Local 4-Hers compete in a 20 minutes cooking ThrowDown
***Article written by Molly Watkins***
On Saturday, March 11, 2017, eight 4-Hers competed in a miniature cooking throwdown at the Robert J. Cabal Ag Center in Stockton. In the first two rounds two teams with two members each had 20 minutes to prepare an appetizer or dessert using a 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. The winners of each round compete in the Championship Round.
In the first round, Oh, Crepe! (Danielle Nigro and Faith Hunt from Lodi) faced off against the Spice Girls (Kathleen Morelos and Helen Olson from Tracy) cooking with almond butter. Then, the Lemon Drops (Sierra Jennings and Delaney Hineman from Tracy) and The Heat were given brie cheese to make an appetizer or a dessert. The Championship round featured banana nut muffins as the secret ingredient and unfortunately The Heat, Gianna Vaccarezza from Linden and Lacy Hineman from Tracy lost to Jefferson 4-Her's Helen Olson and Kathleen Morelos of Spice Girls.
The contest supplies were donated by the California Women for Agriculture, the San Joaquin-Stanislaus CattleWomen and the San Joaquin Ag Education Foundation.
Elisabeth Watkins, a 15 year old Linden-Peters 4-Her, conducted the contest. Watkins has become quite an expert in cooking throwdowns. She holds the title of winning the State Fair 4-H Cooking Throwdown for 2013, 2014 and 2015 and winning the Food Network's Chopped Junior episode in November 2016.
This cooking throwdown was held in conjunction with the annual 4-H Food Fiesta. Linden-Peters 4-H had one member compete in this competition: Gianna Vaccarezza who earned a gold medal. Food Fiesta allows members to make their favorite food (appetizer, side dishes, main dishes, desserts or candy) and present it to a panel of judges who score 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 were allowed to sample the dishes as well.