'Future Chefs Challenge' gets kids cooking; Contest encourages healthy lifestyle

“The truth is, I'm not a big fan of the pepper part,” the James Whitcomb Riley Elementary School fourth-grader said with a shy grin.

“You don't like the pepper?” laughed Karla Smith, contest judge and Vincennes Community School Corp. board member. “Well, it's very good.”

After fellow judges Tony Cloyd with WVUB and Geoff McKinney, head chef and kitchen manager at Gilbert's Restaurant & Pub, 1350 Willow St., had their fill of Lillian's dish and praised the aspiring chef's talents, the plates were whisked away to clear room for the next contestant.

Lillian was one of seven VCSC students who put their cooking skills to the test Thursday for Sodexo Campus Services' seventh-annual “Future Chefs Challenge,” held in the Lincoln High School cafeteria.

Mike Szady, Sodexo's general manager, noted that there were 24 entries in this year's contest that were given to a separate panel of judges, who narrowed them down to eight finalists, though one of them couldn't make it on Thursday.

“We actually had a greater participation this year, which we're really excited about,” Szady said. “This is an awesome event.”

VCSC is one of 256 other school districts across the country to host a Future Chefs event during February and March. The competition, Szady said, is all about teaching kids how to be healthy.

“We would like to teach children healthy lifestyles. We're all about student well-being and we're certainly about nutrition,” he said. “We're in a partnership with the school corporation to teach children, so we like to teach them healthy cooking techniques.”

That extra emphasis on “healthy” was certainly reflected in Lillian's peppery creation, she said after the judging portion, while friends and family mingled around the cafeteria to sample the dishes that ranged from mac and cheese grilled cheese to a broccoli casserole with baked fruit compote.

“There's beef, you have to have the bell pepper, you have onion, rice and parmesan cheese,” Lillian said. “Low-fat, though. No one wants super-fat parmesan cheese.”

Lillian has been helping her mother in the kitchen since she was 5 years old, when she learned how to make spaghetti. The fourth-grader guessed that the stuffed bell pepper recipe she chose for the contest is one of her mom's favorite things to make.

“It's hard telling with her, though,” she said with a laugh, adjusting the tall black chef's hat atop her head. “She has like 30 million favorite things.”

As Szady handed out goodie bags to each runner-up during the awards ceremony, he explained that Tecumseh-Harrison third-grader Kyndall Quarterman and Franklin fifth-grader Adreonna Sozzi nearly tied for first place.

The tie-breaker, he said, came down to the “bonus ingredients.”

“Each student has a list of bonus ingredients, which correspond to our sponsors, so each use of a bonus ingredient gets a bonus point,” Szady said.

In the end, Andreonna's “tulip surprise” — a creative snack incorporating pizza crust, refried beans, cherry tomatoes, sour cream, rice and ground beef — came out on top.

As Quarterman later snacked on chicken taquitos created by fellow Tecumseh-Harrison third-grader Gianna Irelan, she explained that cooking runs in the family. And even though she narrowly missed out on first place, she has no intentions of leaving the kitchen.

“My mom and dad inspired me,” she said, looking down at her Italian-themed entry dubbed “fancy wansy lasagna.” “My dad makes really good grilled cheese and I just wanted to cook like him.

“So my mom taught me how.”