KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Dicing a raw sweet potato while under a time crunch requires a sharp knife, steady hands and steely nerves — for both the student and the mentor.
“I got a little nervous when she was doing the sweet potato dice,” Vilseck culinary arts teacher Jane Varalli said of senior Zaria Binning. “I thought she was a bit slow on that. I didn’t care how she cut the potato but, you know, they’re just teenagers. But they worked great as a team.”
After finishing third last year, Vilseck won the cooking portion of this year’s Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe culinary championship, beating out Wiesbaden, the only other school to field a team. Organizers said some of the schools that typically compete were rebuilding their programs after losing their instructors to retirement or transfers.
In the culinary management contest, Alconbury sold the judges on the team’s “Gunslinger” burger, edging host Kaiserslautern by less than a half-point. Similar to the reality show, “Shark Tank,” teams came up with a concept for a new restaurant, designing everything from a business plan to new logos and a menu.
Members of all the participating teams earned scholarship money to the Culinary Institute of America, organizers said.
Culinary arts is a two-year DODDS elective that falls under career technical studies. It’s not currently offered at all schools, but the program is growing: Stuttgart began offering the course with the opening of its new school last fall, and Ankara brought back its program this year, said Mary Leonhart, an DODDS-Europe instructional systems specialist who helped organize the competition.
Culinary instructors say the program teaches everything from math skills to teamwork.
“You see a lot of confidence in these kids,” said Julian Gudger, culinary arts teacher at Ankara Elementary/High School in Turkey. “’Now I can make a soufflé.’ ‘I may never be a pastry chef,’ but there’s a certain confidence that comes with ‘I can do something that most people are scared of.’”
At the competition, the student chefs had 60 minutes to prepare, cook and plate a three-course meal.
Both teams attempted ambitious menus.
Wiesbaden’s Jordan Reed, Joanna Snyder, Aaron Brown, Adejia Gray and DeYasmine Pierre made seared scallops in a peach mango sauce for starters, followed by pan-fried rib-eye with glazed sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts with bacon. A poached pear in a sauce of grape juice and cinnamon with mascarpone cream sprinkled with pistachios finished off the entry.
Reed said they practiced cooking the full menu at least seven times in the months leading up to the competition.
Vilseck returned three of its five members from last year’s team. Its menu began taking shape last summer, gleaned from online recipes, cookbooks and advice from professional chefs and others, said senior Elias Vance.
They decided on a spicy shrimp appetizer with guacamole and pomegranate salsa; a main course of chipotle chicken breast with sweet potato risotto, asparagus and zucchini carpaccio; and marshmallow cheesecake for dessert.
“We’ve done a lot of tweaking,” Varalli said. “They prepare and then they snarf the food down.”
Despite the laborious sweet-potato chopping, Binning was able to finish the risotto in time. Binning, Vance, Taylor Capps, and Alicia Cisneros, with time-keeping support from alternate Sierra Delrosa, set their finished plates down just as time expired.
As the judges disappeared into a back room to taste and critique the food, the Vilseck cooks exhaled sighs of relief as they rolled up their sleeves to wash dishes.
Capps said making the tortillas for the appetizer was nerve-wracking. “If they’re too thick, they don’t cook right,” she said.
Vance prepared part of the shrimp appetizer, which included the pomegranate salsa. The judges, professional and military chefs from across Europe, gave it mixed reviews.
“When you say it’s spicy shrimp, I’m telling you, you hit it on the head,” said judge Daniel McGowan.
But the pomegranate seeds, in a lime juice with onion and green bell pepper, needed something more in the sauce to hold the ingredients together, the judges agreed.
The pans could have been hotter for both the shrimp and chicken breast, said Amy Staff Sgt. Ken Turman II, a personal chef at NATO.
“It’s about building flavors and one of the best ways to build flavors is to get that kind of char, that sear … on there,” he said. But he added flavor is subjective and told the kids not to take their criticisms too hard.
“Just add it to your tool box and keep on trucking.”
