Glenrock culinary students serve a taste of magic

GLENROCK, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - Glenrock High School held a special event on Wednesday night to benefit their award winning culinary students. The evening was called the “Dinner of Champions.”

Neighbors of Glenrock Senior High School were invited to the cafeteria on Wednesday night, but not for traditional cafeteria food. Attendees were able to ‘taste the magic’, as they were served the exact same food that Glenrock culinary students won awards for at a recent competition in Florida.

Christa Stoddard, a culinary student at Glenrock Sr. High, explains. “It was kind of like a ‘Chopped’ competition,” referring to the popular Food Network television series. “We didn’t know our ingredients. And we had the ‘1, 2, 3, go!’, And we had to open it up, and it was so cool. We had, like, an hour-and-a-half to figure out what we were doing. So yeah, it was really, really cool!”

The yearly event, held at Walt Disney World, is called ‘Cook Around The World’. This year’s theme was European dishes. Once presented with their ingredients, the Glenrock team whipped together an appetizer featuring Spanish shrimp and chips... And a dinner comprised of seared pork tenderloin, buttered mashed potatoes, and their now award winning sauce.

Stoddard recalls, “We got the Anne Burrell ‘Chef’s Choice Award’, which was really cool. She said that we had the best sauce out of the entire weekend. And she’s been in restaurants. So that was really cool.”

Out of 85 teams from across the country, the Glenrock students placed third overall. And no one was more proud of their accomplishments than their teacher, Patrick Hopper. “It sheds light on our program. We have great community support here. I have 90 culinary students. For a school this size, that’s great. It just helps motivate us on. But you’re right. It’s not the awards. I love these kids. And... Their talented.”

So what exactly did attendees think? One woman exclaimed, “Amazing!”

As for me? I did what any civilized news reporter would do... I ate dessert first! (Which, for those wondering, was a cinnamon apple strudel paired with vanilla ice cream.)

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