The Kendall College School of Culinary Arts invites high-school students across the United States to develop their culinary skills through a series of online, interactive recipe competitions. The first competition was launched on September 5. Students enter by visiting Kendall’s Facebook page, where they are challenged to create a recipe using three mystery ingredients revealed via video by School of Culinary Arts vice president Chris Koetke, CEC, CCE, HAAC, and Food Network Iron Chef, James Beard Award winner and Kendall alum, Jose Garces.
Students submit their recipes, photos of their finished dishes, and brief explanations of why they picked their dishes on Kendall’s Facebook page. The Kendall Cooks Challenge is open four times throughout the school year (September/October 2012, December 2012, February 2013 and April 2013), each time introducing new mystery ingredients via video by Koetke and a guest chef, who also provide educational tips that students will find useful in working with the ingredients and developing their recipes. One winner will be selected each time based on the following criteria:
– Creativity of overall dish: 10 points
– Appropriate use of mystery-basket ingredients in amount and creativity: 15 points
– Listing exact ingredient amounts and clear instructions: 15 points
– Appearance of dish: 20 points
– Taste: 40 points
Koetke will engage with participants throughout the competition by hosting live chats on Facebook. “This contest is an excellent way to help high-school students across the country gain a real appreciation of fresh ingredients while engaging them to think about scratch cooking and flavor development,” Koetke says.
Each of the four first-place winners will receive a professional knife kit provided by Northwestern Cutlery. At the end of the school year, one grand-prize winner selected from the four first-place winners will receive a trip to Chicago in the summer of 2013, including travel expenses, to attend a weeklong Kendall Culinary Camp. The grand-prize winner will also receive a personalized chef’s coat and an appearance on a future online episode of “Kendall Cooks with Chef Koetke.”
For more information, visit http://culinary.kendall.edu/about/kendall-cooks-challenge.
Kendall College, founded in 1934, is located in Chicago, Illinois and is a member of the Laureate International Universities network. Kendall offers undergraduate degrees in business, culinary arts, early childhood education, and hospitality management to more than 2200 students.
