Thank you to all of our young chefs and the grown-ups who helped them explore cooking with fresh ingredients.
It was not easy choosing just four contestants to win the
6th GROW Kids Cooking Challenge.
The four prize winners are:
Advanced 12 and under:
Chef Rebekah, Grilled Duck with Cranberries, Roasted Veggies, and Apple Matchstick, Walnut & Goat Cheese Salad
Advanced 12 and under:
Dynamic Duo, Shrimp & Veggie Risotto
Beginner 12 and under:
Allie DeGier, Tex-Mex Zucchini Boats with Brown Rice Carrot Medley
Beginner 12 and under:
Chef Roy, Festive Fried Rice
Congratulations to our winners and all of the young chefs who took on this challenge with amazing results!
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A note from the judges:
Judging the Kids Cooking Challenge event was such a pleasure to be a part of. Everyone did such an amazing job and had such fun creative ideas! It was a team effort in choosing the winners. I would not have been able to pick a winner alone.
The Viterbo Dietetics Developmental Nutrition Class assisted in the judging process and had a hard time coming to a decision in both the advanced and beginner categories. When visiting their classroom for judging the pictures made all of them hungry and they almost couldn’t pick a winner because they were drooling over how good they looked.
Everyone had so much fun judging and being part of the process. Thank you to GROW for including us!
Sincerely,
Aubri Sanders Dietetics Intern on Behalf of Viterbo Dietetics Developmental Nutrition Class
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Cooking with these odd ingredients was fun, especially trying to think of what to cook with all of them. I had shared it with one of my friends and my aunt and uncle, we all enjoyed it. - Chef Uriah
Always fun to cook, try and taste new recipes that I can make on my own. - Syd
This was my best dish yet! - Cooking with Emmett
What a great way to spend an afternoon, in the kitchen, with you kid, being creative. A dash of joy was sprinkled on top of all our dishes. - Mayhem at the Mayhews
We had such a great time exploring the ingredients and coming up with a plan to use them in more than one way. We love spending time together in the kitchen and tasting new ingredients! - Bestro Murphy
Even if I don't win, we still got a delicious meal. - Chef Paul
This was my first Kids Cooking Challenge. I enjoyed cutting the vegetables and roasting the garlic. It was my first time ever preparing and eating wild rice and rainbow carrots. - Chef Brynn
It was fun! I enjoyed the challenge of having to be creative using mystery ingredients! - Chef Rebekah
It was really fun! I learned about handling raw meat safely because there is a lot of bacteria. - Chef Charlotte
It was fun and my recipe tasted really good! - Chef Roy
It was fun! I liked cooking. - Chicken Dinosaurs
My Kids had a fun time trying to figure out how to use these more advanced ingredients in a tasty and unique way. They enjoyed working as a team and loved being able to use knives (with guidance) for chopping. - Dynamic Duo
Alex was so incredibly excited to peel, chop, and cook. This was really fun. 10/10 would do again. - Team Chvala
It was fun but hard to use all the items in the mystery bag. I wasn’t sure what to do with the cheese. I was happy that I made dinner for my family. Everyone really liked it. - Chef Madalynn
I have always wanted to join a cooking or baking challenge like the ones I have watched on tv. When my mom asked me if I wanted to try this one, I was so excited and instantly said YES! It was such a fun experience. I especially loved chopping the veggies (safely) by myself! - Chef Grace
I felt like I was on one of the kids baking championships that I watch with my family on tv! It was so fun. I was even brave enough to taste bell peppers and zucchini because I cooked it myself. They were actually really good! My favorite part was chopping the vegetables and shredding zucchini with the cheese grater. - Chef Elaina
I was a little upset, well ok really really upset when I opened my bag and I saw there was zucchini and a red pepper in there because I really hate eating those two things. But I started writing ideas down I thought of something really yummy to make and it was fun to make and when it was done it tasted SOOO delicious! Best thing I’ve ever made. I might like adding zucchini and peppers to my food now. - Chef Ellis
Allie enjoyed creating a dish with the ingredients provided and getting outside of her comfort zone. She doesn't love zucchini, but loves Mexican. Combining the two created a delicious dish that got her to eat zucchini!! She was very proud of her creation and served the whole family with a smile! - Allie DeGier
This group had so much fun! They used ipads to research and worked together with assigned jobs to chop the veggies and take turns cooking. - Mr. Pierr's 5th Grade Class
So fun to experiment and take turns chopping veggies! - 5th Grade Cooking Masters
We had a great time! We like to involve our hen's eggs in the foods we cook, so this was a unique opportunity to do that! Thank you! - Kiralynn
We spent a lot of time learning the correct knife skills chopping the carrots, peppers, garlic and zucchini in bite-sized pieces. They are getting better and better each time we cook. Mariel really enjoys putting it all together on the nachos and tasting each part separately and together as a meal. - Mariel's Morsels
It’s the best!! My top 3 favorite parts this year were all the chopping, and the peeling, but most of, EATING IT! The hardest part was not eating all the carrots when I was supposed to be cutting them. My family all agrees it tasted really really really good and that I should make more of our meals. And my mom said I can be in charge of all the peeling of everything from now on! I can’t wait to cook more! - Kira's Kitchen
I really love cooking and these challenges. We even make up our own now sometimes. My body got sick of so much chopping so I made a jack o lantern out of the bell pepper! That was probably my favorite part, he was so cute, but it was all fun. The hardest part for me was dicing up the tomatoes from my garden. I don’t like that much squishiness on my fingers. I think I’m good at most things in the kitchen and my meal definitely turned out delicious. I’m already planning out my next new recipes! - Ella's Deli
Nolan worked on his knife skills. He had more patience this year with preparing and chopping. He was surprised how fast the steak cooked since he chopped it so small to work in a fajita. - Nolan's Nosh
Lucy did a great job brainstorming the ingredients and what type of recipe would work with all of them. - Chef Lucy Lu
Everett and his sister both enjoyed this challenged! They used a carrot peeler for the first time. Everett really enjoyed seeing the inside of a pepper and all of the seeds. Although he didn't love all of the vegetables, he did try each one! Everett recommends Football Nachos to anyone who likes to eat.- Everett's Kitchen
It was fun and I would gladly do it again. - Chef Tierny
So fun! They looked up stuffed pepper recipe to come up with their own.-Mrs. Wiedemann's 4th Grade Chefs
They had a great time writing their recipe and learning to cook with veggies! - Mrs. Wiedemann's 4 Grade Cooking Masters
Gus Loves to be creative in the kitchen. His favorite part of this challenge was chopping and peeling all of the veggies. Have the chance to be the family chef for the night using his own ideas for the meal was very exciting for him. - Chef Gus
This was Charlie's first time cooking with wild rice, zucchini and goat cheese. He wasn't thrilled when he first saw the ingredients, but once he started to form an idea of how they could all be used together was excited to prepare a meal that came together quickly and was the perfect way to feed his family on a cool fall weekend. - Charlie Cooks
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Everyone wins when young chefs explore fresh, healthy ingredients.
Thank you to all of our participants for sharing your smiles and talents!
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Special Thanks to the Viterbo University Dietetic students for sharing their expertise and time as the judges for this event.
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Thank You to our Event Sponsors:
