(01/16/26) BATON ROUGE, La. — Mise en place is a French culinary term meaning “everything in its place” — essentially, to have all ingredients measured out and nearby before cooking.

Everything was in its right place in the second-floor teaching kitchen in LSU’s Human Ecology Building as residents training to become pediatricians learned about skills crucial to reducing childhood obesity.

The kitchen provided instructors and residents from the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Weight and Nutrition Clinic with the perfect setting to collaborate on preparing spaghetti and meat sauce at various caloric levels to give those present an idea of how to substitute healthier ingredient options.

The variations on the dish had some attendees cooking with 100% beef while others reduced that by adding mushrooms. A third group added mushrooms and lentils, further curtailing the red meat component.

The LSU AgCenter’s Judy Myhand, senior instructor in the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, said it’s important for parents to work on healthier choices for their family without spending too much time or money doing so.

“The goal here is to teach pediatric residents more about nutrition and healthy food preparation,” Myhand said. “They’re going to be working with families to reduce obesity risks.”

A chance reconnection at the Red Stick Farmer's Market between Myhand and April Hamilton, a registered nurse with the clinic, resulted in scheduling a kitchen tour.

“I had met Judy years ago and was prompted by our clinic’s physicians’ assistant Erinn Smith to inquire about sharing use of the kitchen,” Hamilton said.

Smith knew about the teaching space because she had been a student in the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences where Myhand taught.

According to Hamilton, the program began in partnership with the American College of Culinary Medicine and is one of the first of its kind to focus on pediatric residents.

“A lot of the other sites focus on medical students, dietitians and chefs,” she said. “We’re fortunate to have gotten the funding to purchase the curriculum.”

Dr. Katie Queen, a pediatrician and obesity medicine specialist with Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health Weight and Nutrition Center, said the obesity clinic started in 2021 and focuses on children from birth to 17.

“We’re starting to see more and more patients with severe issues — in the most extreme cases, 2-year-olds who weigh more than 100 pounds,” Queen said. “We offer comprehensive treatment from nutrition counseling to therapy to medication.”

Queen went on to say that while the clinic has focused primarily on obesity treatment over the past four years, it was time to expand further into prevention through healthier meal preparation. The main problem was that there was no funding for a teaching space, which is where Myhand and the teaching kitchen came in.

While the nearly 67-year-old kitchen was originally built for LSU home economic students, it has had a few notable upgrades over the decades, including new ovens. Myhand said the space is the perfect spot to host the program.

“Each little space is a kitchenette with a sink, a stove, everything you might find in a home, except smaller,” she said. “That’s what makes it ideal.”

Queen said her dream is to eventually have funding for a family wellness center that would house teaching kitchens for medical students, residents and the local community. She envisions using the center to host fitness, meditation, holistic wellness and various other health-based programs.

“But we need a space,” she said. “Hopefully, one day we’ll have our own teaching kitchen in a wellness center. This is a good first step.”

Residents and instructors from the Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Weight and Nutrition Clinic prepare spaghetti and meat sauce using various amounts of beef in the LSU Human Ecology Building test kitchen. Some residents used an all-beef recipe while others cut the amount of red meat with mushrooms and lentils. Photo by V. Todd Miller/LSU AgCenter

A group of Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Weight and Nutrition Clinic instructors and residents gathered at the LSU Human Ecology Building test kitchen to learn various kitchen skills and how to prepare healthier meals. Photo by V. Todd Miller/LSU AgCenter