College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences
The annual 4-H Cooking Like a Chef Summit will take place Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Center for Advanced Technical Studies in Chapin, South Carolina.
The event, for senior 4-H members, ages 14-18, teaches hands-on kitchen skills while also giving students a chance to cook healthy recipes. That knowledge will later be shared in their home counties when each team hosts a summer cooking camp for ages 9-13.
“What I’m most excited about is (the summit’s) popularity and the follow-through of the 4-H agents in-state. It has been growing over the last five or six years,” said Margaret Condrasky, Clemson University 4-H Healthy Lifestyles Program Specialist.
Ten teams featuring four youths and two adult volunteers or Clemson Extension agents from counties across South Carolina will participate. The participating teams are Sumter County, Newberry County, Greenville County, Cherokee County, Spartanburg County, Horry County, Florence County, York County, The Governor’s School for Agriculture and the Spartanburg Day School.
The summit will consist of a morning and afternoon session. This year’s theme is “Recipes Through the Decades.”
The students will learn about culinary careers, restaurants and nutrition. They will also learn how to prepare recipes from various decades, beginning with the 1930s through the 2010s.
Some of the recipes include turkey a la king, a cheddar cheese ball, pumpkin chocolate chip cake, club salad, burritos, baked brown rice, guacamole and corn chowder.
“I’ve made a selection of eight recipes that we’re going to emphasize that day, selecting from across those decades to represent what was happening in American living regionally,” Condrasky said. “They will move around to different stations, practicing different recipes that we selected to give them practice and knife skills, cutting and chopping vegetables, making sauce, cooking on a stovetop, baking and then making it look professional with a garnish. At lunch, we’ll eat, discuss and evaluate everything they made.”
During the afternoon session, students will participate in a 40-minute mock cooking challenge where they will learn about teamwork, communication skills, food safety practices, preparation and time management.
The teams will use that knowledge to prepare for the South Carolina 4-H Team Cooking Challenge that will be held March 28 at The Farm At Florence 1 in Florence, South Carolina. The top three teams from that competition will advance to a national competition. Last year, teams from Spartanburg County and Florence County represented South Carolina at a national event in Texas.
Dining and Cooking