HHS culinary students create drool-worthy fare for Cast Iron Chef competition

On Thursday, March 3, four culinary students from Huntsville High School gave it their all in Fleming College’s Cast Iron Chef competition.

Grade 11 students Jessica Fraser, Ben Shakespeare, Sheridan Wells, and Alex Young were divided among three teams composed of students from various secondary schools and led by a Fleming chef. Each team spent the day preparing a three-course meal that included an appetizer, main course and dessert.

Fleming College sold a limited number of tickets to dinner guests who sampled and voted on all of the dishes.

When it was done, Young’s team won for best main course (Jamaican curried chicken croquette and jerked duck breast with carrot, onion and potato puree), Sheridan’s for dessert (Chocolate and goat cheese phyllo pastry on top of deconstructed apple crumble, drizzled with caramel sauce), and the team Fraser and Shakespeare were on won for best appetizer (Quenelles of smoked trout with a light herb curst, napped with mushroom cream sauce on microgreen and spinach chiffonade salad).

Wells and Shakespeare also took home special honours, being picked first and second respectively by their team chef.

The HHS culinary program is a Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) and competitions are a Reach Ahead component – an opportunity for students to gain real world experience.

The students are already gaining experience with local businesses – Shakespeare works at Henrietta’s as a baker, Wells used to work at Windmill Bakery, Fraser has a co-op at Gluten-Free Bakery, and Young and his dad are going to cater a family meal for a customer this summer – and they also volunteer for catering functions like tonight’s Syrian Fundraising Dinner (March 10).

Up next, Fraser and Young will each be competing with a fellow student at a Georgian College competition on April 28, and Wells is off to the Ontario Technological Skills Competition at RIM Park in Waterloo, May 2-4. “There are very strict regulations,” said Wells. “We get a scope of what we need to make and mandatory ingredients. A bun (for example) would have to be 50 grams after you cook it.”

Teacher LeaAnne Zielonko is proud of her charges. “I think it’s fantastic. I recognize that a lot of students who take the SHSM program may not be going into the industry – obviously I encourage them to – but on their way to doing whatever they are doing they’ll probably work in the industry, especially if they live in Huntsville. If they can say, this is what I did in high school, they get jobs. And it gives them the opportunity in high school to do something different – not everyone is involved in sports or other extra-curricular activities and things like catering give them a way to be involved.”