Culinary Arts!

In previous years, Culinary Arts was Noelle's favorite class. This year she has been unable to participate. However, when West High decided to field a team for a state competition and a member was dismissed, Noelle was asked to join the team! For three weeks Noelle was pushed to her physical limits with numerous practiced and hours on her feet. We all decided it was worth it! The competition was held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Eight teams participated and two teams from Waterloo got first and second place. Both teams were first year teams. Noelle's team actually got second which was OK with us. It would have been hard for her to put in the time to participate in the National competition in Baltimore in April.


The first part of the competition involved being judged either on knife skills or cutting a chicken. Each four person team was assigned two members to each task. Noelle DID NOT want the chicken! She did fantastic. Note the judges pad in the corner of the picture. They had judges and photographers right next to them all morning.




The cut up chicken reassembled for judging. Her culinary arts teacher had never even cut one up before. Great thanks go to Mrs. Tracy Hulme, her teacher, and Blake Landau, the mentor chef for both Waterloo teams!



Noelle's main task was making the dessert, a lemon curd. Yummy!





After she finished the lemon curd she helped with the other courses. Here she is shaping a potato croquette.



The hardware!