Food Theory: DON'T TRUST Your School Lunch!

The “fries” that are shaped like smiley faces are god tier when it comes to school food

Matpat definitely seems like the guy to unironically remember the exact names of 5 school bullies for years

Back in the day, my school had lunch catered by a restaurant down the street. I don't even mean crappy food, it was a FANCY restaurant. They had acai bowls, sushi, and almost every sandwich you could think of. It was amazing.

My districts "Cheesy Dippers" was cheese stuffed dough filled with mozzarella that was cut into 3 sticks and served with some weird factory made marinara sauce. It was one of our schools most popular items.

The best thing our school ever served was rarely on the menu, and when I say that I mean it was there for like 2 days the entire year. But it was probably the best thing I have ever tasted. This is what it was: they took a baguette and sliced it in half vertically and horizontally. They put garlic seasoning like they were making garlic bread on a baguette, but they added cheese like it was a pizza, so it was like a garlic bread, pizza baguette and when I say it’s good, it’s so good it’s it was delicious. I would pay at least 20$ to taste that again. Every time they made it people would go crazy

I went to a vocationary school where we had an awesome cooking program. The cooking class made all the food we sold in the Cafeteria. So I knew exactly what was in it. We had a different theme for every day of the week that was from different areas of the world it was awesome.
The best things had to be the enchiladas or the hoisen meatballs.

Once in a while my high school has Chinese food, like the americanized stuff. It was incredible compared to other things. Those were the best days.

My fondest school lunch memories were chicken nugget day, with the mashed potatoes and the little square roll. I'd forgo a fork or a dipping sauce and just combine my nuggets and potatoes, and scrape up whatever I missed of the potatoes with the roll

Back in middle school they used to serve this sandwich with a pretzel bun, a slice of turkey and a slice of cheese, it was warm and delicious and I haven't found anything like it ever again.

One time me and my friends thought it would be a good idea to open the chocolate milk carton all the way to where we could see the milk instead of just in a triangle, the chocolate milk was expired and curdling and chunky the worst part was before opening it all the way I had allready drank some of it 😭

I went to a private school in Memphis, TN for high school so back in those days, I’d say that pot roast and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies were popular.
Other days? Because my middle and first high schools were public schools, the food usually wasn’t that great. So I ended up bringing my own lunch.

This makes me glad that my mom had no trust in school lunches and had me make my own food every day. I got bored of it real fast and cut corners with super simple meals (just shove ham between two slices of bread, good enough) but it was certainly better than the alternative

Honestly the salad was the only thing my school could not mess up. Everything else was either under or over cooked.

My mom is a lunch lady so I get to see the kitchen close up whenever we're about to leave, and I've been tempted to steal ice cream from their freezers whenever they restocked. There's also a like room before the bathroom filled with lockers that looks like a backrooms level.

This is insane, but so true. I remember I really liked the green beans at school and would always ask for double because there was a 2 vegetable or fruit rule for us, and if there was enough we could get double of something. There were times they would run out of them and not be able to do doubles, they considered tater tots as a vegetable and would never give doubles on those. They do buy the bare minimum and it kinda sucks for kids who have no concept of what that means. I survived obviously but man was I sad when the lunch ladies told me no lmaoooo

They had these breakfast pizzas all the way from elementary to high school that, to me, made it worth asking for lunch money.

Even when he ruins our childhood he’s still our number 1 favorite 🤩

Matpat: “Don’t trust your school lunch!”
Me: “Never did, never will.”

Best thing we had was those rectangle pizzas. I think they were Tony's brand, cause they basically look and taste exactly the same. The buttered Oatmeal they served for breakfast was pretty darn good too.

I only ever saw these for one year, but there were strawberry cream cheese filled bagels, and they were fantastic. They were only school lunch food that I actually ever want to see again. That’s considering absolutely *everything* I remember on the menu.

The most popular thing by far in my elementary school was cheesy stuffed breadsticks, which are exactly as their their states lol. Even the popular kids who thought they were “too good” for school lunch would buy it. They also offered it every other week or so and sometimes they would even run out

my school just straight up bought a bunch of little caesars $5 pizzas and sold them to us for $1 a slice 😭that single slice of greasy pizza was the only thing on the menu. they made $3 per pizza🙃
we also didnt have a cafeteria and they served it to us on paper plates on a fold out table in the middle of a random hallway💀

I’m really weirdly interested in finding out the full results of his old science project. That sounds incredibly interesting to know how each table would react especially knowing one table threw food and tried to lift him out of the seat! That sounds super interesting.

