Schwan’s Culinary Skills Challenge

The Schwan’s Culinary Skills Challenge was held on Thursday, April 18 at the Southwest Minnesota State University’s Recreation/Athletic facility.  Twenty-one students from Worthington’s High School Culture and Cuisine class, taught by Mrs. Bents, prepared for many different competition areas.  The students also were able to have various different food workshop experiences that filled the day.

There were over 200 students from the surrounding schools and also some from South Dakota all to take part in the event and compete. Awards are given to the top three in the competition areas. 

It was a successful event for the Worthington group with the following students winning medals and scholarships in their competition areas.

In Menu Design with a Cultural theme:
1^st place -Estrella Bahena and Giovani Garcia Soto 
3^rd place – Kiera Ahrenstorff and Kelly Chilel Sandoval

In the holiday theme Table setting and Napkin fold. 
2^nd place – Andrea Dominguez

The Baking Science competition developed a new flavor from an existing cookie recipe. The team chose colorful Fruity Pebbles and honey in their alteration.
2^nd place – Bailey Ahlquist and Janessa Hamann

This was the second year for Emily Soto to compete at the contest. She chose the Food Sculpture area and was awarded 2^nd place.

Always looking for a good way to compete using the Premium Schwan’s Chicken Breast is the job of the cooking team.  It is limited to 8 teams competing on the center of the SMSU gym floor.  This year’s theme was Italian and the team created their recipe of a Deglazed sauce over the Chicken Breast with a side of Risotto Milanese and a Colorful Pepper Mix in Lemon Butter. The students had one hour to prepare and plate the hot meal using 2 butane burners.  They were observed on their knife skills along with safety and sanitation knowledge during the preparation.

The Worthington team of Ben Maldonado, Anthony Moris, and Oswaldo Rodriguez was awarded 2^nd place medals along with $1000.00 scholarships each to attend the Culinology program at SMSU to further their interest in Food Preparation and Food Science.

Other students who attended the workshops and prepared for competitions in the Menu Design, Tablesetting, Knife Skills, Nine inch Cake, Multi-layer cake and Cupcakes were: Darin Thong, Mason Snyder, Jocelyn Kropf Guevara, Erika Pineda Argueta, Emily Lopez Martin, Mussa Zerfu, Jacob Keodouangsy, Mia Velasco, Samantha Bultmann, and Aubree Lebaron.