Michigan Junior Chef Winners
The Michigan Junior Chef competition, held on Sept. 19 at Michigan State University (MSU) to promote healthy eating and Michigan foods, was a success. The Michigan Nutrition Network (part of MSU Extension), and the C.S. Mott Chair of Sustainable Agriculture at Michigan State University sponsored the event. These were the top three teams completing the Michigan Junior Chef Cook-off competition on September 19, 2009, at MSU.
- Harbor Beach FFA, Harbor Beach High School
- Benton Harbor Tiger Chefs, Benton Harbor MLK Freshman Academy
- River House Chefs, West Iron County (Iron River)
Other teams competing:
What's it all about?
(view a Flash slideshow about Michigan Junior Chef here)
Seven high school teams from Benton Harbor, Coldwater, Harbor Beach, Hillsdale, and Iron River met at a food lab in MSU’s Anthony Hall and prepared their versions of healthy school lunch meals in the competitive cook-off for a panel of judges. All teams represented schools with at least 50% of the student body eligible for free and reduced-price meals programs. Judges included Melissa Lonsberry, Registered Dietitian (RD) with MNN, Diane Golzynski, RD and Nutrition Consultant with the Michigan Department of Community Health, Ethel Pangborn, a chef and nurse, and Adam Montri, a farmer and Outreach Specialist with MSU’s Student Organic Farm.
"The Junior Chef competition allowed us to try new foods in a new way and gave the chefs a chance to refine recipes that would work for school food service," said MNN’s registered dietitian Melissa Lonsberry. "It was a great way for students to learn about new foods, be creative and show what they know about healthy, fresh, local foods."
The meals were required to meet nutritional requirements for the National School Lunch Program and include local, seasonal foods and commodity foods typical of school meals programs. Teams were also required to complete a nutrition education and marketing packet to help promote their meals to other students. The recipes from the competition will be compiled in a cookbook for statewide distribution to school food service directors for use in their school meals programs.
The first place team, Harbor Beach FFA, concocted a delectable Ultimate Veggie Pizza on a homemade honey whole wheat crust with a Michigan Harvest Fruit Salad. For their efforts, team members received Nintendo DS gaming systems equipped with a cooking game. In addition, their school food service will receive a $500 award to use toward improving school lunches with new equipment and/or fresh fruits and vegetables. The second place team, Benton Harbor Tiger Chefs, cooked up a Farmer’s Egg Wrap complete with a Fruit Pizza Muffin, garden salad, and berry yogurt smoothie. The third place team, the River House Chefs from Iron River, prepared a bean and vegetable packed Burrito Surprise and with a tasty Veggie Mix-Up side dish for the judges. Members of both teams received kitchen cooking sets as prizes.
Following the competition, the students enjoyed a healthy lunch and a cooking demonstration with Peter di Lorenzi of Lo-TECH Foodways, and toured the MSU Dairy Plant and MSU’s Student Organic Farm.
Event coordinator Colleen Matts, Farm to School Specialist with the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at MSU, was pleased with the event. “It was amazing to see how invested the students were in the competition! They all had obviously prepared and practiced for the cook-off so every meal was nutritious, tasty, and well-executed. That made the task of judging very difficult.” Matts said there are plans to hold the competition again within the next two years, and hopes it will become an annual event.
Excerpted from a press release by Joe Vaillancourt and Elaine Bristol, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, MSU
For more information about the event, contact Colleen Matts.
