Iron Chef for Middle School Students in Seaside?

Beginning in February, thirteen 4-H youth began participating in “After School Cooking Classes” at the Bob Chisholm Center.  The first session of class offered basic cooking instruction covering knife skills, nutritional values of foods, how to correctly measure ingredients as well as proper techniques to ensure food safety in the kitchen. The members also learned cooking basics including how to: roast a chicken and steam vegetables; make chicken stock from a chicken carcass; scramble eggs and make potato hash; bake cinnamon and savory rolls; and even how to make sea salt from ocean water! Additionally for a portion of each class, students worked on food related art projects, creating a flock of chickens from paper mache and making their own tea blends adorned with handcrafted labels on tea bags they stitched themselves.

 

The final class was an Iron Chef event wherein the young chefs paired up into teams to compete in a breakfast cook-off.  They used the skills they had learned and were challenged to make a breakfast scramble, baked yeast rolls, and fresh fruit salad. The dishes were served to four judges:  Clatsop County Commissioner, Sarah Nebecker; Broadway Middle School Principal, Doug Pease; Sunset Empire Parks and Recreation Director, Justin Cutler; and North Coast Food Web board member, Merianne Myers.  Local Chef, Rod Nichols instructed the youth through all phases of learning and oversaw the cooking competition along with Kristin Frost Albrecht and Miki ‘ala Souza of OSU Extension’s Family and Community Health program and Sandra Carlson of 4-H.

For the competition, each group had a workstation stocked with the groceries needed for their menu and one hour to complete the entire meal.  All groups finished in time with a couple of them barely beating the clock! Each of the items was scored on appearance, texture, color, and flavor with special awards being given for teamwork.  The judges spoke to the difficulty they had making decisions given the many delicious dishes they tasted!  Final prizes were awarded to all teams with two teams receiving outstanding marks for exceptional teamwork.

 

This program was possible with the partnership of the Sunset Empire Parks and Rec, Bob Chisholm Community Center, 4-H, North Coast Food Web and OSU Extension Food and Nutrition program.

4-H is a program of the Oregon State University Extension Service and it offers programs to all without discrimination.  For more information about 4-H, call .