- Author: Ariel Smoke
On Saturday, March 21, 2015 eight 4-Hers competed in a miniature cooking throw down at the Robert J. Cabral Ag Center in Stockton. In the first two rounds two teams with two members each in 20 minutes prepared an appetizer and a dessert using cream cheese or basil as the secret ingredient. Once the dishes were completed the teams presented them to a panel of judges who scored them on presentation, taste, creativity and safe food handling. Caroline Lagorio and Sophia Berg from Linden-Peters 4-H won the first round with a zucchini cream cheese appetizer beating out a Tracy team. In the second round Nick Vana and Conner Nims also from Linden won with a chicken basil pizza against another Tracy team. The Championship Round was exciting with both Linden teams competing for the title. The secret ingredient was saltine crackers and the girls out cooked the boys with deep fried pickles and a homemade honey mustard. The boys made a s'more garnished with strawberries and bananas. This was the first time for a local contest. All the leftover produce, meat and dairy products were donated to the Linden High School home economics program for their use. The contest supplies were donated by the California Women for Agriculture, San Joaquin-Stanislaus CattleWomen, Linden Farm Center and the California Fertilizer Foundation.
Elisabeth Watkins, a 13 year old Linden-Peters 4-Her, conducted the contest as part of her quest to earn her Emerald Star in the 4-H awards program. Watkins has become quite an expert in cooking throwdowns. She holds the title of winning the State Fair 4-H Cooking Throwdown for 2013 and 2014. During those contests Watkins competed on a team of three 4-Hers who had 60 minutes to cook an appetizer, main dish and dessert using a secret ingredient and no recipe books or cards.
This cooking throwdown was held in conjunction with the annual 4-H Food Fiesta. Food Fiesta allowed members to make their favorite food (appetizer, side dishes, main dishes, desserts or candy) and present it to a panel of judges who scored the dish on taste, texture, presentation, nutrition value and skill appropriate. The members earned medals and ribbons for their participation. After all the entries were judged the members and parents sampled the dishes as well.
Submitted by Molly Watkins, Linden-Peters 4-H