As an European, American school lunches scare me. In my country school cafeteria was more like a non official restaurant. You could pick from a meniu what you wanted to eat, from soup to fish to meat and other meats and a full meal+drink was usually around 3-4 euros and that's not talking about the pastries and pizzas( yes, a whole pizza, but it was only one kind) for around 2-3 euros. And you knew what was in the meat, so you were certain that your burger wouldn't come alive once it was on your plate
EDIT: I'm from Lithuania and I went to a public school. In my schools there were also programs for parents with very little income where the kids would eat completely for free as well as there was a program where you could pay for the school to provide a meal for your kid and ensure they were eating if you weren't sure if your kid could be responsible with money and would actually eat instead of saving it to buy toys

My favorite days at school were when they served chicken crispitos. It's just chicken and cheese wrapped in a tortilla (possibly with some seasonings that I don't know), then either baked or fried (I don't know the cooking method they used, either). Despite the simple recipe, they were really good and I should make some sometime. It's been a long time since I've had them.

I almost never ate school lunches because I brought packed lunches (hated how a teacher forced me to eat peas. Very deep hatrid)
But the occasional time some friend gave me some to try,really liked the small square pizza slices. Absolutely amazing

Our school had a weird obsession with the chocolate milk x chicken burger meal deal
Like people would literally pay each other in chokky milk and chicken burgers.
There were several clubs dedicated.

There were these things called “Chalupas” in my school served every one in a while, they were bowl shaped tortillas with beef, cheese, and you can even douse ‘em in marinara or taco sauce. The best part is they were really filling yet addicting.

Personally for me, i absolutely love the halal cookie with icing thing. I forgot the name, but it's so delicious. Only problem is that for some it may be a bit too sweet for their taste

Mom's theory to improve school lunches, have every school put in a greenhouse so that they can grow their own food. It could also be a part of science class.

I have a deep childhood memory of being served fried chicken and a slice of cake at school for lunch once. But thinking about it now, someone probably brought in a special lunch for their birthday or something.
In middle school we took a field trip to a prison and got served actual prison food. It was much better than the school lunches

in my school, wednesday lunches are absolute legendary. pasta, noodles, frankies, pav bhaji (an indian dish, i live in india) and for snacks the chocolate milk is god tier stuff, even though it feels like its basically flavoured water. the bhel (indian snack) is also great

I love the “Bosco motzerella cheese sticks” which is such a fancy name for premade dough with a cheese stick melted in the center with another premade dough on the top

Our best cafeteria item was strawberry milk. Our school only had it one week of the year, the week before spring break, and people LOVED it. The line was so long, lunch would be over by the time you got your food. A few years later, I was talking to a friend from a different school, and it turns out they had strawberry milk every day. WHAT?!

So I’m 19 and I recently became a lunch lady at the high school I used to go through. The main meal everyone goes crazy for would have to be a three way tie between pizza and chips, macaroni, or fish and chips

I considered myself lucky in high school when I learned that the sweet lunch ladies would work with the culinary class to chop fresh vegetables and grill chicken for our boxed salads. These big homemade salads would count as an entree because of the chicken, hard boiled egg, and breadstick that came with it, but would also have all kinds of good stuff in a couple varieties. I would always pick them up and thank the lunch lady that told me about it, because she definitely felt more like a lunch mom to the students.

MatPat - the production on these videos is FANTASTIC

The best food at my high school was the cheese burgers, the spicy chicken burgers, the French toast sticks, and the breakfast sausage corn dogs with syrup. I crave those items to this day, over 12 years later from high school graduation.

Besides our monthly Pizza Hut treat in my small town hs.. My favorite thing ever was crispitos! The beef ones 😊 the chicken were good too but apparently not everyone had those at school in America. I went to 5 separate schools that all had them. They even sold and still sell them at gas stations here in the south. Sometimes they came with some liquid cheese on top and yummm. Chefs kiss 😘 and I graduated in 2015 so it was after lunches started being healthier but we still had great lunch at my high school especially

At my school, my favorite thing in the cafeteria was cowboy bread. Basically sort of like a spice cake, but less desserty slightly.

Back in middle school they had these hot wings that were more mild every Friday. They were so popular people went running for them. They were great because they were tender and came in a handful. The only actual good school lunch I’ve had.

Honestly a whole video on the social hierarchy of a school lunchroom would be amazing

No doubt my favorite is the little personal deep dish pizzas and loaded baked potatos.I would eat this even if it wasn't school food!!!

