Celebrity Chef

Wednesday night I had the opportunity to share in a wonderful event. Dommerich Elementary School invited me to participate in Ready, Set, Cook and Eat - a Healthy Kids Challenge. Co-sponsored by the school and the Winter Park Health Foundation this event brought the families of Dommerich together to learn more about healthy lifestyles.

I was joined in this celebrity event by our OCPS Superintendent, Ron Blocker; OCPS Chief Operations Officer, Dr. Nick Gledich; and Orlando Sentinel Cooking and Healthy Lifestyle reporter, Linda Shrieves. Serving in support was Central Area Superintendent, James Lawson. I can report that I was over matched for this event. We were each paired with wonderful student chefs from the fourth and fifth grades who proved to be the real cooks in the event.

Each group was given a group of mystery ingredients and 30 minutes in which to create a complete, healthy meal. The results ranged from thick sandwiches to Pita Bread delights, to masterfully created wraps to our group's entry, Breadless Chicken Parmesian. I would have gladly eaten anything created by any of the groups - they looked great!

This was a great time and I want to thank Dommerich principal, Robbie McNabb; her wonderful staff who came out and showed such pride in their students and school family; the fantastic parents who did such an amazing job setting up this event; and the Orange County Public Schools Food Services group who came out as support for the event.

We talk about the need for school partnerships with families, business and the community and I was part of a wonderful example of this idea in action.

But the highest praise must go to our students participants: Haley, Sam, Victoria, Kaitlyn, Zachary, Olivia F., Alejandra, Horanadis, Adelia, Olivia G., Jianni, Avery and Danielle. If I left anyone out let me know because these students were amazing - both in their ability to cook and in their ability to solve problems under the eyes of hundreds of students and parents in the audience. Such composure! What great chefs!!!!