Elementary students in Santa Rosa County showed off their culinary creativity at the third annual Future Chefs Challenge, sponsored by the Santa Rosa County School District and Sodexo Quality of Life Services – the contracted food services provider for the school district.
On Thursday night at Bennett Russell Elementary School, the top eight finalists competed for the top healthy snack recipe.
Click here to view a photo gallery from Thursday night's competition
“We have all of the elementary students in third, fourth and fifth submit recipes to us,” said Leslie Bell, who works with the school district on behalf of Sodexo. “We had over 207 recipes submitted.”
Out of the entries, the top eight finalists were selected to compete on district level in which a finalist was selected based upon results from a panel of judges, including Superintendent Tim Wyrosdick, school board member Diane Scott, and officials Connie Carnley, Jud Crane and Joey Harrell. Also assisting with judging was last year’s district winner Tyler White, currently a student at Sims Middle School.
White said he enjoyed taking part in the judges panel.
“(The entries) were all really good,” he said.
Fellow judge Diane Scott agreed.
“I thought the students did a great job,” she said. “This is a good way to promote healthy eating.”
In this year’s healthy snack category, the top eight entries included a veggie–feta lettuce wrap, a secret smoothie, surprise apple cookies, among other healthy alternative snacks.
Brayden Rogers, a third grader at West Navarre Intermediate School, submitted his ‘tasty turkey wrap’ which made it to the final eight. Rogers said he was inspired from a snack his mother, Dawn made for him.
“My Mom used to always make it when we would go to the zoo,” he said. “This snack reminds me of going to the zoo.”
Dawn enjoys seeing her son’s creativity at work in the family’s kitchen.
“He cooks dinner for us all of the time without assistance,” she said. “As much as he likes to eat, he needs to learn to cook.”
Brayden was one of three students to represent West Navarre Intermediate at this year’s competition.
Fellow competitor Emma Goldberg, a fifth grader at Bagdad Elementary School, also enjoys using culinary creativity in the kitchen.
“I have always enjoyed cooking, it’s always been a big thing of mine,” she said. “My mom always cooks dinner, so I always help her cook dinner after school.”
Emma submission of ‘veggie-feta lettuce wrap’ was also inspired by her mother.
“My mom made lettuce wraps and she likes avocados, so I put some avocados in there,” she said.
Goldberg’s wrap also included red bell pepper, cucumber and shredded carrots among other ingredients.
In addition to receiving positive feedback from the judges, Goldberg also received the same from attendees at the event. Each finalist provided samples of their work to attendees.
“People have really like it,” Goldberg said.
Megan Wallace, a fifth grader from Oriole Beach Elementary School, took the top prize at the event with her ‘Crunchy Turkey Wrap. In addition to competing in regional competition for Sodexo, Wallace will also serve as judge in next year’s district competition.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: ‘Future Chefs’ competition allows students to show culinary creativity (PHOTOS)