3 students dominate GES Mallard Chef recipe contest

  Garapan Elementary School held its first ever “Mallard Chef” Recipe Contest on Feb. 10. School contest organizers Claire Dela Cruz and Lori Terre saw the potential of the school’s future chefs and decided to organize a recipe contest to give the students the opportunity to show their creativity and talent in cooking and creating delicious and unique dishes and beverages. Interested students entered an array of recipes ranging from veggie smoothies to sandwiches, salads, frozen treats, and fruity pancakes. Students were also given the option to enter their recipes as an individual chef or by a team of three chefs.

Judges from the school and community were invited to taste the recipes. Judges included parents, students, school administrators, and teachers. The recipes were judged on presentation and visual appeal, taste, recipe content, and overall use of the main fruit ingredient. Each grade level cluster had five fruits to choose from. The kindergarten to 3rd grade cluster had to choose from banana, papaya, mountain apple, or star fruit. The 4th to 6th grade cluster had to choose pineapple, guava, sweetsop, tangerine, or watermelon.

Students, teachers and parents were given one week to come up with their recipe, vote in their own class for their top recipes that would be entered into the school level competition.

The Mallard Chef Recipe Contest winners were the chef team of Mica Camacho and Michael Alovera with the winning recipe Sweet Mashed Potato with Pineapple and Mango Salsa for the 4th to 6th grade cluster. For the kindergarten to 3rd grade cluster, chef Ryan Kang dominated with his Thai Papaya Salad. Only one of the recipes will be entered in the PSS-wide competition to be held in March.

The contest was an overall success as a result of the continued support and dedication of GES parents, teachers, administrators, community partners, and most especially the students. The students had an amazing time creating their dishes and presenting them to the judges. Our students now understand that there is more to learning than just opening a book, writing paragraphs, or putting on a play. Opening the door to creativity and having fun is what we try to instill in our students. The Mallard Chef Recipe Contest allowed our students to think outside the classroom and into the kitchen. (PR)