Iron chef comes to Strathmore high school

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Strathmore High School, SHS, students had a chance to test their culinary skills while racing the clock during an iron chef competition held in the food studies room. 

“Alberta Communities Choose Well decided they wanted to have a program, that involved youth and older adults,” said Lisa Sader with HEAL, Healthy Eating, Active Living.

“They feel that younger kids need to be cooking more so they thought that an iron chef might be a way of interacting the children with the adults on a collaborative project.”

She said Alberta Communities suggested organizing an iron-chef style competition and that the secret ingredient must be a local ingredient, so Saskatoon berries were chosen. 

The four chefs who competed were Sarah Harward, Abram Weissig, Ashton Payton and Kayla Betts. Each of them also had a SHS staff member help them out.   

The students all approached Carol Wachsmuth, the Food Studies teacher, about being a part of the competition. They all picked their own recipes and only had to make one part of a meal, whether it was dessert or a main dish. 

Weissig prepared the winning dish, making pan-seared duck breast with Saskatoon berries, and Marcella wild rice with mascarpone cream cheese and sour cream sauce, topped with Saskatoon chutney. His cooking partner was LaRue Kiemele, an SHS teacher’s assistant and professional caterer. 

As the winner, Weissig will be heading to Edmonton on Oct. 15 to take part in the Iron Chef Provincial competition and will have up to $500 paid towards his expenses.