Best thing my school served (in my opinion) were chicken rings. They were basically chicken nuggets with holes in the middle, but for some reason they were always delicious. Easily my favorite thing to get in the cafeteria.

The salad wrap were good ngl and I like the vegetables and fruits that came with it too. It was a pretty moderate meal

I was in a private school, they sold everything imaginable. They had a coffee shop, a snacks bar, and a candy bar, but best of all, the canteen. They had things from soup- to mozzarella, but the best thing there were their drinks. They had BOBA!! (They replaced the boba with “boba in a can”- still, my favorite though.) Those were my favorite. I still am in that school. And I can tell ya, it's AMAZING!!

I admire your bold scince in that science experiment. As a sudo-nerdy kid, I would die of embarrassment sitting at the table with the female jocks. You definitely deserved the payoff (I mean, to every one else except myself I'm extremely charming (at least it seems that way), and I try to be as friendly as possible so they probably wouldn't have minded, but sill I wish I was that bold in the name of science.)

My school has a student's mom as the main cook. So we always got traditional home cooked meals in the selections of food. It's actually very nice. School usually just gets the raw ingredients delivered by a nearby supplier. (This stuff is cheaper in my country)

My best meal was the thanksgiving meal it was the one time where I could actually eat everything on my tray as there typically wasn’t many appetizing options. I was 6’ 5” and through my school years I was 135lbs (very skinny) after I got out of high school I went up to 160-175 simply due to better nutrition. My parents do have a bit of blame on them as they could of feed me for the size that I was as I was not your average Joe.

In Freshman year, we got food from a Statewide Pizza Chain, and I loved it because A) great food and B) if I forgot my lunch it was easy enough to scramble 1.25 for a single slice of Pizza. I was so mad when they switched to healthy food in sophomore year and made the whole meal, regardless of the amount, like 5.00

my school had breadsticks with cheese in it and marinara sauce on the side. it was a very rare occurrence, like once a school year, but we would go FERAL over those cheese breadsticks. kids would ask their friends who brought food from home to buy some breadsticks to give to them (me included💀) since we could only buy one meal per kid. i miss those sticks :(

our school used to have this thing where a bunch of food stalls would arrive and we would get to buy them, and by far the best thing everybody agreed on was the Carbonara and the Burgers. none of them were big name brand either, they were simple local food stalls

All I remember was going to school in the morning only to see the longest breakfast line I’ve ever seen. This was an elementary and it had really high and longs stairs, and so many people like, from a line that reached to the stairs of the highest floor we’re waiting in line and I remember running around the building with my friends to see what everyone was waiting for and how long the line exactly was. I think it was for this really yummy lasagna which tasted like pizza to me. For some reason, parents just didn’t give breakfasts to their kids at home so every morning people would wait in line to get their breakfast. I also remember how yummy the chicken nuggets were and the pizza during lunch time. 。(*´∀｀*)

Food Theory: Can soup actually help a cold, and what other alternatives are there?

In my school, they were called Cheese Pleasers. But my favorite was the rectangle pizza 🤤 ❤️

My school's lunch room was more like an Army mess hall with two main course options, which fits given I'm an Army Brat and my Dad was a Mess Sergeant. There was a lot of overcooked meat, overcooked canned vegetables, milk, canned apple juice and (hold onto your hats) canned orange juice that was so awful it made Tang a taste treat! Being old enough to get a fast food hamburger once I was back in the U.S. was like night and day by comparison.

At my elementary school, they had the BEST square pizza. Like, seriously, no other school food I've ever had since elementary school has EVER been that good. 10/10, I wanna go back to PGE just for their pizza.

Ooh I always loved corndogs
Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy was another favourite
And who can say no to a good chicken sandwich? I always piled mine with lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard.
As for breakfast, those bagged waffles were usually pretty good. And I definitely was fond of the french-toast strips

As a canadian, we don't have school lunches other than pizza Mondays and sometimes lunch lady Thursdays, and both had to be paid extra, obviously they were good or else I would be quitting it immediately. My middle school lunch is random packed stuff while my high school lunch is basically made to order (my grandparents live really close to my highschool)

I would like to see more of this cafeteria territory encroaching experiment. It actually sounds fascinating.

my school lunch is actually pretty good compared to what i hear on the internet.
the best we had was also like cheese inside of bread with dipping sauce and we called it pizza sticks

The best thing my school ever served was probably stuffed crust pizza. The way they made it was so good. Also we had this cheese filled sticks similar to the cheesy dippers matpat was talking about that.

