Youth square off during the Farm to School cooking competition
The 2nd annual Farm to School Youth Localvore Cook Off brought together six teams of aspiring young chefs to go head-to-head in a battle of culinary prowess. The intention of the Youth Localvore event is to celebrate cooking delicious, healthy and local food and to engage youth in connecting the dots between our health, our food skills and our local food system.
Ilana Labow, Farmer and Melissa LeBlanc, Dietitian take part in judging the appetizers.
The grade 11 and 12 students were tasked with creating recipes in advance and then preparing them for a panel of judges. The event itself began with the teams tackling their tasks smoothly and efficiently, showing off their high school culinary arts training. The event ended precisely two hours later which was of course preceded by frenzied plating and garnishing of their dishes as the deadline loomed. The dishes were evaluated by chefs, nutritionists and farmers in order to determine the winners.
Congratulations to all of the participants and particularly the winners Gwangjoon Kim and Emily Chang from David Thompson Secondary in Vancouver who took home $3000 each in scholarship funds to continue their post-secondary culinary training.
The Farm to School Greater Vancouver Steering Committee would like to extend a big thank you to Vancity enviroFund for the funds to make this event possible and to the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver for hosting the event.
Follow Farm to School on Facebook/Farm to School and on the website in the coming weeks to see the pictures and videos of the event, thanks to Richmond Youth Media Lab. More pictures available here.