp the city’s dismal school-lunch program. She is small and tightly wound, with shoulders bunched from lifting weights. She has bright, defiant eyes, unruly brown hair, and a raspy alto that tends to break when she gets excited. In the kitchen, she moves with quick, stiff-legged strides, nipping at heels, barking out instructions, and sending her large, slow-moving colleagues into bewildered stampedes. She is, in short, a typical chef, landed in a world where real cooking is almost unknown.