Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall’s Autumn Deutz works on decorating her cake at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday in Marshall.
MARSHALL — The excitement was high and the collaboration was profound between the 200-plus area high school students at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s (SWWC) annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.
The culinary skills challenge welcomes in high school students from around the area and beyond to compete in a full-day competition of various events, that are professionally judged, as well as attend a handful of informational and hands-on presentations.
Some competitions include cake decorating, knife skills, baking science, menu design, place setting, food art and more.
A group of students were working hard in the cake-decorating competition toward the back of the R/A Facility, with varying themes being expressed.
“(I’ve been decorating cakes) since I was like 15 or 14. My mom slowly started letting me. She would be like, ‘Hey you can come do the border,’ and then I tried fondant for a little bit,” Camilla Terry of Harrisburg, South Dakota, said. “Now, I am almost done (with my cake). I am going to add some glitter, which is my favorite part.”
Photo by Samantha Davis: Camilla Terry of Harrisburg, South Dakota, works on decorating her cake at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday in Marshall.
Terry was working on a multi-tiered cake with a green-frosting base, decorated with other textures and features.
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s Jaeryn Buchert said she was working on a space theme for her cake, while Hannah Dagel of RTR was using spring and pastel colors for her cake.
As all of the participants were decorating with intent focus, Marshall’s Autumn Deutz said she found the inspiration for her cake decoration on Pinterest, while peers Ashlynn Langraff and Erinn Domier Grosklags laughingly joked about being “humbled” in the competition, but they were having fun.
“It’s going great. We have a new competition, kids are really excited about that one and that has been really fun,” SWWC coordinator Gail Polejewski said. “We have new presenters. We have completely different sessions that we’ve never tried before, that’s going well.”
Outside of the R/A facility by the main doors, new to the culinary event this year was a barbecue challenge, where students worked on smoking or grilling meat and put together a full meal.
Photo by Samantha Davis: Lakeview students Mason Neuman (left) and Eli Garcia (right) work together during the cooking competition at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday in Marshall.
“It has been really fun,” BOLD student Destiny Anderson said, who was participating in the barbecue challenge. “We have spicy coleslaw, and then we just pulled off our pork loin. We used two rubs for it, then (there will) be barbecue sauce on top.”
Anderson said this was her first year participating at the culinary challenge, and noted that she thought the entire event was fun to be a part of.
“The guys from the Minnesota Barbecue Society came and did a session last year on barbecue rubs. The kids made their rubs and they put them on little sliders and cooked them outside. Then, they said, ‘You guys really need a barbecue competition,’” Polejewski said of how the barbeque event came to be.
Polejewski also mentioned that there were a handful of partners that graciously donated food for the challenges, along with the several session presenters that volunteered time. Schwan’s was the corporate sponsor for the event, as they have been in the past, and the SMSU Culinology Department also was involved in hosting and working with the students.
There also was a cooking competition going on, where teams of students spend the entire event working on putting together a menu of meals.
Photo by Samantha Davis: Jaeryn Buchert of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton works on decorating her cake at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday in Marshall.
A team from RTR including Kolby Louwagie, Juhl Drake and Brice Roelofs were working together on a menu including sesame chicken and spring rolls. A Lakeview team of Juan Barradaz Garcia, Eli Garcia, Mason Neuman and Jake Robinson was also in the cooking challenge, collaborating on a meal.
“The SMSU Culinology Club is doing sessions, so the (students) are taking them into their labs and doing a session down there,” Polejewski said regarding other presentations going on in the challenge. “Then, up in the upper conference center, they’re doing a game show, (called) Food Bowl. It’s like a trivia contest about all food.”
Overall, there were 227 students from across 10 schools that were registered to participate in this year’s culinary challenge. Students came from schools including Marshall, RTR, Lakeview, Minneota, BOLD, Florence, Montevideo, along with Webster, Harrisburg and T.F. Riggs out of South Dakota.
Photo by Samantha Davis: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton students Juhl Drake (left), Brice Roelofs (middle) and Kolby Louwagie (right) work together during the cooking competition at the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative’s annual culinary skills challenge on Thursday in Marshall.
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Dining and Cooking