New ideas for packing a school lunchbox, a guide of kitchen essentials needed for college students and the top schools for aspiring chefs

NEW YORK, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- http://www.epicurious.com/ , the premier food Web site, today issued helpful hits on sending your loved ones of every age back-to-school.

Grade-School and Teenage Students

As the new school year is upon us, many parents are wondering what types of new and creative school lunches they can make for their children. Tanya Steel, Editor in Chief of Epicurious.com, shares the following ideas:

   * Grade-School Kids -- They need complex carbs, protein and food that
     they recognize and are comfortable with.  She suggests peanut butter,
     banana and date sandwiches; alphabet cookies; trail mix with raisins,
     nuts, whole wheat cereals; along with tangerines, and organic mini
     milk.
   * Teenagers -- They need extra protein and calcium and require between
     2200 and 2800 calories a day.  Steel suggests packing turkey wraps with
     curry-chutney mayonnaise and peanuts; ranch dip with vegetables;
     chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and a strawberry mini smoothie.

"The key thing to remember is to serve different foods each day even if the child wants the same lunch daily," said Steel. "Don't introduce completely new foods in the lunchbox. Weekend lunches are a much better time to do that. Invest in fun or funky containers and colorful plastic wraps and bags as presentation is important."

College Students

Even though college students are living in a room the size of their bathrooms at home doesn't mean that they need to eat cereal for dinner because there is no room to cook. With the help of Dave Lierberman of the Food Network, Epicurious.com offers the following must-haves to make your first dinner party in your dorm room or college apartment a success:

   * Chef's knife -- chopping onions is no fun with a butter knife
   * Colander -- great for washing veggies
   * Cutting board -- will help you get back your room and board deposit
     money if you don't use the dorm counter to cut vegetables

"Dining-hall food all starts to taste the same after a while. You can have a fun, relaxed time with your friends in the comfort of your own home or even your dorm room," Lieberman tells Epicurious.com.

Cooking Students

Cooking schools and culinary travel programs are in high demand these days. Epicurious.com offers a roundup on some of the biggest names in professional cooking schools, as well as smaller schools with culinary travel programs:

   * The Culinary Institute of America -- Some of the top chef's including
     Tod English and Roy Yamaguchi were trained here.  To enroll, students
     must have already completed at least six months of field experience.
   * Johnson and Wales University College of Culinary Arts -- Tyler Florence
     and Emeril Lagasse were schooled here.  One day recreational Chef's
     Choice courses for adults and kids can be taken on topics ranging from
     pasta to summer cooking.

For more information on all of these back-to-school tips please visit http://www.epicurious.com/features/from_editors/back_to_school/index

About Epicurious.com

Epicurious.com, a CondeNet site, incorporates more than 50,000 recipes from the premier brands in food journalism, Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines, as well as original material and tips focused on cooking, entertaining and cocktails.

CondeNet (http://www.condenet.com/), the leading creator and developer of upscale lifestyle brands online, providing enjoyable, useful services that tie into and build upon the heritage of the world's most prestigious magazines. Today, CondeNet the deepest online brands in the vertical categories of food (Epicurius.com), travel, (Concierge.com), and fashion (Style.com and Mens.Style.com). Based in New York, CondeNet is owned by Advance Publications, Inc., a privately held media company.

  CONTACT:  Jennifer Miller
            CondeNet
            (212) 286-4903
            jmiller@condenet.com

CONTACT: Jennifer Miller, CondeNet, +1-212-286-4903, jmiller@condenet.com

Web site: http://www.epicurius.com/ http://www.condenet.com/

COPYRIGHT 2005 PR Newswire Association LLC
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group