Student chefs had 90 minutes to create fine cuisine judged by Oregon Coast Culinary Institute

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

PHOENIX – Two teams from Ashland High School ruled the Southern Oregon Kitchen Klash over the weekend, earning first and second place awards for their creative rendition of pork tenderloin, butternut squash and green beans in the inaugural cooking competition.

Nine high school teams of two and three student chefs from Southern Oregon showcased what they were made of on Saturday, Nov. 15 – and what they could make of the ingredients, which included a secret ingredient – an MRE (meal, ready to eat).

The two Ashland teams were followed by Eagle Point (third place), Klamath Union High School (fourth and sixth places), North Medford High School (fifth place), and Phoenix High School (sixth, seventh and eighth places).

Teams gathered to make ingredients into fine cuisine judged on technique by Oregon Coast Culinary Institute judges. The competition, organized by Southern Oregon Education Service District (SOESD), was the first of its kind held at Phoenix High School’s culinary arts 1,000-square-feet kitchen.

Judges from Oregon Coast Culinary Institute in Coos Bay, which also sponsored the event, were on hand to encourage and judge students on the presentation of their meal, creative and technical skills, team work, and more, looking also at how they incorporated the secret ingredient. The Oregon Army National Guard also served as a sponsor of the event. 

Maryetta Jacques, culinary arts teacher at Ashland, said she entered her students in the competition believing they deserve recognition for their skills and creativity. 

“I just really believe in these kids,” Jacques said. “They worked so hard and they’re amazing.”

Earlier in the day, Jacques shared that Culinary Arts is the most requested elective at Ashland High.

“I think it’s incredibly fun and creative,” she said, “and two, I think it’s an amazing life skill. You are going to be cooking and eating for the rest of your life.

“They are enjoying themselves with their friends, cooking fun meals, and gaining experience that they’re going to (use) for the rest of their life, it’s a win-win.”

The first-place Ashland team, including student chefs Cameron Kukuk, Tyler Rogers, and Kenny Arreaga, made a Fall Sope. They crafted a breaded, butternut squash base, pork carnitas with green bean salsa, Tabasco, lemon crema and breading from the MRE.

“We want(ed) it to stand out,” Rogers said. “We wanted to bring different parts of the world into the dish.”

Rogers, 18, and his team celebrated after learning they were among the two Ashland teams to take home a collective award, fittingly receiving cutting board awards. 

The senior culinary student told Ashland.news before the second round began that he started in Ashland’s Culinary Arts Program as a freshman and has worked his way up. He also told Ashland.news that he and his friend hope to open a soul food-Mexican fusion restaurant in the future. 

“I’m from South Carolina and so I always had a love for soul food,” Rogers said. “I grew up eating jambalaya, shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles — food with flavor.

“I’ve grown up making it,” he added. “I wanted to see how to learn to do it professionally.”

He praised his culinary arts teacher as one of the best teachers at Ashland High. 

“She works insanely hard for us,” Rogers said. “She’ll drive around after work to get ingredients for the next day.

“She brings a lot of new knowledge and opportunity … She brings in elements from all around the world, opening our palate, teaching us new cooking techniques,” he added.

Kenny Arreaga, 17, has also been taking culinary classes at Ashland since he was a freshman. He held out his team’s recently plated dish on Saturday for a photograph.

Arreaga said he always enjoyed cooking Mexican dishes with his mom at home even before taking culinary classes. 

As soon as he found out Ashland had a culinary program, he wanted in.

Arreaga hopes to pursue a career as an electrician, but plans to continue to also pursue culinary arts.

“I’m here to have fun and enjoy the feeling of competition,” Arreaga said on Saturday.

Arreaga and Rogers see their dream of opening a restaurant fitting right here in the Rogue Valley.

“The level of opportunity is I think very big and I see a future for us finding a place (to open a restaurant),” Rogers said.

“We’ve got big dreams … and food is involved in it,” he added.

The second-place Ashland team was made up of Cooper Quinn, Riya Madrone, and Tahvo Hansen.

