Meet Spatulatta's newest youth spokespeople, brother-sister team Matt and Alisia. They were pitch hitting for Liv and Belle on Sunday because the girls had a previous engagement. Belle was graduating from junior high. Graduation trumps cooking any day.



Alisia and Matt hosted involved in a very special cook-off at Kendall College. The cook-off was a fundraiser for Share Our Strength, an organization that works to end the invisible threat of child hunger here in the US.

The Cook-off was held in Kendall College's 3 professional kitchens. Eighty kids split up in teams of 2 and were paired with Kendall College students. Each of the 3 kitchens was assigned a secret ingredient, Iron Chef style: carrots, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.

Team Tomato, Team Carrot and Team Sweet Potato came up with their own chants and cheers as took their stations and the competition began. Celebrity chefs, Michael Kornick, Paul Kahan, and Erik Williams were on-hand to give teams advice and encouragement.


Left to Right: Chef Michael Kornick of MK Restaurant, Chef Paul Kahan of Blackbird Restaurant, Chef Erik Williams of MK Restaurant.

Alisia and Matt interviewed the young cooks, ranging in age from 8- to 13-years old, about the inspiration for their dishes. The teams had one hour to come up with a recipe, cook it and attractively plate it. Even with the pressure on, cooks and chefs found time to stop and chat with Alisia and Matt. Thanks to the crew at Event Architects, interviews were fed live to the Kendall auditorium where the moms and dads got a chance to experience the kitchen action without feeling the heat.



When time was called, the teams put down their spatulas and laid out the dishes for the judges. Of course beautiful plating was considered, but inventiveness scored high points. Unexpected uses for familiar ingredients abounded. Tomatoes became jam, sweet potatoes became custards and carrots filled quesadillas.



One winner was chosen from each kitchen. After a break, the semi-finalists from Team Carrot, Team Tomato and Team Sweet Potato entered "Kitchen Stadium" for the final round.

Two of the teams were paired with celebrity chefs Michael Kornick and Erik Williams of MK Restaurant. Team Tomato retained there Kendall Student Chef, Brian. He'd seen them to the semi-finals and they were sticking together.



A new secret ingredient was announced - quinoa!

Not many in the audience had heard of the protein-rich, South American grain let alone cooked it. But the chefs and their teams didn't miss a beat.



Tension built in the final minutes. Sautés sizzled and steam bloomed everywhere. Chef Kornick produced an beautiful asparagus flan to accompany his quinoa curry dish.

But the judges had a surprise for us all.



It was the Tomato Team under Kendall's own Chef Brian, who produced the winning dish. A quinoa and kale salad surrounded by perfectly steamed asparagus, brussel sprouts and of course tomatoes.

Go Tomatoes Go!

Many thanks go to the folks at the ConAgra Foundation, who generously sponsored the event and the folks at Whole Foods, who donated the marvelous ingredients.

Labels: Chef Erik Williams, Chef Michael Kornick, Chef Paul Kahan, child hunger in the US, Con Agra, Kendall College, Share Our Strength Cook-off, Whole Foods

Bella is a new member to Spatulatta. She writes:

I know a recipe for bonbons and I'd really like to share it with someone. Bella

Labels: bon bons, candy making, chocolate chips, cooking, easy recipe, marshmallows, tween

Liv and Belle,

Last night when we had some friends over, my mom asked me to make dinner and suggested "Tiny Tuna Melts" from your website. It was a great idea, since we had a LOT of English muffins on hand, but my friends and I weren't quite in the mood for plain old tuna salad. So I thought it might be cool to try putting "Hot Tuna Salad" (also from your website) on the English muffins instead. My friends loved it. It was delicious!

-Isabelle

ala cazam ala cazoop what am i going to put in my soup? a cat and a dog and maybe a frog. a hoop and a loop and a little bit of moop. my brother my mother and my little sister. how about a giant twister? a shoe and a zoo i think i'll invite you. A bee and a sea but of course not me. I'll invie mandy and sandy and i'm thinking about randy. i'll put in candy and my favorite word quandy! i think thats enough or we'll have to much soup. i'll add 1 last thing.... a giant hoop!

Alicia, 10 from New York

Here's an essay from Rosie, our youngest winner. Rosie is holding a picture she drew to go along with her essay. Here's what she wrote:

If I could make magical soup, I would call it "Garden Soup". And I would put in rose petals, and daisies. I would put in honey that bees made, and I would put in fairy dust. I would also put in mint leaves that I picked from my garden. And I would cook it in a pot made of tree wood. I would cook it by the fairy tree, where all the fairies lived. I would serve it in cups made out of lily flower petals, with tiny spoons made out of flower stems. And I would serve it on the top of the mountain in a big tree, where fairies have tea parties. The spoons and bowls are so tiny that I couldn't use them so I decided to give them to fairies. They had rose petal wings and had tiny purple flowers for crowns, and they used mini daisies for wands. Then I would fill their bowls of soup and all the fairies would take a sip of it and each one of the fairies said it was the best soup they had ever tasted! The End!

Labels: bowls of soup, fairy dust, flower crown, garden soup, magical soup, Spatulatta Magic Soup Contest Winners, tea parties

Here's another winning essay from Carly in California:

I'm standing at the base of a massive oak tree; in its sturdy branches there sits a beautiful old tree house. This is where I'll cook my magical soup. The twisting staircase teeters as I climb up into the homey tree bungalow. I survey my kitchen space. It's a big kitchen with everything needed to make magic. I start boiling the vegetable stock; animals from all around come and sit on the beams of the house, watching me curiously. My close friend comes to help me; we throw into the pot of bubbling broth: kidney beans, spinach, salt, pepper, noodles, tomatoes, basil, thyme, and sizzling turkey bacon. We dip our heads over the soup and breathe in the savory scents. It smells delicious! But we forgot something! Love, gratitude, laughter, kindness, happiness and the most special ingredient...an secret spice that will wipe all your worries away! After we add the special ingredient, a new kind of smell comes over the whole tree house. Do you know what it is? All the feelings that we added are mixing together, blending into the soup. I look at my friend-we know that it's the best batch of magical soup we've ever made.

Labels: delicious, gratitude, kindess, love, magic soup contest, oak tree, Spatulatta Magic Soup Contest Winners