I remember one day we were served burgers. I am of the opinion that this was the best thing cuz every other meal since had been getting more healthier and more vegetarian. Not really made for taste, but for health. This burger day was when I was in like 2nd grade of primary, so over a decade ago.

My school also had the cheesy dippers, but my personal favorite was (I think??) curry on rice. No one else liked it so I would eat other people's and get extra helpings. I can't even say it was good but it didn't have the same "drenched in salt/sugar for preservation" taste I remember most school food having and I think that's why I enjoyed it. I don't see it on school menus in my area anymore, but I didn't look super hard and it wasn't served as often as things like pizza or chicken tenders. Murica babeyyyyyy

I remember my middle school had a weirdly solid spiedie sub. (It's a local thing in my area in New York.) My high school also had some of the best fries I've ever tasted. I don't know how school lunch fries were so good... but they were pretty much perfect.

I love the story of matpats science fair experiment, him sitting at a bunch of different tables to find out who would be the most hostile to him is so cool

The mashed potato, were always great. And what ever they paired it with was also somewhat appetizing so baked chicken, steak nuggets, country fried steak/chicken , salisbury steak. But the mashed potatoes were the star of the menu😂

My school food is insanely good, we have a deli thing with sub sandwiches and a half decent special bar and then solid prepackaged stuff

my schools food is SO GOOD-
I used to go to a school with pretty crappy lunch but the one I go to rn literally has the best food ever- like sometimes I'd even bring school food back home bc it's so good tbh
we have a bread/bakrey section, fruit, pizza, cake, drinks (milk, juice), cookies, salad.. and it also changes every day, so sometimes you''d have pasta, some days it'd be rice, some days it'd be macaroni and cheese.
on friday you can also order a desert pizza which is like chocolate pizza with a marshmallow on it.
in mornings you can also get like bacon, french toast, ham, waffles, pancakes.. you can like get a bagel and ask the people to like, cut it in half and stuff in it, like you could ask for cheese and ham between a bagel, heat it in the microwave so the cheese is melted, and thtas what I get everyday.
honestly my school is rly lucky, because in my old school a lot of the times I couldn't eat what was served bc of my allergies, and it's never something I have to worry about now. im rly grateful for the food lol
also, I go to a private school :)

Honestly I would love to hear the results of the experiment you did

The lunch that everyone in my school went crazy for, was spaghetti. Several times, there were no other lines, despite there being 3 different lines for different foods.

I still remember how upset everyone in high school was when Michelle Obama's health thing passed and they changed all fried foods to baked foods including fries. I never really noticed a difference in taste if they actually even changed it.

My school served a lot of salad which everyone seemed to enjoy but they served these fruit salads on Wednesdays and some weird yogurt but everyone would race to the lunch line for them, there were always only about thirty of them and they were in high demand.

My small town school (~275 students pre-k thru 12) had this lunch lady that would make these home made rolls from scratch that were the BEST thing ever. I still don’t think I’ve had a better roll

At my elementary school they had two things that no student could say they didn’t like: god-tier mac and cheese, and chicken and rice (neither of which tasted like styrofoam shockingly).

They served potato wedges with orange seasoning on them. It was literally 80/10. We would trade gummies and stuff just for 5 of these things. I’m still kinda sad that they give so little. It’s like first come, first serve. Worst part was, WE WERE THE LAST TABLE TO GET THEM!

the best TWO things my school has servered so far, was these big deepfried waffle fries, as in they were not soft. And the other thing was beef with a gooey type of sauce (it looked disgusting ish, it was coated in a type of brown gravy the school makes. But it tasted nothing like it and was honestly amazing).

In my research, those "cheesy dipper" breadsticks were called Bosco Sticks in many places. They're still around too, if you're feeling nostalgic and want to see if they are still as "good" as you remember!

Our school lunch consisted of: a half raw chicken sandwich on moldy bread, sour smelling milk, and a small 5 ounce container of a fruit juice. And since I lived in the poorer part of South Carolina we really couldn't make our own lunch at home because it would go bad since we didn't have a way to keep it fresh. My high school years graduated in 2020

The best thing my school served for lunch was chicken tenders. they also had a selection of dipping sauces in little plastic cups, and that's where my love of honey mustard began

Best thing my school had was this tasty bacon-potato(?)-egg wrap think that would sell out before the first break (so we had to get it before classes started for the day)
I remember that I gout like 4 of those in one day once... I should go back there and see if I can get the recipe xD

Probably our closest thing to cheesy dippers that we is have rectangular sticks with cheese on the inside, a layer of tomato sauce, and bread crumbs on the outside, deep fried or something.

