Crossett Brook teams compete in Vt. Jr. Iron Chef
March 26, 2025 | By Claire Pomer | CorrespondentJr. Iron Chef 6th grade team. Left to right: Jasper LaRocca, Anthony Walls, Abby Saltzgueber. Photo by Claire Pomer
Jr. Iron Chef 8th grade team: (left to right) Evelyn Andrus, Riley Coakley, Willow Thomas, Willa Hudson, Azza Buhaina. Photo by Claire Pomer
Teams of sixth- and eighth-grade students from Crossett Brook Middle School are headed to this weekend’s Jr. Iron Chef Vt. competition at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction.
In its 17th year, Jr. Iron Chef Vt. is run by Vermont Afterschool, which describes itself as a program “dedicated to strengthening programs, building partnerships, and transforming communities so that all Vermont youth are active, engaged, connected, and heard.”
The competition tasks middle and high school teams with discovering unique, healthy, and simple ways to incorporate local food into school cooking. Each team creates its own one-dish vegetarian and nut-free recipe – desserts and snacks are not allowed.
Middle school teams and high school teams are judged separately. Teams have 90 minutes to cook and plate their dishes. At the 90-minute mark, all chefs must step away from their stations and raise a flag to indicate that they are finished.
There are three awards given: the Lively Local award, which looks at the local ingredients included in the dish and how well they were incorporated; the Crowd-Pleaser award to the dish that “best incorporates color, texture, and taste,” according to the guidelines; the Mise in Place award, which translates to “everything in place,” goes to the team with the best teamwork.
Winning teams get recognized on stage at the event and receive a gift basket with prizes. When a Crossett Brook team won two years ago, they received coupons, a cutting board, and other assorted kitchen tools.
The Crossett Brook teams, both coached by Dana Hudson, have been practicing for the past six weeks to perfect their dishes.
Jr. Iron Chef 8th grade team with their dish. Left to right: Evelyn Andrus, Azza Buhaina, Willa Hudson, Riley Coakley, Willow Thomas. Photo by Claire Pomer
Jr. Iron Chef 6th grade team with their dish: (back) Abby Saltzgueber, Audrey Conyers; (front) Jasper LaRocca, Anthony Walls. Photo by Claire Pomer
The sixth-grade team members – Audrey Conyers, Anthony Walls, Abby Saltzgueber, and Jasper LaRocca – will be cooking Green Mountain pizza crepes, which are crepes lined with a blended pizza sauce and topped with chopped tomatoes and basil.
The eighth-grade team – Azza Buhaina, Evelyn Andrus, Riley Coakley, Willa Hudson, and Willow Thomas – are cooking a Sugarhouse Stirfry, which has a maple sauce mixed with rice and topped with tofu and various mushrooms.
Each team picked their dish with a brainstorming session, and their first practice tested their top two recipes to decide which one to present at the competition. This decision boiled down to a few points: Which dish could be made under the time constraints? Which recipe included more local ingredients? Which recipe looks better for the judges?
The teams also had to decide how they would apportion their dishes. Teams must present two large, completely intact dishes to present to the audience, along with 12 smaller samples for the judges to taste.
Before the competition, the teams practice to refine their work. At what coach Hudson called the “dress rehearsal before their dress rehearsal,” both teams had their first timed practice.
“They’ve already made some decisions about switching people, saying, ‘I’m left-handed and we’ll be bumping arms,’” Hudson said. “They’ve done a lot of adjusting.”
One big adjustment was needed after Crossett Brook Middle School was flooded recently, displacing the Jr. Iron Chef teams from the Sustainability Room’s kitchen where they had been meeting and cooking. The room was then needed for classroom space to accommodate classes from the first floor whose rooms were off-limits for cleanup and repairs to carpeting and flooring.
As a result, the teams moved to practice in the Harwood kitchen. “It was a lot of problem-solving,” said sixth-grade team member Jasper LaRocca. “We didn’t know where anything was.”
Students said they got involved in this competition after learning about it in their Sustainability class. All of the students said that they joined because of their love of cooking.
“I thought cooking in a competition and working in a team would be fun,” said sixth-grader Audrey Conyers.
Hudson said that’s all that was needed. “I love the opportunity to work with people who get excited about this and who want to create their own recipes,” she said. “Any way that I can help anybody feel confident in cooking… if you’re confident in here [the kitchen], you can transfer that confidence elsewhere.”
Saturday’s Jr. Iron Chef Vt. competition at the Expo in Essex Junction is open to the public. Vermont Afterschool recommends an admissions fee of $3 per person and $5 per family. Doors open to the public at 9 a.m. The morning heat runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and the afternoon heat lasts from 1 to 3:45 p.m. Concessions will be available and there will be family activities for attendees including crepe-spinning by Skinny Pancake, a photobooth, and sugar on snow.
Claire Pomer is a junior at Harwood Union High School.