September 19, 2024
Local News | Kane County Chronicle
Local News

Middle schoolers reveal cookery know-how

By BRENDA SCHORY

St. Charles North and East High School students sample and judge recipes that were prepared by middle school students from Haines, Thompson, and Wreding at the third annual Top Chef Competition on Saturday morning at East High School in St. Charles. Competitors prepared recipes from mint Oreo cheesecake, to cheese stuffed chicken tenderloin, to Mediterranean Quinoa salad for the families to also sample during the competition once judging was complete. (Rena Naltsas)

ST. CHARLES – Twelve-year-old Marissa Creviston speedily spooned her green enchilada chicken into tasting cups while Matthew Bailey, 13, busily chopped his cheese-stuffed chicken tenderloins into similar cups.

All around them, 19 other St. Charles students put their foods forward for the judging in the Third Annual Middle School Culinary Cooking Competition Saturday at St. Charles East High School.

"It's my mom's recipe," said Marissa, a seventh grader at Thompson. "It's chicken and jalapeña salsa, cilantro, Monterey Jack cheese. I'm a little nervous, but I just had fun doing it."

Matthew said he found his recipe online. It calls for boneless chicken tenderloins stuffed with feta cheese and served with a tomato and green chili sauce.

"I just love cooking," Matthew said. "I did this last year and I wanted to do it again last year."

Recipes ran the gamut from desserts like lemon-scented mini-cheesecakes by Katie Downing and overflowing taco dip by Jessica Glas, both from Thompson to Mediterranean quinoa salad by Jack Sweeny from Wredling.

Students were recognized in various categories, but Emma Zimmer from Haines, was named best overall winner for her Wisconsin Baked Mac & Cheese. Her prize includes a day of cooking with Chef Paul Bringas, executive chef at the Royal Fox Country Club in St. Charles

"I got the recipe from the Martha Stewart 101 Catalog," Emma said. "I like that it has sharp white cheddar cheese in it. That gives it good flavor."

Chef Rebecca Stobierski, owner of the Rx Café in St. Charles, was one of the judges.

"What I'm looking for quality, I'm looking for neatness,"  Stobierski said. "Does it make sense? Do they understand what they have created? When you choose a recipe for a competition, are you choosing this recipe because it's easy and quick and you think you can win with it? Or are you choosing it because there is something in that recipe that you want to show the world that you can make?"

She surveyed the students as they served their culinary creations for the judging.

"Look at them," Stobierski said. "This food is very professional, high quality, very clean and they have their chef coats on. Even though they're just in middle school, they are very serious about what they do. They have a passion for food at a very early age – and I think it's fantastic. We should encourage that passion."

Kathy Litts of Sodexo, the district's food service and co-sponsors of the event with the middle school family consumer science teachers, said the students brought their food and ingredients to the school 90 minutes ahead of time to cook their recipes, clean up and get their tables ready to display their food.

"One young lady actually made her own pasta," Litts said, referring to Karyssa D'Agostino, 13, a seventh grader at Thompson, who made pasta Alfredo.

"She was told she could bring in pasta that already made because it's so time consuming – but she made her own from scratch here. My hat's off to her," Litts said. "What these kids have done is wonderful, just a phenomenal job. They have taken time to practice before hand. They got their recipes together. We had culinary students from the high school to give them tips, but they did everything on their own."

Karyssa said she enjoyed making her own pasta and Alfredo sauce.

"I made it because I thought it would too easy to just buy some pasta off a shelf and put it in a pot and let it boil," Karyssa said. "It's fun for me."