Davis High School Culinary Arts, Journalism Students Hold ‘Chopped’ Challenge Event

The culinary arts and journalism students at Davis High School recently worked together on a project. They coordinated with staff members to organize the campus’ first “Chopped” challenge event.

Student Grace Bui approached teacher Dea Haynie with the idea. Grace is a producer for the Davis Aviator online videos. Haynie leads the culinary arts class and is in charge of the two-year program. The culinary arts strand is one of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs offered at Davis High School.

Grace wanted to help create an episode like the cooking show with the same name on the Food Network. The “Chopped” challenge at Davis is a “practice” round. In April, the students will compete in a districtwide challenge. One team will earn the title of “Chopped” champions.

The Davis High event had seven teams. They competed against each other in three categories: appetizer, main course, and dessert. The judges scored each team’s dishes based on taste, presentation, and creativity. The judges “chopped” teams to narrow down to a winner.

Celebrity judges included Julia Sharaby and David Grossman. The husband and wife team are owners and chefs of [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]Fusion Taco in downtown Houston. The judges panel also included the following members:

[ul class=”list list-search”] [li]Kim English, social studies specialist at Davis HS[/li] [li]Zaheara Norris, a second year culinary arts student [/li][/ul] [ul class=”list list-search”] [li]Jon Peters, director of the district’s Staff Development Center[/li][/ul]

According to Angela Whorton, Sharaby held nothing back while judging the students’ work. Whorton serves as the CTE program director over the culinary arts in AISD.

“Chef Julia Sharaby gave constructive criticism and complimented the students’ efforts,” Whorton said. “She was thoroughly impressed with their skills. She even talked with several of them about the opportunity to seek internships at the restaurant.

“I am proud of the students’ work and the program Mrs. Haynie has developed at Davis High School.“

Also on hand was Akilah Willery. She serves as program director for instructional technology in AISD. Willery attended the event to observe the competition and to give the students producing the video support.

“I am impressed with the culinary arts students at Davis,” Willery said. “Not just because of their culinary skills but also how they worked under pressure. They handled pressure from the competition, the judges and five cameras.

“I am equally impressed with the Aviator Online students. They continue to blow me away with their projects. It was awesome to see the online journalism strand and the culinary arts strand came together for a project.“

The video crew is working in editing the video. It will air at a later date on [icons icon_name=”icon-external-link” icon_size=”14px”]TheDavisAviator YouTube channel.

The event brought a real world experience to 11th and 12th grade students. All the students involved learned from the experience. Many of the students aspire to pursue professions in the CTE strands they are studying. Grace Bui, Rodrigo Flores, Kaila (no last name provided), Montrey Norris and Isabel Mena took part in videotaping the event.

Students that competed in the culinary event included Alexis Flores, Diana Watson, Chris Paz, Leticia Morales, Laila Mendoza, Brian Avendaño, Natalí Gaona, Ana Fuentes, Ingrid Arrieta, Ulises Rojas, Cristan Robles and Gissele Castillo.

The winners of the “Chopped” Challenge event proved how essential teamwork is in the kitchen. The dynamic duo of Cristan Robles and Gissele Castillo took first place. They will be representing the school at the district level event set for April 29 at Davis High School.