Middle School Hosts Cooking Competition for Eighth Graders

June 14, 2023

Over the past two months, eighth graders have had the opportunity to show off their cooking skills in the first Cooking Competition put on by Family and Consumer Science (F.A.C.S.) teacher Andrea Cacciatore. 

While Ms. Cacciatore covers many units in her F.A.C.S. class, she noted that students often enjoy the cooking unit the most and she wanted to find more ways to incorporate cooking in the classroom. 

The competitions, which took place during eleventh period allowed groups of up to four students to create meals or desserts that they would serve to mystery judges. The judges did not know who had cooked each dish and scored the students on appearance, taste, creativity, difficulty and texture. 

When she first created the competition, Ms. Cacciatore said she hoped a few students would be interested. In the end, she had 25 groups sign up. 

The competition was made into three rounds with five teams going head-to-head in rounds one and two. Students were able to create any dish they would like, whether it be a meal or dessert.

The final round of the competition consisted of two groups: Philip Kolar vs. Brooke Alcantara, Mackenzie Blaskey, Riley Dolan, and Meadow Reichert. 

Philips’ delicious zoodle bolognese dish with a pesto-ricotta drizzle came out on top to win him the title as the cooking competition champion!