Student chefs bustled about their cooking stations on Saturday, peeling and searing and pureeing butternut squash. 

Madrone,17, was busy searing butternut squash. Madrone’s mom Ren Madrone watched as she cooked at her station. 

Ren said she feels the art of cooking that her daughter is learning “makes food a celebration, which I think is lost in a large part of our society.

“She’s really developed the ability to present food into an arrangement that’s beautiful and it’s been neat to see the depth, but also the art of it,” she said. 

“For Riya, what I have seen is that cooking is an art and a feeling of giving somebody the gift of beauty,” Ren Madrone said. 

“Maryetta really inspired her,” she added.

Quinn said his team incorporated herbs on the pork tenderloin, which they basted with butter and baked in the oven, and pan-fried the green beans, squash and almonds. 

Squash was boiled in chicken stock, with heavy whipping cream, salt and pepper added, Quinn said.

“It turned out great actually,” Quinn said.

Quinn noted he was surprised by the secret ingredient, as were many of the students.

“I was expecting, like, a cranberry,” Quinn said.

“(An MRE) was way out of the woodworks,” he added.

Phoenix serves up cuisine and plays host at cooking competition

John Barber, in his fourth year as Phoenix High School’s culinary arts teacher, sat down with Ashland.news during the competition. Along with competing, Barber and his students played host to four other teams from around the Rogue Valley and the Klamath Basin on Saturday.

Barber teaches foundational culinary courses there on meat, soup, bread, as well as culinary specialties from various regions. Students also learn how to cost out and design a menu for a restaurant.

“I get students in culinary who’ve never held a knife, who don’t know how to use a broom,” Barber said. “It’s nice to see the accumulation of skills from the incredibly basic to the more refined.”

Barber himself has an extensive resume spent in the restaurant industry, but sees his classes as foundational not only for those interested in entering the field of culinary arts, but those who want to prepare good meals for themselves and their loved ones.

“It’s kind of what’s unique about my subject,” Barber said. “Not really in any other subject you’re studying in high school are you going to engage with it three times a day.

“You might not do math everyday, but you’re going to interact in some way and the quality of that interaction I think is elevated by the time they spend in a culinary classroom,” he added.

Expert taste-testers

Surrounded by her family, Xiah Potts, 8, taste-tested the meal that her older brother Phoenix High junior culinary student Nakoa Potts made.

The Talent Elementary second-grader, who is enrolled in the Outdoor Discovery Program at the school, heartily approved.

“I tried the green bean – It was good,” Xiah said. “I like the texture of the spices.

“And I did like the flavor of the green beans.”

Nakoa, 16, arrived at the table to check on his younger siblings, seated with their mom, Britney Potts.

“I’m gonna try the meat,” said Taavi Potts, Nakoa’s younger brother, 8.

Nakoa said he had a hand in making the pork tenderloin.

“Since I was little, I always was interested in cooking,” he said, noting he would have cooking competitions with a friend when he was a kid.”

Competition draws participation from region

Rhiannon Kerr, in her ninth year as culinary arts teacher at Klamath Union High School in Klamath Falls, brought several students to the competition from Klamath Falls. She roved between the kitchen and the adjoining classroom on Saturday, attending to needs as they arose.

“Klamath County is the lowest income county in Oregon and, as a result of that, we have a very diverse background of students in our school and a lot of them are food-insecure,” Kerr said on Saturday. 

“So providing a program like this shows those students that they can still cook really great food on a budget, and getting them the opportunity to come and see next-level meals and programs kind of opens up their mind to a wide range of possibilities and they can take those ideas and apply them at home.”

Kerr said Klamath Union has a lot of students whose families lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in recent weeks.

“This is showing them,” Kerr said, “how can I take something and make it delicious and nutritious, fuel my body with … spending as little money as what I have available.” 

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].

Nov. 21: Photo caption corrected to say Tyler Rogers was a member of Ashland High School’s first-, not second-, place team.