Keiki cook up life skills, local flavors in cooking contest

Reading time: 2 minutes“Pot of Gold” chocolate mango mini cakes.

A “pot of gold” awaited participants in this year’s “Grow, Eat, Think (GET) Local” Video Cooking Contest, organized by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Cooperative Extension 4-H program. Young cooks showcased their kitchen skills, creative use of local ingredients, and ability to explain recipes through fun, easy-to-follow videos.

The contest is part of 4-H’s mission to empower young people to reach their full potential through opportunities to explore topics within a welcoming and engaging learning environment, under the GET Local initiative.

2025 winners

The Grand Champion Award went to Tina from the 4-H Pineapples Club on Hawaiʻi Island for her “Pot of Gold” chocolate mango mini cakes. The dessert included mango, dates, walnuts, cocoa powder, avocado and agave syrup.

Honorable mentions:
Pineapple fried rice

Pineapple fried rice by Alexandra (4-H Pineapples Club) with pineapple, chicken, shrimp, cashews, peas and spices.
Okinawan sweet potato manapua by Shikinah and Genevieve (Schofield Barracks Bennett Youth Center) included Okinawan sweet potato and coconut milk.
Mango thumbprint cookies by Maʻina with her own homemade mango jam, using sweet Ataulfo and Champagne mangos.

Watch the winning videos and get the recipes.

Winners’ day celebration

The winners enjoyed an educational experience at the UH Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, full of hands-on agricultural and learning opportunities in composting, gardening techniques, harvesting plants for recipes, and garden safety. They also picked fresh herbs to pair with local noodles from Adela’s Country Eatery, which the youth prepared along with a tossed salad. The end of the program had the winners showcase their recipes and explain why they chose their local commodity and what they learned from the process.

4-H and GET Local are part of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience at UH Mānoa. The contest will run again in spring 2026, visit the website for more information.