Kenston Students to Put on Their Aprons for Chefs Challenge
Students at Kenston Schools are whipping up five-star recipes and memories as they prepare for a challenging culinary competition.
Students at Kenston Schools are whipping up five-star recipes and memories as they prepare for a challenging culinary competition.
More than 50 students in kindergarten through sixth grade and ninth through 12 grade are preparing for the Sodexo Future Chefs cooking contest to be held on the district campus in Bainbridge Township Feb. 22, 24 and 25.
The Future Chefs program was started in Kenston in 2014 by Sodexo food service company and Play Blue, the district’s health and wellness initiative. This year, the program is under the new direction of Scott Teaman, director of food service for the district.
Teaman said the goal of the after-school program is to make students more knowledgeable about what they are putting into their bodies.
“We want to encourage healthy choices,” Teaman said. “If they’re eating better, they’re going to be better during the day. Breakfast is the most important meal.”
The competition, which the public is welcome to attend, will take place at the local, regional and national levels.
At the local level, Teaman is assembling three panels of judges made up of school officials and local chefs to score the elementary, sixth grade and high school students.
Because of the differences in ages and abilities, the competitions will be set up and scored differently at each level. Younger students will be judged individually while high school students will be broken into teams.
The young chefs must not only create and prepare their own recipes, but also come up with a menu, market their dish and present it in an appealing way.
“Dishes will be judged on taste, originality, ease of preparation, healthy attributions, kid appeal and presentation,” Teaman said.
Students can score extra points for using bonus ingredients including bagels, low-fat cheese, eggs, low sodium ham, mushrooms, oatmeal, pineapple, tortillas, turkey sausage, whole grain cereals and yogurt.
While on a three-year sabbatical, Teaman said he received positive feedback from students and parents when he brought the competition to Elyria Schools.
“The kids were excited because they were actually making the food they were eating,” he said. “When you are making the food, you are more apt to eat it.”
More than 300 Northeast Ohio school districts will participate in their own local Future Chef events.
The winners of the elementary and high school levels in Kenston will receive a culinary prize basket.
Because the Future Chefs program largely focuses on the sixth grade, the winner from that grade will have their recipe move on to a panel of regional judges, where it will be up against approximately 130 others.
Five recipes will be selected at that level to move on to a panel of national judges. Each of the five regional finalists will get to make their own YouTube video, with the public voting for a winner.
Teaman said the national winner typically receives an iPad and a $500 Amazon gift card.
Kenston Superintendent Nancy Santilli said the district is fortunate to have the Future Chefs program.
“Sodexo’s Future Chefs competition is a wonderful opportunity for Kenston’s students to connect what they learn about nutrition and healthy food choices in the classroom with foods that they enjoy preparing and eating with their families,” she said. “This district-wide hands-on contest fosters the goals of our Promoting Learning through Active Youth/Play Blue program.”
The elementary culinary competition will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 22 at Timmons Elementary School at 9595 E. Washington Street. The sixth grade competition will be held at approximately 3 p.m on Feb. 24 at Kenston Middle School at 17425 Snyder Road and the high school competition will be held at approximately 2:45 p.m. on Feb. 25 at the high school at 9500 Bainbridge Road.
For more information, visit Kenston Schools website.
