Riverwood Students Win Fulton High School Chef Competition

SANDY SPRINGS, GA — A team of Riverwood International Charter School Culinary Arts students won first prize in the 2019-20 Fulton High School Chef Competition. Their winning recipe, "Chicken, Spinach, and Ricotta Calzone" took top honors and the recipe will be served in school cafeterias throughout the Fulton County School system. The Riverwood students who developed the recipe, Huntly Connery, Fernanda Guerrero, Ava Murray, and Johnny Rodriguez, are in Chef Elissa Oliver’s Culinary Arts classes.

The contest, administered by the Fulton County Schools Nutrition Program, required students to develop a nutritious and under 400 calorie, student-friendly recipe that included local foods, USDA Foods, and one that could easily be incorporated into a school cafeteria menu of offerings.

“Our class had just made ricotta and had finished our chicken unit," Oliver said. "We also love pizza, so, we put it all together for this recipe.”

Students were asked to provide a nutritional analysis of their recipe, along with results of a scientific taste-test conducted at their school. They also had to submit a photo of the finished dish. A total of 66 students tasted the recipe and a large majority liked the flavor. The winning team received a certificate and first place medals from the nutrition program.

“I never knew how important it was to manage good nutrition in our everyday school meals,” Guerrero said. “It was quite difficult to get a great tasting entrée with such tight nutritional restrictions. But I loved this competition because it encompassed so many things we learn in culinary arts.”

The Riverwood culinary arts students have submitted their winning recipe to the Georgia Farm to School Student Chef Competition, administered by the Georgia Department of Education School Nutrition Division, and they hope to prevail there, too. Selected teams from the state competition will be invited to further compete in the State Cooking Competition held Feb. 20 at Helms College in Macon, Georgia.