NO WATER. NO ELECTRICITY. Just two butane burners and a cramped 10-by-10-foot space. That’s what six teams of students had to work with in last year’s inaugural High School Culinary Competition Green Chile Stew Cook-off.
Five students each from Carlsbad, Albuquerque, Taos, Volcano Vista, Atrisco Heritage, and Clovis high schools competed in the contest that required making the New Mexico classic and accompanying tortillas all within the one-hour time limit.
Christina Bicol, a part of Carlsbad’s first-place-winning team, says their culinary squad often got together before school to practice for the competition. “I believe we won because of the skills that our teachers taught us,” she says, “like making our own broth and making our own tortillas from scratch, even grinding the blue corn by hand.” Those techniques helped Bicol land a food and beverage internship at the Club at Las Campanas, in Santa Fe. “I would like to eventually become the owner of my own bakery and café,” she says.
But it was the teamwork that impressed Carlsbad’s Averee Padilla. “When you step foot into the square where you will compete, instantly there is a chain of events that must be played out by everyone in order for the dish to be put out on time,” says the senior. “Everyone is needed, and everyone has a role.”
After placing third last year as a freshman, Taos’s Richard Dumrese is ready for this year’s contest. “It was nerve-racking at first,” he says. “I’d just gotten into high school, and it was my first competition. But it inspired me because of all of the excitement around it, the buzz of competing against other schools, having that pressure, and learning as you go.”
➤ These future leaders shine beyond the kitchen. See how students compete in public speaking too.