Michelle Cardoso (’17) diligently mixing her cornbread batter before putting it the oven. Photo by Elise Tran.by Aminah Khan, Staff Writer and Photographer
Last Friday, the culinary department at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) held its 24th annual chili cook-off. The competition took place in the three culinary classes, one in Culinary 1, one in the advanced culinary class, both of which are taught by Armida Gordon, and one in another culinary class taught by Cori Raina, another culinary teacher at FVHS.
“Each team gets to select their own type and style of chili and cornbread and they are competing against classmates in order to win a cook off,” said Raina to explain how the competition works.
Groups were composed of 6 team members who were allowed to choose a theme for their chili and cornbread. The students also had to create a design for their table, decorating it according to the theme they chose.
What was first an end to the semester final has now become a second semester project for students to display their knowledge on various foods.
Gordon, who actually started this competition 24 years ago said, “The whole point of the competition is one, the food competition is fun and two, it’s really a culmination of everything that the students did first semester and it’s putting all their skills that they earned first semester into one project to showcase what they learned.”
This project was a great way for students to get to work together and create new flavor profiles while cooking.
“They get to practice with different flavor profiles, looking at the different spices and looking at different techniques with different chilis,” said Gordon.
FVHS faculty members participated as judges and scored the groups based on the taste and presentation of the chili, cornbread, and the overall presentation of the table they set up.
The winners from each class were awarded with a Golden Spoony that was given during class on Tuesday.
The following teams were named this year’s winners:
Period 2: Traditional Chili: Auryelle Hall, Alexis Quintero, Brooke Leutbecher, and Cassidy Hoang made chili with Jalapeno and Bacon cornbread on the side.
Period 3: Rock n Roll Chili: Sara Feitz, Jayden Davis, Mya Hester, Anthony Baui and Ethan Mack.
Period 5: Harry Potter and the Deathly Chili: Vivian Troung, Sheanne Reazon, Amy Lee, Kyler Wang
