More Posts Coming Soon!

We are still working on getting some blog posts up! Until that time, enjoy a past post about one of our favorite activities from last year, our Iron Chef competition!

IRON CHEF
April 30, 2014

The students wait in their groups for the secret ingredient to be revealed. With a flourish, the cloth is pulled away from the platter and underneath are...strawberries! 

This is 7th/8th grade Leadership's Iron Chef competition. Each group will make a main dish and a dessert, with one plate for the judges and another plate for their competitors to try. The teams will be judged on the following criteria:

1. Taste
2. Plating
3. Teamwork
4. Creativity 
5. Use of Secret Ingredient
6. Clean Up

The girls were given a list of available ingredients prior to class and were free to prepare as much or as little as they wanted. Immediately, Makiyah at Table 2 pulls out a recipe for sugar cookies, to which they plan on adding strawberries. They immediately start making the cookies, knowing that they'll have to bake. With mac n' cheese, a kale and strawberry salad, and cheesy roasted broccoli, Table 2 isn't fooling around!
Table 1 has ambitious plans, making cookies and cutting them into stars and flowers, and using the tortilla press to make fresh tortillas to go with their curried black eyed peas and collards filling. They also have plans for a smoothie beverage to accompany their meal.
Table 3 gets full points for creativity. They turn their fruit into an elaborate fruit platter. They also invented an apple cake with cinnamon, and cooked some greens and a simple pasta for the main.

All three tables' dishes turn out beautifully, and the scores are incredibly close. In the end though, it is Table 2 that claims the victory, for exceeding across the board in all the categories. 

Until Next Time!
The Willard Cooking and Gardening Program

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