My school's cheesy dippers were honestly pretty creative: Nachos. Seasoned (gasp!) nachos covered in some sot of factory made cheese sauce, with bits of meat scattered on top. The cheese and meat were pretty bland, but the nachos tasted like actual, handmade nachos from a restaurant. I also liked their meat sauce pasta, but the nachos were far more popular.

Matt’s story about the science experiment is so absurdly clever it sounds exactly like something he would do

my personal favorite is the chunky spoiled chocolate milk and the maggot filled chicken patties! gosh don't you just love school food?

The best thing my school ever had was cheese on bread, it was probably the best thing you could get, unless you want moldy carrots.

For me, and no one else, it was fried fish squares, and mac and cheese… it was popular for like… a hot second, but then people were saying it was fake or there was something wrong with it. Me, personally, whenever it was there, even when there were three other line options with “non-school food” in high school, I went to the one that was scheduled to have fish and mac and cheese.

My school made their own thing and I think it’s pretty genius? So basically what they did is they got some buns, put some tomato sauce, cheese and grilled it and BOOM! A pizza but better! I loved this 😭

In my school, it was pasta. But it wasn't the pasta that was special. They also made a whole ton of sauce. They'd do a few different ones and it was in open buffet fashion. You could get as much as you wanted. So we would get water glasses and fill them with any sauce we wanted. It was great.

In high-school we had a few different "restaurants" where students who volunteered (and got paid) made fresh burritos, pizza, salad, sandwiches, and sub sandwiches. It was so good

One time my mom volunteered to take over for one of the lunch monitors since she was the vice principal and the lunch monitor burnt her hand. When I walked in the lunch room, I was shocked. My mom went out of her way and got us all egees and pizza.
Best day ever

For me my school makes our lunch meals but considering we're all filipinos in a single school with some foreigners our food are always tasty due to the fact they always cook the best kind of filipino meals, I don't eat their lunch cause I bring my own but my friend let me try a bite of their pasta they bought AND THAT 2 DOLLARS THAT I BORROWED WAS SO WORTH IT

Berry fruit smoothies and double chocolate chip muffins that were so soft that were like cupcakes were my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE for breakfast in high school

From what I remember, the best things that I usually ate from schools was frozen French Bread Pizza, came in either Cheese or Pepperoni, but I took the Pepperoni off since it was spicy for me. Other than that, the milk & juices were decent & the fruits were good. But that’s normal foods. Though gotta give a shout out for middle school & their snack shop having Blue Bunny Orange Cream Ice Cream Bars, I ate those every single day, even in the winter. They were that good ❤❤

My favorite school lunch was the crispitos with nacho cheese to dip it in. I have no idea what meat was in it but I can get them (or something similar) at a local grocery store that says they are beef crispitos. Not quite what I remember from grade school but pretty delicious.

My school used to have a fruit requirement. You could not have your meal unless you had at least 1 fruit (an orange, apple, or banana). They later changed it that you didn’t need anything except the food you wanted (but they would charge you more without telling you). There was a rumor that went around that the janitor would dig through the trash and pull out any fruit that looked like it could be served again. Almost everyone just assumed it was fake, but still didn’t eat the fruit because it was not very fresh. I did an experiment with an apple and really didn’t think anything of it. I made a mark on that apple that looked like it could’ve just been natural, but it was just different enough that I could tell the difference. I was actually disgusted when I found that same apple 2 days later. I never ate anything from that school ever again

Here in the Netherlands, we never had school lunches as an option. Up until the age of 12 you fully rely on your parents to offer you sweaty cheese sandwiches, bruised apples and MAYBE if you're lucky some kind of snack of candybar. I mostly just got the most dry and inedible whole grain cookie one can imagine. Once you enter our version of "high school", there's a cafeteria area where you can pay for minor things. Back in the day there were a lot of fried options, but the rules about that have gotten stricter over the years.

they had this bowl comprised of tendies, mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy. best thing ever but they rarely served it

Best school lunch foods I remember -
Pizza - not "good" but better than the alternatives most of the time
Grilled cheese - they always seemed to get it extra buttery on the outside and really melty on the inside without over toasting the bread.
Those tri-color noodles and a pack of ranch dressing - seriously simple but extra tasty.