As the clock counts down students rush to get the finishing touches on their entrees, striving for beauty, perfection, and presentation.
On November 16, AGHS hosted the first student chef culinary competition, Chop Classic. Five high schools and nine teams battled it out in the kitchen for first place, with two teams from Atascadero, Pioneer Valley, SLO, and AG, and one from Santa Maria.
Students took to practicing their dishes before the competition, to give themselves the best chance of finishing on time and winning.
“We timed ourselves for an hour in our kitchen at school and we practiced making [the coconut curry] once,” SLOHS contestant Sydney McLaughlin (‘26) said. “There were aspects that we changed and added to [our dish] that we didn’t do in our first trial run.”
On the day of the competition, each group was given a Talley Farms box filled with assorted vegetables, and an hour to cook one entree. Each box had 10 ingredients and every team had to use at least 4, along with a chicken breast.
“[Students] couldn’t pre-prep any item of the recipe. They checked in at 9:30 am, and everybody drew a letter, [which were lettered]stations A-I,” AGHS Culinary teacher Amber Russell said. “Every 10 minutes [a team would start] so that we didn’t have everybody in there cooking at once.”
With only an hour, contestants wasted no time in creating their dishes. Each team varied from 2 to 3 people, the kitchen was packed though additional space was provided with tables.
“[AGHS] put tables behind us and rows, which was very nice,” AGHS contestant Patricia Salazar (‘25) said.
No one dish was the same, as students had the creative liberty to make whatever dish they wanted as long as they used the required number of ingredients in the Talley Farms box.
“I think we all had different [ideas] in the back of our head,” AGHS contestant Stephen Banks (‘25) said. “But it was Patricia’s main idea to focus on the rosemary chicken, and then Teah [Ross] brought in her own sauce with it. Meanwhile, I was leaning towards using bok choy.”
Judges Colleen Martin, Kristin Anderson, Jamie Habig, and Salomon Garcia were given a 15-minute break to decide on the best dish. Then, awards were given to first, second, and third place.
Third place went to Laurel Devitt (‘26) and McLaughlin from SLOHS. Second place went to Colton Russell, Emerson Curry, and Noah Simon from Atascadero HS. First place, awarded with a custom-engraved cutting board, went to Teah Ross, Salazar, and Banks from AGHS.
“I didn’t think we were honestly going to win first place,” Ross said. “We genuinely thought
that our competition was the curry, so when we heard that they got third place, we were like, ‘Oh god, either we did really good or really bad.’”
Though all seniors, Ross, Salazar, and Banks are ecstatic about winning and grateful to have been given the opportunity. Chef Russell and all other contestants and schools look forward to next year’s competition and hope that Chop Classic stays a tradition for years to come.
