Young Culinary Stars Shine at Regional Competition!

In it’s own version of the popular Food Network show “Chopped,” the 4-H gives young culinary contestants in competition a mystery ingredient and dares them to come up with something palatable in 40 minutes. LaSAS students and 4-H members Jacques Dauzat and Ethan LeBlanc were up to the challenge. The tenth graders, who have been in 4-H since they were Cloverbuds, have been active in Culinary Club (CC) for three years. Both have accomplished a lot when it comes to preparing food. According to Karen Burlew, 4-H Agent, “one of the first things we teach them is knife skills.”

Such a skill improves the texture, flavor and visual appeal of dishes. Jacques and Ethan are very comfortable in the kitchen and said they do a lot of cooking at home.

“I’ve cooked Irish beef stew, sweet potato cakes and stuffed green peppers, whoever gets home first takes over and decides what’s for dinner,” Jacques explained.

Ethan grills at home and helps his dad when he grills.

“I have fixed smoked chicken wings or deep fried them as well as barbecued pork steaks.”

So it was not a surprise when Ethan and Jacques were entered into the cooking competition.

“Actually, this is our third year,” they said.

In the first round of the competition, the nondescript brown paper bag held the mystery ingredient of mushrooms.

“We thought, what can we do with this,” Ethan began, “immediately we both thought, ‘breakfast.’”

Their dish of choice became breakfast quesadillas with a spinach salad on the side. Forty minutes may sound like a lot of time to make the dish but included was how they had to figure out just what they could fix, then buy the ingredients from a healthy, well-stocked pantry, prepare and plate the dish. Teams were given a certain amount of fake money to buy from the pantry then they had to calculate the cost of what they prepared.

In preparing a talk about the dish, the boys had to make sure their oral presentation included how it was prepared, the ingredients used, the cost of the dish and the nutritional value.

“And you can’t taste your own dish,” Ethan remarked, then added, “we did have enough time to do it all with five minutes leftover.”

Jacques explained what ingredients they used:
- eggs
- chopped mushrooms
- spinach
- cheese
- onions
- tortillas

Because they placed second in their heat, the team moved into the finals. This time the secret ingredient in another brown bag was apples.

“Dessert,” the boys, who have team-cooked before, thought together and at the same time.

“We wanted to make it simple. It was getting late, we were tired and thought the judges were probably getting tired. We made an apple and lemon parfait topped with sweet potato puree,” said Jacques.

The parfait was constructed with a layer of Greek yogurt, then flesh of lemons with diced apples and the sweet potato puree on top. The sweet potato was cut up, put in a pan with milk, sugar, lemon juice and cooked down.

“It looked bland,” Ethan commented, “so we added some spinach on the plate for color.”

Although they didn’t win in the final round, both boys said they were happy to be in the finals. The boys history in 4-H goes back to when they were wee lads in the third grade.

“I like being in 4-H because there are so many opportunities for leadership and it’s helped me gain valuable life skills.” Jacques

Ethan said, “My dad and brother were in 4-H, when I had a chance to join Cloverbuds, I said I’d give it a shot.” Now Ethan and Jacques are in 4-H Leadership.

Moving forward both boys are very specific on their plans for the future. As a junior next year, Jacques plans to attend LSUA for half a day in advanced placement.

“I want to go to LSU and study plants and soil systems.” Ethan hopes to attend CLTCC in Alexandria and be certified in residential electricity**.

“After I graduate I want to get a license in HVAC.”

“Jacques and Ethan are very productive and fun to be around,” 4-H Agent Karen said, “they have stepped up in leadership and not afraid to be leaders.”

They’re also not afraid to cook.