Students taking culinary classes in six school districts across North Texas will compete at AT&T Stadium for the "Taste of the Cowboys Youth Challenge." Students will use ingredients provided by the North Texas Food Bank to create a "three-course tailgating experience."
Students are competing from Dan Dipert Career + Technical Center in Arlington ISD, Ranchview High School in Carrollton/Farmers Branch ISD, Cedar Hill High School, Skyline High School in Dallas ISD, Plano East High School and Mansfield ISD.
"Our dishes that we create, they're all very, very simple and just combine together to make really nice, tasty dishes from simple ingredients at home," says Mansfield ISD student Kaden Walker.
Students are given 75 minutes to produce a the tailgate menu using ingredients commonly donated to the food bank. The team from Mansfield ISD attends three different schools in the district.
"You get this diverse group of students from a diverse group of backgrounds, so there are a lot of different flavor profiles going into this," says their instructor at Ben Barber Innovation Academy, David Roberson. "This particular menu is impressive. They were able to blend their cultures into it and the things they like."
Without giving details about their plans for this weekend, students talked about how they each have a different role.
"With the teamwork, we've built a relationship with everybody," says Peyton Bickel. "Everything we've done has helped us progress. We've all learned new techniques and new skills."
Roberson says Bickel likes Asian food, so he helped with flavors and plating. Itzel Martinez hopes to become a pastry chef; she was preparing dessert.
"We were going for this s'mores thing, but she made it a whole new dessert by just adding in a few more seasonings," Roberson says.
"It's been great seeing our progress," Martinez says. "I know we'll do great. Just working as a team has been really great, communicating and creating our dishes to be simple and delicious."
Students were practicing Thursday in the kitchen at Ben Barber Innovation Academy.
"The whole point of the challenge is to take ingredients we might find at a food bank and ingredients that contain dairy and turn them into a good meal we can get for cheap or someone can get at home for cheap," says Arayna Farlough. "We want something that's very flavorful but not too big, something that's filling you can have during the game."
Farlough says she would like to become a private chef because she would have more control over her kitchen.
"Just the variety is something I really like," she says.
For the Taste of the Cowboys Youth Challenge, students focused on items that would fit in to a tailgate party.
"Our dishes that we create, they're all very, very simple and combine together to make nice dishes from really simple ingredients at home," says Johnathan Melgoza.
Melgoza says he enjoys learning about food from different cultures and leans more toward savory foods. He worked as a sous chef at the student-run bistro at Ben Barber.
"I took a baking and pastry class here at Ben Barber, wasn't very good at it, still want to try for better, but I'm definitely more on the savory side," he says.
The Dallas Cowboys and Dairy MAX are sponsoring the event. Students developed their own menu, but chefs from the Cowboys would help them develop their plans.
"That just makes them a lot more conscious of their ingredients, a lot more conscious of how to use the pantry items and adding flavor to it," Roberson says. "Since peanut butter is the number one donated item at food bank, we were able to take that and make a dessert with it which was really good. Who knew you could take canned corn and elevate it to another level or take pineapples out of a can and make a whole salsa? It doesn't take a lot to make a really nice meal, and I think that's the victory here."
Legends Hospitality, Albertson's/Tom Thumb and the Gene and Jerry Jones Foundation are also supporting the event. Students compete this weekend at AT&T Stadium.