CAMAS — Fourteen-year-old Gage Gwynn has always liked to cook. He finds great satisfaction in preparing a tasty meal.
So when the Camas School District announced a Heart Healthy Breakfast contest for middle-schoolers, Gage thought he was up for the challenge.
“I just went with breakfast tacos,” he said.
Gage’s Breakfast Taco calls for two small corn tortillas, lightly heated and topped with scrambled eggs, sliced turkey sausage, pico de gallo salsa, cheese and avocado slices.
“Turkey sausage is the healthy alternative to regular sausage,” said Gage, an eighth-grader at Skyridge Middle School. “I tried it at home and think it went well (with the dish).”
Future Chef award winners
Kid Friendly/Easy Preparation: Tristan Curl, Camas Cakes.
Fun, Tasty & Creative: Lindsay Owen, Almond Joy Oatmeal.
Nutritious Breakfast: Julia Bintz, Frooty Granola.
Grand Prize: Gage Gwynn, Breakfast Taco.
The judges in the Future Chef cooking contest agreed. Gage’s tacos earned him the Grand Prize award, topping 11 other middle school students.
The Future Chef contest invited students to submit recipes that fit the event theme, Heart Healthy Breakfast. Seventeen submitted recipes and organizers selected 12 finalists to cook their meals in a timed event Tuesday afternoon.
The main objective of the contest was to get kids thinking about healthy food choices, said Sharon Short, nutrition director for Camas School District.
“It’s trying to expose them to being healthy and cooking healthy,” she said. “And they’ve really stepped up.”
Each of the students had 75 minutes to prepare their meal, creating one presentation dish and 40 sample-sized portions. The kids used the culinary classroom at Camas High School and worked under the guidance of three high school culinary students and three members of the school’s kitchen staff.
Taste, creativity
The dishes were judged by a handful of adults — members of the school district’s administration team and Student Health Advisory Council. In addition to their nutritional value, the dishes were judged on taste, creativity and presentation.
As the winner, Gage will now move on to compete in a regional Future Chef contest — which is sponsored by Sodexo, the food service company that contracts with the school district — and, possibly, the national contest. He also won some cooking swag, including a chef jacket, mixing bowls, cooking utensils and a Fitbit fitness-tracking device.
The judges also handed out awards in three other categories: Kid Friendly/Easy Preparation; Fun, Tasty & Creative; and Nutritious Breakfast.
Fourteen-year-old Lindsay Owen won the Fun, Tasty & Creative award for her spin on oatmeal, called Almond Joy Oatmeal. The Skyridge eighth-grader came up with the recipe herself.
“I like to experiment with oatmeal,” she said. “So I like to try different flavors.”
She added cocoa powder and Stevia sweetener to her oatmeal, then topped it with coconut Greek yogurt and whole almonds. Her inspiration was her favorite candy, Almond Joy.
“I’m happy with it,” she said.
Other contest entries included a breakfast sandwich, quiche, omelette, granola, muffins and casserole. Elijah Sivers, 14, took one of his favorite breakfast meals — eggs Benedict — and gave it a healthy spin, opting for a low-sodium ham and cutting back on the amount of butter in the hollandaise sauce.
And Kaila Buchanan, 12, modified her mom’s pancake recipe to create Oatmeal Pancakes that she topped with fresh fruit and a little bit of real maple syrup.
“I figured it would be a good challenge for me,” she said of the contest. “I wanted to challenge my abilities.”
