Today, students in Brenda Galyan’s Advanced Nutrition and Wellness class had the chance to participate in a Chili Cook-Off competition. The Cook-Off was the conclusion to the course’s unit on soup.
In order to prepare for the Cook-Off, students were in charge of finding a chili recipe that would take approximately 4o minutes to prepare. The day before the competition, students cooked a trial run of their soups in order to ensure that their recipes were perfected before they were judged.
Galyan invited four judges to attend the Cook-Off and decide which student prepared the most satisfactory soup. Judges received score cards and rated the soups based on various categories such as aroma, color, consistency, flavor and aftertaste.
In the end, the student with the highest favored chili received a ribbon and, of course, the bragging rights of being the chili-making champion. In addition, Galyan will hand embroider “Chili Cook-Off Champion” onto the personalized apron of the winner. Over the course of the class, many other cooking competitions occur, and a victory in any of of them results in an addition to the winning student’s apron.
“Their aprons become their badges of honor”, Galyan said.
