Posted by News-Tribune, WA on January 20, 2010 at 10:57:07:
Cooking contest brings out creativity in Richland students
Is ‘Top Chef’ in the future for Clover Park fourth-graders?
By Sara Schilling, Herald staff writer
Zak Molner took a step back and carefully eyed the peanut butter and banana sandwich he and his team had been working on for a half-hour.
"I've heard a lot of people say it's an Elvis Presley sandwich," the eighth-grader said Tuesday, "but I have no idea what they're talking about."
He didn't have time just then to do the research to find out. Zak and his friends in Carmichael Middle School's Family & Consumer Science class were in the midst of an intense cooking competition, and they only had a few minutes left to finish their dish before judging started.
The boys added some apple to the sandwich and topped the plate off with a side of sliced banana, ice cream and chocolate syrup.
They seemed confident about their creation, but win or lose, the competition "is really fun and it's a way to express your creativity," Zak said.
It's also a tradition in Jeannette Austill's class at the Richland school. She calls it "Aluminum Chef" -- a nod to the popular TV cooking show Iron Chef.
It caps off a semester of learning the basics of cooking, money management and other life skills.
"I love to see students' creativity and cooperation (during the competition), to see their calmness as they tackle a problem," Austill said. "It's really fun to see how hard they work."
The rules are simple: Students can use any of the ingredients Austill lays out -- from potatoes, to peppers, to taco shells -- to create whatever kind of dish they want. But they have to put it all together in 30 minutes and must incorporate one common "secret ingredient."
For the first-period students, including Zak and his crew, the secret ingredient was bananas. For the second class it was cheese. The Albertsons store on Lee Boulevard in Richland donates the secret ingredient each year.
Austill used the clock on an oven in her classroom to time the rounds. When it buzzed during first period, she had the teams come to the judging table one-by-one to present their work.
The two judges -- a current Carmichael teacher and a retired educator from the school -- gamely tried everything from pudding with bananas, graham crackers and chocolate sauce to a pepper and ham omelet with banana garnish.
The omelet won the competition. Rebekah Wauchek, who created it with teammate Bree Brown, said the class is a highlight of her day.
"I love this class," she said. "I like how everybody works well together."
The second-period contest was a tie between the team of Thia Stewart and Charlotte Tittle, and the team of Billie Clift, Aubrey Hunt, McKinley Kline and Isabelle Enriquez-Meyer.
Every student who participated will get a certificate. They also get the thrill of using the skills they learned throughout the semester to create something new, which was the best part, students said.
"It's been fun having the class," Zak said. "This class helps you learn the basics of life."
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