Crossett Brook Middle School is sending two teams, a sixth-grade team and an eighth-grade team, to participate in Vermont’s Junior Iron Chef competition this weekend. Junior Iron Chef is run by Vermont Afterschool, which describes itself as a program “dedicated to strengthening programs, building partnerships, and transforming communities so that all Vermont youth are active, engaged, connected, and heard.” The competition takes place this Saturday, March 29, at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.
The competition, which is in its 17th year, tasks middle and high school teams with discovering unique, healthy, and simple ways to incorporate local food into school cooking. Each team creates their own one-dish vegetarian and nut-free recipe – desserts and snacks are not allowed. Middle school teams and high school teams are judged separately. Teams are allowed 90 minutes to cook and plate their dishes; at the 90-minute mark, all chefs must step away from their stations and raise their flag to indicate that they are finished. There are three awards given: the Lively Local award, which looks at the local ingredients included in the dish and how well they were incorporated; the Crowdpleaser award, which “best incorporates color, texture, and taste,” according to the guidelines; and the Mise in Place award, which translates to “everything in place” and is awarded to the team with the best teamwork. Winning teams get recognized onstage at the event and receive a gift basket; when the Crossett Brook team won two years ago, they received coupons, a cutting board, and other assorted kitchen tools.
PRACTICING
The Crossett Brook teams, both coached by Dana Hudson, have been practicing for the past six weeks to perfect their dishes. The sixth-grade team, comprised of Audrey Conyers, Anthony Walls, Abby Saltzgrueber, and Jasper LaRocca, will be cooking Green Mountain pizza crepes, which are crepes lined with a blended pizza sauce and topped with chopped tomatoes and basil. The eighth-grade team, comprised of Azza Buhaina, Evelyn Andrus, Riley Coakley, Willa Hudson, and Willow Thomas, will be cooking a Sugarhouse Stir-fry, which is a stir fry with a maple sauce mixed with rice and topped with tofu and various mushrooms. Each team picked their dish with a brainstorming session, and their first practice tested their top two recipes to decide which one to present at the competition. This decision boiled down to a few points: which dish could be made under the time constraints? Which recipe included more local ingredients? Which recipe looks better for the judges? The teams also had to decide how they would apportion their dishes; teams must present two large, completely intact dishes to present to the audience along with 12 smaller samples for the judges to taste.
Before the competition, the teams have to refine their work. At what coach Dana Hudson called the “dress rehearsal before their dress rehearsal,” both Crossett Brook teams had their first timed practice. “They’ve already made some decisions about switching people, saying, ‘I’m left-handed and we’ll be bumping arms,’” Hudson said. “They’ve done a lot of adjusting.” When Crossett Brook was flooded after water entered utility conduit lines, the Junior Iron Chef teams were displaced. They had been practicing in the Crossett Brook Sustainability room’s kitchen, which had more resources and was more familiar to the students, but when the school was closed to pump out water and repair carpeting and flooring, the teams practiced in the Harwood kitchen. “It was a lot of problem solving,” said sixth-grade team member Jasper LaRocca. “We didn’t know where anything was.”
LOVE OF COOKING
The opportunity to participate in this competition was advertised to some students through their Sustainability class. All of the students said that they joined thanks to a love of cooking. “I thought cooking in a competition and working in a team would be fun,” said Audrey Conyers. “I love the opportunity to work with people who get excited about this and who want to create their own recipes,” said Hudson. “Any way that I can help anybody feel confident in cooking… if you’re confident in here [the kitchen], you can transfer that confidence elsewhere.”
Vermont Afterschool recommends an admissions fee of $3 per person and $5 per family. The competition will be in the Champlain Valley Exposition at 105 Pearl Street in Essex Junction. Doors open to the public at 9 a.m.. The morning heat lasts from 9:30 to 12:15 and the afternoon heat lasts from 1 to 3:45. Concessions will be available and family activities are offered, including crepe spinning by the Skinny Pancake, a photobooth, and sugar on snow.
