Sometimes you just do it right the first time.
Such was the case for Poseidon Valdez, first-place winner in February’s Future Chefs competition sponsored by Lawton Public Schools. Valdez won for his caprese chicken dish, which the Lincoln Elementary School fifth grader said he had never made before.
“I didn’t think it was going to turn out,” he said after he was named the winner.
Valdez said first he cuts the chicken into little pieces, seasons it with salt and pepper and fries it. He then melts mozzarella cheese on top of the chicken and tops it all off with basil and cherry tomatoes cut in half.
“It looks good and nice and it is ready to serve,” he said.
Valdez said he thinks he won because of the taste. He said he likes to cook at home, and often makes breakfast for his family.
His mother, Julie, was surprised and pleased with her son’s first-place finish.
“This is our first experience and we were doing it just for fun,” she said. “It turned out better than expected. We just looked at ideas and this looked the best.”
Valdez will move on to the state competition and if he wins there, will qualify for nationals.
The 14 contestants and their helpers — LPS kitchen staff from various schools — turned the Central Middle School kitchen into a beehive of activity Feb. 14 for the 15th annual Future Chefs Competition, which is a national competition according to Daniel Ghrayyeb, director of Child Nutrition for LPS.
Ghrayyeb said students submit recipes online and the entrants are narrowed down to two per school. This year’s theme was main dishes, he said of the competition that is open to fourth and fifth graders.
On competition day, contestants arrived at the Central Middle School kitchen to prepare their dish for the three judges. Among other things, each dish was judged on appearance, taste and ease of cooking. And it had to be kid-friendly. The school district purchased all the ingredients and everything was in place at the student’s workstation.
While Valdez tried a new dish, other young competitors opted for tried-and-true family favorites. One of those was Amya Johnson, fifth grader at Pat Henry Elementary School, who made her aunt’s recipe for broccoli alfredo, which she said is her favorite meal to make at home.
Johnson said the family recipe calls for noodles, broccoli, butter, cheese and heavy whipping cream.
“If it’s too thick, you add more whipping cream,” Johnson said. “When it’s done, you put it on a plate.” Johnson said.
“She helps me in the kitchen all the time,” said Johnson’s aunt, Dawn Selvaggi. “It’s one of those things she knows how to do. She doesn’t like to clean up, but she likes to cook.
“I’m sweating and nervous for her,” Selvaggi said as they waited for the winners to be announced.
Johnson, who admitted to being nervous when presenting to the judges, said she was surprised when the judges called her name for third place.
“I felt like they liked it and at the same time I didn’t,” Johnson said of the wait for the judges to taste her meal.
Selvaggi was pretty excited, too.
“Third place ain’t bad,” Selvaggi said.
Maria Alexander, who cooks at Eisenhower Middle School, served as helper for Johnson at the competition.
“She is so good,” Alexander said as she beamed with pride. “She knows what she’s doing. I’m so proud of her.”
Aminah Eldridge, 9, from Woodland Hills, also opted for a family recipe. She made her mother’s Biscuit Chicken Pot Pie.
“I’ve made it three times before I came here,” Eldridge said as she sautéed carrots, celery and hashbrowns. “I wanted to enter because I love to cook. I want the judges to taste what I have prepared for them. I hope it goes well.”
Once the vegetables were sautéed, Eldridge added the shredded chicken and spooned everything into a dish and topped the mixture with biscuits. The biscuits were then coated with egg whites and topped with a can of cream of chicken soup.
Each young chef was assigned a helper — usually a cook from an LPS school — who took the dishes in and out of the ovens and provided any other assistance needed, including helping students make critical decisions about food presentations.
Randy Thomas, a cook at Eisenhower Elementary School, and Kota Lyle, a second grader at Freedom Elementary School, were deep in discussion about how to arrange Lyle’s Taco Rice recipe on a plate for the judges.
“I want to make it in four different patterns, how I normally do it and in a heart shape for Valentine’s Day,” Lyle said.
Thomas agreed that Lyle had a good idea about the Valentine’s Day presentation.
“He wants to do four different presentations. That’s a good game plan,” Thomas said. “But you have to make sure the food tastes good.”
Lyle said he saw the recipe online, but changed some of the ingredients to suit his taste.
“I wanted to do this because this is a challenge and I wanted to do this for my family,” said Lyle, who has made the dish several times at home. “They think it’s good.”
Lyle said what makes his recipe so good is the melted cheese on Doritos.
Another chef who adjusted a recipe was Liam Keith, 11, a student at Sullivan Village Elementary School. He was preparing Liam’s Cheesy Burger Biscuits, which was a spinoff of a dish he sampled on a family vacation.
The recipe calls for crumbling six strips of bacon into a pound of browned hamburger meat, adding the mixture to the center of a flattened biscuit and topping the mixture with a pickle and some cheese. The biscuit is then folded over, brushed with melted butter, and baked.
Keith said this is his favorite dish to make at home and that his family thinks it is pretty good.
“I like cooking and I like to get better at it,” he said of why he entered the competition.