PLAISTOW, N.H. — Timberlane regional middle schoolers on Thursday won the state’s first iron-chef style cook-off with an innovative BBQ honey fried chicken sandwich with savory waffles as the bun.
In an hour-long cooking competition between Timberlane Regional Middle School, Pelham Memorial School and Merrimack Valley Middle School, the teams of four were asked to create BBQ-inspired dish with honey as the main ingredient.
Tucked into one of the middle school classrooms, kitchens were set up for the teams to make their delicacies, which were tasted by three guest judges.
Alongside Timberlane’s winning dish, Pelham middle schoolers prepared garlic butter and honey barbecue beef tacos, cowboy caviar with a kick of hot honey and southern honey cornbread poppers.
Merrimack middle schoolers prepared a coconut breaded chicken sandwich with brown sugar caramelized pineapple drizzled in a sriracha honey sauce and a side of mango jalapeno coleslaw.
The students were judged on their presentation, taste and creative use of the theme ingredient, honey from London Buzz Bees in Hampstead.
Impressed with all of the dishes, the judges commented on Timberlane’s crispy waffles, Pelham’s presentation and cutting skills and Merrimack’s heat in the sauce.
Judges were forced to narrow down the competition by how the students communicated as a team in the kitchen between checking the remaining time and taste testing elements of the dish before they went out to the judges.
“Every single dish was absolutely delicious. I didn’t expect the high quality of the dishes or the presentations,” said judge Bobby Marcotte, culinary visionary behind The Tuckaway Tavern and champion of Guy’s Grocery Games. “We had to consider the little details to determine this.”
To commemorate their win, the students received custom aprons and an engraved cutting board.
“The idea originally came from UNH. They used to hold a cooking competition that was open to middle school and high school students,” said Sarah Chooljian, the family and consumer sciences (FACS) teacher at TRSM. “But once COVID happened, there was a loss of interest and a lot of schools got rid of their FACS programs all together.”
Chooljian and members of the NH FACS Association reinstated a similar program for this spring’s cook off and sent out advertisements to local middle schools that might be interested in participating.
Only two reached out, but Chooljian is hopeful that with the success of this year’s competition, more will want to participate next year.
To watch the competition, visit https://tinyurl.com/3trcay4v