On Wednesday 25 May 2011, the Teen Battle Chef teams from McKean HS and Laurel HS competed in the Delaware Teen Battle Chef Showdown! The event was held at Newark Natural Foods (www.newarknaturalfoods.com/), the perfect setting for contest using healthy, nutritious whole foods. Staff from McKean HS, representatives from The Nemours Foundation, students from The Central School, and patrons of Newark Natural Foods witnessed as TBC students cooked sauteed chicken and vegetables with whole wheat pasta and homemade pesto.
Each team was challenged to incorporate two mystery ingredients into their dishes. They could chose from orange peppers, yellow peppers, summer squash, and asparagus. Team McKean picked orange and yellow peppers while Team Laurel selected orange peppers and summer squash.
The teams were given 30 minutes to complete and plate their dishes before presenting them to a panel of esteemed judges. The judges included Mrs. Carla Markell, the First Lady of Delaware; Chef Dan O’Brien, McKeans’s Chefs Move to Schools chef; Theresa Pileggi, Director of the Delaware Farm to School Collaborative; an intern from Nemours; and a health education intern from Laurel HS. We learned that Mrs. Markell’s favorite thing to eat is pesto… no pressure!
When the timer signaled that the cooking time was over, both teams presented their dishes with cultural and nutritional information. While the judges tasted and deliberated, the audience also sampled each dish and voted for the one that they believed was the tastiest. When the judges finished their evaluations, they each gave the teams words of praise and criticism. The scores were tallied and the winner was... TEAM LAUREL! Congratulations to Sumaiya and her Teen Battle Chefs. Team McKean and I will challenge Team Laurel to a rematch and hopefully we will come out victorious!
If you want to try out the winning dish, download the recipe from my documents to the right.
Hello Friends! Sorry for the lack of summer updates. To keep up with all of the exciting HealthCorps activities at McKean High School, please like our new Facebook fan page! Click on the following link to check it out: www.facebook.com/HealthCorpsAtMcKeanHighSchool . If that link doesn't work for you, log on to Facebook, search for "Healthcorps at McKean High School", and click "like". The Facebook fan page has all of the same features as this blog plus photos, work out videos, and a wall on which students, parents, and community members can interact with each other (and me). Raise some health!
